“TLDR: Large proportions of the supposedly human-produced content on the internet are actually generated by artificial intelligence networks in conjunction with paid secret media influencers in order to manufacture consumers for an increasing range of newly-normalised cultural products.”
Ryan Broderick from The Garbage Day delivers an interesting (and hilarious) presentation titled “The Internet is Magic. How to use the powers of viral content to connect with higher levels of reality and perform powerful spells“.
RGBFAQ, by Alan Warburton, traces the trajectory of computer graphics from WW2 to Bell Labs in the 1960s, from the visual effects studios of the 1990s to the GPU-assisted algorithms of the latest machine learning models.
“You look up some old internet thing, there was always a furry running it”.
POV: You are Hitler’s psychologist in 1925. Diagnose his complexes by using both Jungian and Freudian psychotherapy and attempt to heal him. Resolve Hitler’s trauma and prevent catastrophe via therapy and psychology. Succeed and avoid the war and holocaust.
The Internet Dungeon of Unexplained Phenomena is a file cabinet of AI-generated paranormal horrors lurking in America’s mundane corners, emerging from prompts supplied by author and narrative designer Leigh Alexander.
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Very interesting article by Nate Sloan:
“Once you understand the dark truth, that what is based and what is cringe is purely a matter of perspective, one is freed from the shackles of this juvenile dichotomy. When you realize that the self-aware wink of ironic distance does not preclude your sincere aims, you may become empowered.”
“A Brief Sonic Ecological Survey of TikTok Meme Culture“, by Max Alper. A super interesting article on sound based memes on TikTok:
“Synthetic Messenger is a botnet that artificially inflates the value of climate news. Everyday it searches the internet for news articles covering climate change. Then 100 bots visit each article and click on every ad they can find”.
“Marcus DiPaola is a journalist who covers trending headlines in a TV reporter style to his 2.5M followers on TikTok. On May 4th, 2021, Star Wars Day, Marcus posted a new TikTok introducing his girlfriend to his large audience. It’s a pretty normal video, but TikTok has a mind of its own.”
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“Stopsigncam is a Twitch channel that’s been streaming a Salem intersection where, its title estimates, 98.73% of Vehicles don’t stop.”
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“The only thing that can effectively catch a young, alienated kid who is at risk for far-right politics is left-wing counter-messaging and opposing political solutions. Because his grievances are legitimate, and if he has no way to express them, you’re sending him even further to the right.”
“The only appropriate response is the most profound ambivalence. That’s what we owe new technologies: we have to teach ourselves to be absolutely ambivalent about them, and mainly we have to teach ourselves to imagine their inadvertent side-effects. Because the inadvertent side-effects are the side-effects that tends to get us”
(William Gibson, 1997)
“Preserving Worlds is a documentary travelogue through aging but beloved virtual worlds. Virtual worlds are delicate things, and they can vanish with hardly a trace. Under Capitalism, preservation is often the last priority. “