Ssamson @SamLench4

@OpenAI It’s the exact recreation of The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster. Impressive technically but the height of dystopia for so many reasons. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machi…

@michaelmalice Up there with “there’s a thing called (x)”, insert something obvious.

Just called my dad. He had no idea about the Somali fraud. Zero. He said he couldn’t believe he hadn’t heard about it on the news and that it wasn’t a bigger story. …so many people haven’t woken up to the truth yet, including my dad, who I love dearly What you think should make the news, doesn’t make the news. I, like my dad, thought the news was just, “whatever story is the biggest…” If it's a big enough deal, surely the news will cover it. I was wrong. …the “news” isn’t a mirror of reality's biggest stories It’s a FILTER. My dad, like so many good people I know, is just living a normal life… trusting that if something is TRULY important, someone will tell him. And that, that is the trap. They don’t need to convince you of a lie... ...they just need to make sure you never hear the truth. Once you see that, you can't unsee it. It changes everything.

This is what hope looks like. Sign up at yourparty.uk.

A goal-line clearance that will be remembered forever.

*Slavoj Zizek sniffs loudly touching his nose* Ah yes yes the corporate pastoral. This is a perfect ideological object. You see, you see here Sam, he pretends to give us a modest, one could say intimate conversation between two friends. No. This is a mythopoetic act of ideological laundering. *Sniff* This is not, you see, this is not a product announcement. No. Sam is giving us a myth, you see. *Sniff* This film, if one can call such a thing a film, is a strategic myth making artefact to construct an origin story. This is a biopic about themselves played by themselves, you see. Masturbation. *Sniff* The hubris is astounding. *Sniff* This opens, what do we see, what do we see first? *Sniff* We see the power shot, the money shot yes? Looking up from the ground up into the towering city. We are small. Silicon Valley is big. Money you see, technology, forbidden sex, and so on. San Francisco to be precise. Yes? *Sniff* Then what? Soft lighting, yes, soft focus, flowers in the city and so on. Two friends. No. *Sniff* These are not two friends. These are the ideologues of techno capital, you see. *Sniff*. The priests preparing you for the sacrament of their new device. *Sniff* They smile, you see, "We know we are building godlike machines, but we are such nice people!" *Sniff* Yes very good Sam. And thank you. They shake our hands and smile, while the machine, you see, the machine takes our jobs and our soul, or what have you. *Sniff* Yes? But the cafe, what a nice cafe I must say. The cafe invites us in. Not just two friends together, you see. We are, as the viewer, we are also their third friend. *Sniff* Perhaps lover, or some such. We will see how the night goes, you know? *Sniff* But Sam, yes, he does not care about money. Power? No. *Sniff* This boy king, the caring sovereign, he worries about us. The little people you see. *Sniff* The master holds the weight, the original sin, so we may enjoy without guilt. *Sniff* Sam is our Jesus, so we can ask the computer our little questions and not worry. Not to worry about the labor, or the exploitation, or the environmental costs and so on. *Sniff* So you see, this is, you see this is to build a moral legitimacy around leadership figures at at a time when, you know *Sniff* AI is taking our jobs, and "How will I feed my family" and "Oh no we are all going to die" and so on. *Sniff* Notice. Notice they do not talk about technology you see. Values. *Sniff* This is the hand of ideology that distracts you while the other, the other hand you see, it takes from you. But thank you for the coffee Jony, and yes the iPhone. *Sniff* Jony is the great thinker Yes? And Jony gives us emotional connection, yes? And the family man stands hand in hand with Sam, as deliberate contrast to the tech overlord he pretends not to be, you see. *Sniff* The European family man with the children and, you know, the forbidden sexual desires of San Francisco and what have you. *Sniff* We have our origin story, the myth you see, chance encounters in the cafe. *Sniff* "It is funny running into you here Jony!" Yes it must be nice what are the odds of such an encounter. *Sniff* And what? Personal anecdotes they give us, yes, some shared vision to reinforce authenticity in a film which, let us be honest for a moment, this could very well be in the post credits scene of a marvel movie or, you know *Sniff* some such profane act of capitalist entertainment, a mickey mouse adventure or what have you. *Sniff* And for what? For what is all of this labor and AI and devices and so on *Sniff* So we can find ourselves in a moment, lost, "Oh no" we say, "Oh no I wonder. I have a question to which there is no answer, I cannot think for myself?" *Sniff* No. Let us go to the phone yet again. We must ask the device. But no. You see. *Sniff* My phone is in my pocket. We need a new device you see. Yes? *Sniff* A device which, a device which always listens, you see. *Sniff* An all knowing god who can answer my questions, and tell me what to think, and what should I say, *Sniff* what should I do, and I am afraid and oh no who am I and I am sad and who should I fuck and so on. Yes? *Sniff* So you see *Sniff* This film is not a documentary yes? *Sniff* What we see here is christ carrying the cross alone through the streets. *Sniff* But not a cross you see. Jony. Jony gives us the iPhone and Sam puts AI inside the device. *Sniff* And now? Now we don't need to think *Sniff* We can just have the AI and the AI, you see, *Sniff* It's wonderful.

We should spend less time worrying about being our ‘authentic selves,’ and more time trying to improve ourselves.

My favourite Nietzsche quote of all time

How is Globalism not seen as colonialism 2.0? I don't get it.

It’s amazing that people believe what they read as if it wasn’t just another fucking human who wrote it.

The best opening line in any physics textbook: States of Matter by David L. Goodstein ✍️

My daily reminder

Celebrating James Jamerson’s birthday with this incredible video breaking down his legendary bassline from “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell. A masterclass in groove and musicality! You won’t find a cooler video today…

@Maccneal @Lord_whizzer @moniconga @highbrow_nobrow You’re both as bad as each other. Here’s the link: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC14…. It’s a BMJ article hosted on NIH site, discussing a specific book: The Cutter Incident: How America's First Polio Vaccine Led to the Growing Vaccine Crisis. (2005, Sep 5). Publishers Weekly, 252(35), 52.

Love this story where Badalamenti & Lynch discover that the MIDI notation of Laura Palmer's Theme actually resembles twin peaks. "I showed David the photo and told him what it was, and he just started shouting, ‘It’s cosmic! It’s cosmic! It’s cosmic!’" vulture.com/2017/05/twin-p…

Angelo Badalamenti composing with David Lynch:

I think about this with David Lynch every time. His death sucks, true visionary and artistic genius