Amazing! I've heard about and wanted to read Brand's Pace Layers for a long time, but now have a much better understanding of what they are about and their significance. Also, I find a lot of what you are saying resonates with Benjamin Bratton's ideas in regards to The Stack, his vision of the developing planetary infrastructure of the current era. Are you familiar with it?
While reading your post it made me think about Battlestar Galactica (BSG). The Galactica was the only ship in the fleet to survive the initial Cylon attack—and the reason? Its systems were disconnected from the central network, unlike those of the rest of the fleet. Not so subtle commentary from the writers, am I right?!
I love (=so not love whatsoever) how folk devalue what we actually did before the age of digitalis.
Getting books could be hard. Even hearing about them. Same with other formats. You needed a network, a bloody good record store, and a bit library know how.
Life existed in localised scenes. How couldn’t it? We had DIY zines and tape swaps and meeting places. Live events.
But Jesus Christ! Just because of the bloody dominance of zeroes and ones today, it does not mean there wasn’t anything better before it.
Fascinating book club you mention. Is Claude a member? I wonder what an AI book club would choose and discuss. Maybe Data would be a good organizer for the Picard Pages Book Club. (Just imagining - love to watch these episodes!)
The entire point of star wars is in order to destroy the technological topological singularity, you need to turn off the software running the targeting computer and act on analog.
The idea that AI might actually act as a cooling agent for our overheated digital lives is a refreshing pivot from the usual panic. It is a relief to imagine a future where we are no longer marooned on the broken stairs of decaying social feeds, but instead treating our tools with the same casual indifference we afford a toaster or a dishwasher.
The comparison to the printing press is great. We often forget that what feels like a mundane utility today was once a chaotic, high-stakes ordeal. By moving AI from a spectacle we watch to an infrastructure we simply inhabit, we might finally reclaim the mental energy currently spent on the overhead of existence.
If the drama of the digital age is indeed a symptom of its incompleteness, then completion is the only way out. The Spinozan model you describe, where capability is a pervasive process rather than a boxed product, offers a much more human trajectory than the walled gardens of the current giants. Yes, let's ensure technology serves as a background to the things that actually deserve our attention.
Amazing! I've heard about and wanted to read Brand's Pace Layers for a long time, but now have a much better understanding of what they are about and their significance. Also, I find a lot of what you are saying resonates with Benjamin Bratton's ideas in regards to The Stack, his vision of the developing planetary infrastructure of the current era. Are you familiar with it?
Thanks! I’m not familiar with the Bratton idea but it sounds terrific. I need to broaden this out from just a hunch - I’ll take a look.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlPMV5LJc-I&t=2957s
While reading your post it made me think about Battlestar Galactica (BSG). The Galactica was the only ship in the fleet to survive the initial Cylon attack—and the reason? Its systems were disconnected from the central network, unlike those of the rest of the fleet. Not so subtle commentary from the writers, am I right?!
I love (=so not love whatsoever) how folk devalue what we actually did before the age of digitalis.
Getting books could be hard. Even hearing about them. Same with other formats. You needed a network, a bloody good record store, and a bit library know how.
Life existed in localised scenes. How couldn’t it? We had DIY zines and tape swaps and meeting places. Live events.
But Jesus Christ! Just because of the bloody dominance of zeroes and ones today, it does not mean there wasn’t anything better before it.
Fascinating book club you mention. Is Claude a member? I wonder what an AI book club would choose and discuss. Maybe Data would be a good organizer for the Picard Pages Book Club. (Just imagining - love to watch these episodes!)
The entire point of star wars is in order to destroy the technological topological singularity, you need to turn off the software running the targeting computer and act on analog.
The idea that AI might actually act as a cooling agent for our overheated digital lives is a refreshing pivot from the usual panic. It is a relief to imagine a future where we are no longer marooned on the broken stairs of decaying social feeds, but instead treating our tools with the same casual indifference we afford a toaster or a dishwasher.
The comparison to the printing press is great. We often forget that what feels like a mundane utility today was once a chaotic, high-stakes ordeal. By moving AI from a spectacle we watch to an infrastructure we simply inhabit, we might finally reclaim the mental energy currently spent on the overhead of existence.
If the drama of the digital age is indeed a symptom of its incompleteness, then completion is the only way out. The Spinozan model you describe, where capability is a pervasive process rather than a boxed product, offers a much more human trajectory than the walled gardens of the current giants. Yes, let's ensure technology serves as a background to the things that actually deserve our attention.