Ai & Ae (Artificial Intelligence and Aesthetic Experience)

I’m not afraid of AI (Artificial Intelligence). I am afraid of human greed and exploitation and violence and lies and xenophobia, but I have trouble understanding how I could be afraid of intelligence. I had always hoped to have a chat with a self-aware non-human intelligence, which could be a so-called artificial intelligence or it could be an alien. The reason would be to get a different perspective on my own intelligence, as a kind of reality check. At any rate, intelligence, whether artificial or otherwise, is pretty far down on the list of things that I think contribute to global catastrophe. But all of those things in the list that I am afraid of, they are way up at the top of that list. And to look at it the other way, on the list of things that might help provide a way forward out of the Anthropocene Extinction, I would say intelligence would be at the top of the list. Love would be up there too, but I personally have difficulty distinguishing between the two, love and intelligence. That’s one of the things I would want to talk to a AI or an alien about, to see if they reach that same conclusion. So intelligence is not the problem. The misuse of some of the fruits of intelligence, that definitely could be a problem. That’s why I get so vehement about clickbait.

Clickbait is a text or a thumbnail link that is designed to attract attention and to entice users to follow that link and read, view, or listen to the linked piece of online content, being typically deceptivesensationalized, or otherwise misleading.[2][3][4]

—–https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clickbait

AI is trained on clickbait, so no wonder it writes good social media posts and advertising copy. Clickbait is just the filler between the advertisements. Its sole purpose is to keep you clicking so you’ll see more advertisements. It has no other purpose than to waste your time in order to get money for showing you advertisements.  You are better off staring at the wall or at your big toe then reading clickbait. Well I could explain that I guess, staring at the wall, at least the possibility could arise that you could make a thought of your own. Clickbait is worse than porn, which at least stimulates your reptile brain. Unfortunately, clickbait is not only just empty drivel. It has a more nefarious purpose, which is not only to keep you around for the advertising, but to prepare you to receive it in a susceptible way. So, in my humble opinion a world with less clickbait would be a better world. I could explain some of my vehemence pretty easily I think. The reason AI won’t do anything of real interest to me anytime soon is that ChatGPT and other Large Language Models are trained by predicting the next expected word, billions and billions of times.  I do love it that nobody seems to know exactly what a large language model like ChatGPT is actually doing, that is, how it produces what it produces. I won’t be a bit surprised though if it turns out that it is like a cat’s cradle or, let’s say, like a rope tied in slip knots. So then, AI is trained to predict the expected next words, but I am a philosopher and poet and what philosophers and poets are interested in is the unexpected next word. Continue reading

Peace Between Israel and Palestine

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“Our lands are intertwined.  Our histories are intertwined.  Our fates are intertwined.  Let us be partners.

Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin Talk Peace

Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin, 1977. Sadat was assassinated by right-wing extremist Egyptians in 1981.

“There are millions of people of good faith, vision, wisdom, compassion and courage in Palestine and Israel. We will put all of our energy into building peace and prosperity for the children of Israel and Palestine.  We will work side by side and the welfare of each will be the greatest desire of the other.  The success of each of us will be measured by the success of the other. All of our children will thrive. The entire desert will bloom.  We will watch each others’ backs and help and support each other.  We will trust.  We will be stronger together than we ever were separately. We will live lives of safety, freedom, comfort, work, and spirituality.  Continue reading

When I died I was much surprised to meet God

When I died I was much surprised to meet God.

“You didn’t believe in me, in my literal existence, did you?” He asked.

“No I didn’t,” I replied. “I thought you were a way of talking about being human in the world.”

He laughed and said, “That’s the spirit!  Good for you. There was no evidence or reason to believe otherwise. It’s what I would have thought myself.”

So I asked my question, “Why did you create rational people with free will then,  when some of them would surely reach erroneous conclusions?”

“Oh come on, ” He said, “that’s an easy one.  I created humans to be self-creating. They are open-ended. To keep things moving along, I needed people who could ask new questions unto eternity.”

“Dang,” I said, “so I was wrong.  You exist and this is the afterlife.”

“Oh no,” He said, “you were right.”

 

Michelangelo, Creation of the Sun, Moon, and Plants

Star Child, Excerpt from concluding scene of Stanley Kubrick, 2001

 

Happy Bastille Day – Merci Mes Amis

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The French Revolution began with the liberation of the Bastille prison by the citizens of Paris  on July 14 1789.

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For Lafayette, George Washington’s friend and compatriot. For Lady Liberty, beacon of freedom to millions. For the respect and refuge from racism you gave to African-American jazz musicians. For your sound advice even when our politicians would not hear it.

Merci mes amis.

Thank you, friends.

Liberté, égalité, fraternité.

 Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood.

