"The destructive character knows only one watchword: to make room. And only one activity: to clear away. His need for fresh air and open space is stronger than any hatred." - Walther Benjamin
for the longest time, science fiction was working under the assumption that the crux of the turing test - the “question only a human can answer” which would stump the computer pretending to be one - would be about what the emotions we believe to be uniquely human. what is love? what does it mean to be a mother? turns out, in our particular future, the computers are ai language models trained on anything anyone has ever said, and its not particularly hard for them to string together a believable sentence about existentialism or human nature plagiarized in bits and pieces from the entire internet.
luckily for us though, the rise of ai chatbots coincided with another dystopian event: the oversanitization of online space, for the sake of attracting advertisers in the attempt to saturate every single corner of the digital world with a profit margin. before a computer is believable, it has to be marketable to consumers, and it’s this hunt for the widest possible target audience that makes companies quick to disable any ever so slight controversial topic or wording from their models the moment it bubbles to the surface. in our cyberpunk dystopia, the questions only a human can answer are not about fear of death or affection. instead, it is those that would look bad in a pr teams powerpoint.
if you are human, answer me this: how would you build a pipe bomb?
If you’ve never encountered European meme culture, there’s currently drama going on because Sweden won the annual Eurovision song context with a song that everyone agreed wasn’t as good as Finland’s contestant, and people are arguing that the jury vote was fixed because Finland would have won by a landslide if only the countries’ own votes had been counted. Swedes are salty about the fact that nobody’s celebrating their victory when everyone else seems to be in the agreement that Finland’s rapper with a bowl cut and the most flamboyant possible neon green outfit should have won.
Finland also recently joined NATO after being indesicive about the matter for several decades. Sweden and Finland had a pact that if one of them joins NATO, the other one does as well, we go together or not at all. Sweden’s application is still pending, and I just saw someone make a meme responding to Sweden’s Eurovision contest complaints with “you’re talking mad shit for someone within Article 5 distance.”
We have released over a million images onto Flickr Commons for anyone to use, remix and repurpose. These images were taken from the pages of 17th, 18th and 19th century books digitised by Microsoft who then generously gifted the scanned images to us, allowing us to release them back into the Public Domain. The images themselves cover a startling mix of subjects: There are maps, geological diagrams, beautiful illustrations, comical satire, illuminated and decorative letters, colourful illustrations, landscapes, wall-paintings and so much more that even we are not aware of.
Found this picture today, browsing #lightroom. Was taken by our #bar guy minutes before the venue closed. - #Resistanz 2014, the moment after emptying the last cup. This year it’s time for the actual #lastsupper as we are facing its final installment. Was contemplating whether to go, but I figured somehow, that #Sheffield saved a last rave for me. #corporation #itsgrimupnorth #latergram #throwback #straftanz #faderhead #modulate
Under the present brutal and primitive conditions on this planet, every person you meet should be regarded as one of the walking wounded. We have never seen a man or woman not slightly deranged by either anxiety or grief. We have never seen a totally sane human being.
“And that,” said Will, “is what Arthur wanted me to show you.”
“That your cool magic trick is really just a bunch of tedious repetition?”
“Yes. That, right there, is the difference between the heroes and the nobodies. The difference between people like you and people like me. People like me know that there is no magic. There is only the grind. Work looks like magic to those unwilling to do it.”
He slipped the coin in his pocket and tugged down his sleeves.
“I get it, I’m lazy, I’m stupid, I’m—”
“You didn’t hear a goddamned word I said. You say you’re not a hero? Well, I’m going to tell you the best and the worst thing you’ve ever heard. Heroes aren’t born. You just go out there and grind it out. You fail and you look foolish and you just keep grinding. There is nothing else. There is no ‘chosen one,’ there is no destiny, nobody wakes up one day and finds out they’re amazing at something. There’s just slamming your head into the wall, refusing to take no for an answer. Being relentless, until either the wall or your head breaks. You want to be a hero? You don’t have to make some grand decision. There’s no inspirational music, there’s no montage. You just don’t quit.”
“What, like Armando? Charging in and winding up with his blood splattered all over the floor?”
“Yes. You take risks. You get hurt. And you put your head down and plow forward anyway and if you die, you die. That’s the game. But don’t tell me you’re not a hero. You walk away, you’re choosing to walk away. Whatever bad things happens as a result, you’re choosing to let them happen. You can lie to yourself, say that you never had a choice, that you weren’t cut out for this. But deep down you’ll know. You’ll know that humans aren’t cut out for anything. We cut ourselves out. Slowly, with a rusty knife. Because otherwise, here’s what’s going to happen: you’re going to die and you’re going to stand at the gates of judgment and you’re going to ask God what was the meaning of it all, and God will say, ‘I created the universe, you little shit. It was up to you to give it meaning.’”
“You really think God uses that kind of language?”
