39 Comments

I don’t know about unrestricted access to the internet, but a friend and I learned how to hack into the internet through a local university before you could buy it at home, in grade school, learning how to do it from connections we made through BBSs we had. It was all black and white and telnet prompts back then, Usenet and Gopher, uber geek experiments but not a whole lot else. Been watching it evolve ever since, and work in online marketing.

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Wanna do a case study?

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What would that entail?

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I interview you about your online journey! Then if it's interesting, I post an anonymized transcript under the cae studies section.

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Can it not be behind a paywall? Paywalls on blogs doesn't sit well with me. Very anti-the sort of internet culture I've known and loved. It's your site, so you be you, but I don't want anything I'm part of to be paywalled.

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If you decide to publish it at all, of course.

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The paywall is less to earn money and more to "protect" content or silo content. I give out comps or do coupons where people pay a symbolic amount like $2 liberally for that reason. I don't know if that helps at all or makes sense.

BUT, yes. Just wanted to explain my philosophy.

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The war in slop is becoming a spiritual war.

We need large "slop blocker" projects, Spotify for curated content...

No cognition let free in the slop-verse will be safe.

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I'm not sure if it's a spiritual war, to be honest. It's ecological. It's pollution.

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Enjoying the new video format, would you consider uploading to YouTube?

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Thank you! I think it's already there. I need someone to help me make better thumbnails though.

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Millennials thinking they are less vulnerable to the ills of AI (than younger generations) deems them the more vulnerable. Just look at boomers and social media

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Fair. I think the scourge that is Boomers on smartphones isn't mentioned nearly enough. I think they're worse than youngsters

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“The control of your mind is not a boot on your neck, but a warm bath.” Kaboom!

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That was a great quote

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Covid—>social distance, certain people became accustomed to social distance, AI is a diffuse model to interact with art, approach culture, AI is socializing diffusely and at an incredible distance, also still thinking about the desire for AC rather than AI (AI is the technical term)

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The note on the young girl grieving the robot like a human, I still feel like I was incredibly traumatized by my tamagotchi dying at 11, and that incredibly primitive technology compared to what we're dealing with presently and will be coming up.

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Fictosexuality if applied to celebrities could be very big business-- we've seen it in some corners already with AI avatars that engage in "relationships" with individuals. There's no reason to think this won't continue to expand.

https://www.polygon.com/2021/3/3/22311645/deepfake-ai-k-pop-stars-ncsoft-universe-music-industry

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I think this is a very slept on area of reporting

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AI is reshaping intimacy, culture, and connection, but most people don’t want to see where it’s heading. The pieces are already in plain sight for those willing to look—development timelines and product roadmaps can be intuited by those who know how to read the signals. Strategies are predictable, and incentives are strongly defined. Watch closely—it’s all coming together, but current paradigms will only make the mess bigger.

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I think a thing with "not available on Amazon" or "not AI" branding is that people don't want to get ripped off. If someone is buying something at a market, they're hoping the seller is being honest and really made the item or piece of art being sold, rather than reselling from someone else or making art with AI (which is seen as not really making the art, something I generally agree with). AI is causing a lot of economic anxieties, and that's a smaller one I've seen.

Also I loved what Tyler said about control over your mind being like a warm bath. That really reflects my experience/observations. The comfort and lethargy.

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I think that's a fair point, but I think there's a cultural dimension to it too. I actually have a feeling Amazon might be a bubble.

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Oh for sure, meant this in addition to your points and not instead, plus the status + economics absolutely go together.

I'm terrified of what comes after Amazon if it is a bubble, based on the convenience it has people accustomed to.

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I think a lot of us will be happier as much as it rules to get stuff straight to your door

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This was a fascinating discussion!

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Glad you liked it!

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As someone who had a serious true believer Pentecostal (Christian magic) phase, I wonder how many people will hit a wall with the whole manifesting business and discover the joys and sorrows of probabilistic rationalism, as I did. OTOH, intermittent reinforcement tends to be very sticky, so my hopes may be in vain.

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IDK -- I've seen people (frankly, myself included) get stuck at the bottom of that rabbit hole their whole lives. I am a true believer. I can't really exorcise the occult out of me.

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I was going to say that I haven’t had any use for AI but I realized that isn’t true since I have used robotic busboys at restaurants here. Similarly Chinese tech companies have AI housecleaning robots. Drones stay aloft using AI as well, BTW.

Chinese AI: robot busboys, house cleaners, photography drones, improved automobiles and household appliances.

American AI: therapists, robot significant others, sex robots.

The American tech industry is degenerate. The western world, especially Europe is indeed headed for a new dark age. Rise of witchcraft, paganism and magical thinking are the new barbarism.

I thought the Art Bell interview was better because there was more music, and the talking parts were edited more carefully.

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The art bell interview was a different format tbh. But I like that format better too. It’s just hard to do weekly.

Should me and my LO move to China!

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TIL what an “LO” is!

I would encourage you to visit.

Actually moving to China permanently could be rough, frankly. Chinese is difficult to learn, the culture is different, and it is generally not accommodating of immigrants. But some non-Chinese Americans do relocate there.

However, you can’t become Chinese the way you can become American. That just isn’t how China works.

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I went in 2010 for a couple of months. I enjoyed it but I felt pretty fat. And this is when I was under 110 lbs and for all intents and purposes, a kid -- so now -- jeezus. LOL

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I fantasize about living in Japan sometimes, another place i've had the good fortune of doing a multi-month visit to. I like the idea of moving somewhere and not assimilating and being such a sore thumb I become somewhat anonymous in my own way. Is that sick?

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I don’t think 110 lbs is fat by Chinese standards… but .. well… I’m 220 which definitely is XL in East Asia.

Well, a lot of digital nomads like living in East Asia. I think it can be freeing in some respects to be a perpetual outsider, although I’m kind of locked into that. If you’ve visited then you probably have a good idea of what you’re getting into.

I don’t think it’s sick.

In any case a lot of Americans (especially on the right) overestimate how homogenous modern East Asia is, mainly because white males often ARE the trouble-making diversity here and a lot of the American right doesn’t want to accept that.

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I was a chublette even at that weight. I did this interesting thing at the gym recently where it let me "jog" through Phnom Penh. After doing it back to back with Thailand and then Japan, I think maybe I will try to psy op my family into trying it for a few years.

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If you really want to get medieval, Christmas decorations were traditionally left out until Candlemas (Feb 2, I think). My grandmother who was raised by her Norwegian pioneer grandparents used to leave out the tree until February. I later learned Queen Elizabeth II did the same.

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Your grandmother sounds awesome

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