Nina Simone – I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to be Free

African-American composer and vocalist Nina Simone lived the last 10 years of her life in Aix-in-Provence, France.  Continue reading

It’s Nothing Personal Ms. Jenner – TV Just Sucks

ProtectYourChildrenThe hubbub surrounding Caitlyn Jenner is a clear and classic example of how media corporations manipulate the American conversation for their own own profit.

First, contrary to implications, there is nothing new, experimental, risky, or even medically interesting about the process of gender reassignment.  That process has been refined for over 60 years, since before Christine Jorgensen went to Sweden in 1952.  Today, the whole process is quite well understood and standardized, the psychological and behavioral indications, the drugs and hormones, the social and cosmetic aspects, the surgery.  It is a straightforward medical matter for Ms. Jenner and her doctors. Continue reading

Lou Reed Died Yesterday and I Cried Today

Andy Warhol Lou ReedOriginally Written October 28, 2013.  Lou Reed is to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday April 18.  His sponsor is Patti Smith and his music will be performed by Beck.

Lou Reed died yesterday and I cried today. I was thinking of something I wrote for a poetry slam after Bradley Nowell died, “When an artist dies, Satan smiles.”  Upon reflection that seems suspiciously close to “I saw Satan laughing with delight / The day the music died.” It’s not that Lou Reed died. I hope he had a good passing. But he was an artist once. He brought something new into the world. In Ursula Le Guin’s book The Word for World is Forest, those who are bringing something new into the world are called gods—while they are bringing something new into the world–so someone might say, “I was a god then.” I have observed over the years that if an artist sees that something is worth doing, and that he can do it, he will do it, regaloureedrdless of consequences. I think that is the difference between artists and entertainers; an entertainer worries about coming back tomorrow night. Maybe I cried for the price that artists pay. But, no, Vincent van Gogh has already reassured me about that. In his last letter to his brother Theo, Vincent said, “My own work, I am risking my life for it, and my reason has half-foundered because of it….that’s all right.” Maybe I cried for the wonder of a world “that hath such people in it,” or is it that it hath so few such people in it.

Why I Dress Like a Homeless Person

Homeless GandhiDo clothes make the man? For many years I made my living as a college professor.   My classes were known for a high degree of activity, interactivity, creativity, and laughter.  People brought their friends to see the show because I was not one of the professors who wore a suit and stood behind a podium and recited his lecture, or read it off the PowerPoints.  Rather, I took part.   I demonstrated the Buffalo Dance, ran the video camera, mixed the paint, moved the furniture, held the fire extinguisher, and whatever else needed to be done.  For this kind of performance art, one needs clothes that are designed to facilitate movement, not those that are designed to restrict it.  Think about it, suits were originally the mark of the ruling class, for precisely the opposite reason, to demonstrate that they were not required to do any physical work.  Ease of movement was for the workers, and they wore clothes appropriate to their need to move unrestrainedly.  So did I.  Continue reading

Another Good Reason to Repeal Cannabis Prohibition

Repeal Cannabis Prohibition CO RoadsignThe conversations in a pot store, or recreational cannabis dispensary, are fascinating.  People in Colorado pot stores are talking about very subtle variations in their consciousness and experience, associated with different forms and strains of cannabis.   They are doing very comfortably what philosophers call phenomenology, examination of the structure and nature of consciousness and experience.  It’s usually a pretty hard thing to get across in class but these people are naturals.  Allen Ginsberg certainly understood too.  In 1966 he wrote that “the marijuana consciousness gently shifts one’s attention…to sensing phenomena.”  And then his 1977 his book Mind Breaths Ginsberg explicitly associated the creation of poetry with the observation of consciousness as practiced in Buddhist meditation. Continue reading

Charlie Haden says Listen to Rough Jazz

Rough Jazz: Charlie Haden, Don Cherry, Dewey Redman,Ed Blackwell“Listen to rough jazz” is a something Charlie Haden said in his last concert in his home town of Springfield Missouri. The play on words is that rough jazz is the opposite of smooth jazz, the ubiquitous, insipid jazz format of unchallenging, uncreative, and unobjectionable background music. Rough jazz, roughly, means, “hard bop and modern jazz, or music that led to it (or came from it),” or, alternatively, “music that swings, is improvised, uses blue notes and call and response.” It just means “real jazz.” Charlie Haden is the rightmost in this great  photograph.  Why do I call it great?  Because all I see is the love of creative music.  Charlie grew up in the Ozarks town of Springfield but somehow all he wanted to do was play jazz. His dad took him to a concert of a jazz dance band that came through town and Charlie got to meet them in their hotel room. He said remembered that it smelled funny. One of them said to Charlie, “Look at us. We got nothing but the music. Do you want to end up like us?” “Yeaaaaaah,” said Charlie. Continue reading