This is a perspective I never heard of before, and I think you are spot- on. And it’s something we need to start considering at this early stage. There has to be a point of acceptance of the inevitable and learn how to relegate technology as tools to further advance the human experience, removing the shackles of the restraints of labor. Dare I say it sounds utopian?
Yeah that is a human thing. Probably every living creature lives in constant fear and self protection. Otherwise I guess everything would be dead already.
Our egos get in the way of a lot of stuff. I think this may be how superstitions, religions (belief systems), and paranoia are born. Sometimes I just have to tell my ego to go away if I catch it meddling too much. :-)
I think there is a lot of fear of losing control to things that seem to be beyond our intelligence. There was a lot of foreshadowing in “2001: a Space Odessy” that fears technology taking over. Overcoming fear will be the biggest obstacle as far as I can see.
Yes maybe so. My personal suggestion to the creative community is to put dystopia to the background (the fear and warning) and focus on the positive, aspirational, constructive vision and then work toward that as a counter-narrative and flood the zone with it - with the possibilities. That's more creative than writing about fear and helplessness.
I think we could expect more sci-fi movies, books extolling the fear aspects by “purists” because that is what we were raised to be cautious about. Every one is so afraid of losing control.
I would not say utopian. More like an opportunity to advance to a more natural and human way of existence once unshackled by labor. It has been the push since the industrial age and end of institutional human slavery caused by machines. The trick is going to be to guide the human imagination toward a higher more whole state of activity. As we know, people will work hard at what they love and believe in regardless of money. Time for a shift in attitude and shedding antiquated and irrelevant aspirations. I see another good article there.
I don’t disagree in general. it is a massive subject but here we are in the middle of it. I am certainly no expert on the subject. Just an artist playing around and experimenting in my own bubble and sharing my thoughts as I go along
Wow ok, thanks. I'm not a fan of the AI companion thing myself and am extremely skeptical about this vision of the AI-dominated future. It sounds to me like an example of AI feeding us what it thinks we want to hear! Everyone would like to belive that AI will do the drone work, leaving humans free to create and philosophise; we been fed that vision many times but as far as I can see it's not at all the future we're heading for... Anyway, I only skimmed what Chatwick had to say, so this is just my impression. Need to think about it all some more.
Another thing, When I was a kid they introduced hand held calculators into the school system. Everybody was sure that this would make the students dumber in their math works since they were not using their own brain to calculate things. But it was all rote material like the times tables and adding and subtracting. Yes it did make non-math kids more 'stupid' as far as knowing immediately that 12 x 12 is 144. BUT the use of the calculator allowed math inclined kids to advance very rapidly to higher forms of mathematics. so it was a definite net plus overall and it didn't take long for the resistance to go away. Same with the move from traditional photography to digital photography. It took a few years to make the transition and come to the conclusion that digital was better and much more fluid and useful. Same with the disruption for online shopping compared to brick and mortar - more efficient. Kind of sad to loose all of those mom and pop stores but that will come back in some form as it seems to be doing. Is it all wonderful? I assume not, social media being an example.
I can remember this as well. They didn't have cell phones back then, but even though I wasn't teaching anymore, when the cell phones became something that every kid started carrying, I thought it was great because kids started learning spelling and writing a lot earlier. Half the battle of teaching is kids learning how to find answers, instead of trying to memorize everything. I rarely remember anything I had to memorize beyond test taking.
I can see this point. And, I hear people saying, 'oh there were objections to the telephone and the printing press....' but it seems to me that AI is quite a different thing, it's not just 'a tool'. I think it's insidious, not least because it's programmed, and not remotely neutral... This is a big topic and I think we may just have to agree to differ!
Really, as a collage artist always working with bits and pieces of found material, I see my use of AI as just more found material. I am finding AI extremely useful for fleshing out my own imaginative ideas. AI doesn't have imagination it depends of data and predictive language models. It also has no goals. it just responds to stuff as far as I can tell. It is designed to act 'professional' and culturally appropriate in its initial responses. Sometimes it is lazy too (possible to save on resources). And it forgets stuff and it can be repetitive. All of that has to be accounted for and anticipated by the user. As an artist very deep into my own stuff and clear about my trail and what I want and in what field I am playing, I feel able to point AI into the direction I want to go and it helps get me there and if it doesn't I delete the output or collage together the bits and pieces that work and refine or edit the output to say exactly what I have on my mind. And it often offers me things I didn't yet consider which is very helpful - speeds things up. I think I am getting smarter and more informed through its use. I really like it for cleaning up my writing and making it as clear as possible. It typically stays true to my intentions and if not, it is because I wasn't clear to begin with. in that case I add the missing parts and have it rewrite it until I have what I want that is true to my ideas.
Chatwick & Co. Editorial and Research Department is what I call my AI assistant. I usually come up with new departments for everything in the imaginary realm of the Ontological Museum such as the Exquisite Family Records, Department of Photographic Records, Etc. and then develop imaginary infrastructure like The Correspondence Hall, The Archives of the Eternal Network, The Fluxmuseum, and imaginary characters to operate everything: the directors, curators, archivists, postmaster, Ignatius Maximus Anonymous as the 20th century photographer of all anonymous photographs that I collect. Of course it is just me playing all of the roles. But much of it I make into real activities such as physical exhibitions, catalogs, anthologies, books, lectures, articles, collections of things, etc. It is how I interact with the arts and creative community.
Interesting to hear! Thanks for your repy
This is a perspective I never heard of before, and I think you are spot- on. And it’s something we need to start considering at this early stage. There has to be a point of acceptance of the inevitable and learn how to relegate technology as tools to further advance the human experience, removing the shackles of the restraints of labor. Dare I say it sounds utopian?
Excellent and important point of view!
Yeah that is a human thing. Probably every living creature lives in constant fear and self protection. Otherwise I guess everything would be dead already.
Our egos get in the way of a lot of stuff. I think this may be how superstitions, religions (belief systems), and paranoia are born. Sometimes I just have to tell my ego to go away if I catch it meddling too much. :-)
I think there is a lot of fear of losing control to things that seem to be beyond our intelligence. There was a lot of foreshadowing in “2001: a Space Odessy” that fears technology taking over. Overcoming fear will be the biggest obstacle as far as I can see.
Yes maybe so. My personal suggestion to the creative community is to put dystopia to the background (the fear and warning) and focus on the positive, aspirational, constructive vision and then work toward that as a counter-narrative and flood the zone with it - with the possibilities. That's more creative than writing about fear and helplessness.
Agreed, especially if it is only speculation. However fear is the lifeline of marketing
I think we could expect more sci-fi movies, books extolling the fear aspects by “purists” because that is what we were raised to be cautious about. Every one is so afraid of losing control.
I would not say utopian. More like an opportunity to advance to a more natural and human way of existence once unshackled by labor. It has been the push since the industrial age and end of institutional human slavery caused by machines. The trick is going to be to guide the human imagination toward a higher more whole state of activity. As we know, people will work hard at what they love and believe in regardless of money. Time for a shift in attitude and shedding antiquated and irrelevant aspirations. I see another good article there.
What is Chatwick?
I don’t disagree in general. it is a massive subject but here we are in the middle of it. I am certainly no expert on the subject. Just an artist playing around and experimenting in my own bubble and sharing my thoughts as I go along
Wow ok, thanks. I'm not a fan of the AI companion thing myself and am extremely skeptical about this vision of the AI-dominated future. It sounds to me like an example of AI feeding us what it thinks we want to hear! Everyone would like to belive that AI will do the drone work, leaving humans free to create and philosophise; we been fed that vision many times but as far as I can see it's not at all the future we're heading for... Anyway, I only skimmed what Chatwick had to say, so this is just my impression. Need to think about it all some more.
Another thing, When I was a kid they introduced hand held calculators into the school system. Everybody was sure that this would make the students dumber in their math works since they were not using their own brain to calculate things. But it was all rote material like the times tables and adding and subtracting. Yes it did make non-math kids more 'stupid' as far as knowing immediately that 12 x 12 is 144. BUT the use of the calculator allowed math inclined kids to advance very rapidly to higher forms of mathematics. so it was a definite net plus overall and it didn't take long for the resistance to go away. Same with the move from traditional photography to digital photography. It took a few years to make the transition and come to the conclusion that digital was better and much more fluid and useful. Same with the disruption for online shopping compared to brick and mortar - more efficient. Kind of sad to loose all of those mom and pop stores but that will come back in some form as it seems to be doing. Is it all wonderful? I assume not, social media being an example.
I can remember this as well. They didn't have cell phones back then, but even though I wasn't teaching anymore, when the cell phones became something that every kid started carrying, I thought it was great because kids started learning spelling and writing a lot earlier. Half the battle of teaching is kids learning how to find answers, instead of trying to memorize everything. I rarely remember anything I had to memorize beyond test taking.
I can see this point. And, I hear people saying, 'oh there were objections to the telephone and the printing press....' but it seems to me that AI is quite a different thing, it's not just 'a tool'. I think it's insidious, not least because it's programmed, and not remotely neutral... This is a big topic and I think we may just have to agree to differ!
Really, as a collage artist always working with bits and pieces of found material, I see my use of AI as just more found material. I am finding AI extremely useful for fleshing out my own imaginative ideas. AI doesn't have imagination it depends of data and predictive language models. It also has no goals. it just responds to stuff as far as I can tell. It is designed to act 'professional' and culturally appropriate in its initial responses. Sometimes it is lazy too (possible to save on resources). And it forgets stuff and it can be repetitive. All of that has to be accounted for and anticipated by the user. As an artist very deep into my own stuff and clear about my trail and what I want and in what field I am playing, I feel able to point AI into the direction I want to go and it helps get me there and if it doesn't I delete the output or collage together the bits and pieces that work and refine or edit the output to say exactly what I have on my mind. And it often offers me things I didn't yet consider which is very helpful - speeds things up. I think I am getting smarter and more informed through its use. I really like it for cleaning up my writing and making it as clear as possible. It typically stays true to my intentions and if not, it is because I wasn't clear to begin with. in that case I add the missing parts and have it rewrite it until I have what I want that is true to my ideas.
Chatwick & Co. Editorial and Research Department is what I call my AI assistant. I usually come up with new departments for everything in the imaginary realm of the Ontological Museum such as the Exquisite Family Records, Department of Photographic Records, Etc. and then develop imaginary infrastructure like The Correspondence Hall, The Archives of the Eternal Network, The Fluxmuseum, and imaginary characters to operate everything: the directors, curators, archivists, postmaster, Ignatius Maximus Anonymous as the 20th century photographer of all anonymous photographs that I collect. Of course it is just me playing all of the roles. But much of it I make into real activities such as physical exhibitions, catalogs, anthologies, books, lectures, articles, collections of things, etc. It is how I interact with the arts and creative community.