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Humans Versus Robots!

COMMENTARY

(Pictured: Self-portrait by human artist Vincent van Gogh; a shot from the 1927 film Metropolis.)

DO PEOPLE KNOW exactly what kind of world tech moguls and tech hustlers are planning for us?

Here’s the crackpot vision of one of them, David Holz, CEO of Midjourney, who is fully captured by the More Technology religion:

The assumptions made in the paper are many– that everything goes smoothly with no setbacks; a science fiction fantasy disconnected from the earth, bureaucracies, reality. One can find statements of writings from other plutocrats as fantastical and dangerous, including Elon Musk’s plans to merge humans and computers so that we become in effect, ourselves, robots.

Keep in mind it’s all being done in the name of money. More money! The reason banks and Venture Capitalists are throwing billions of dollars at these madmen. More outlandish plans, more gimmicks, more ways to get suckers inside the circus tent to enable and enrich the tech guys. “Look at me! I can be an artist! A writer! Golly gee!! Just by saying a few words into this here device.” But you’re not an artist or writer, merely an enabler generating imitative mock-artistic garbage while simultaneously allowing the scamsters to ask for ever more funding, more expansion, more unnecessary electronic gadgets: more madness.

The name of the game for the tech guys is accelerationism, a kind of economic blitzkrieg. In their credo, “Move fast and break things.” Moving ahead as quickly as possible in a narrow path to reach a far out objective. The idea of simply achieving the distant objective, worrying about damages, destruction and repercussions later. Therefore, the all-out media blitz for AI and various AI gadgets– to make, in the minds of the public, their anti-human technology accepted fact.

“It’s clear that AI is a permanent part of our digital lives–” -Scott Lamb, VP of Content at Medium.

A 100% push to put the tech over, requiring from the other direction in order to limit or stop it an equal amount of pushback. Otherwise, the many ills that afflict society– including alienation, homelessness, and an out-of-control wealth gap– will only get worse.

Are we up for the fight?

-Karl Wenclas

(If you haven’t yet signed the “Save the Writer!” petition, please do so.)

Top Tech Billionaire Supervillains

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THESE are the guys who want to control the planet in its every aspect, using nations and international organizations as pawns while constantly pushing new technologies like AI which will allow them to increase their massive fortunes while simultaneously giving them more control of the economy and, really, over every aspect of our everyday lives.

What do they want? The question is best answered by this scene from the 1948 movie, Key Largo.

Here then are the world’s Top Tech Supervillains.

1.) ELON MUSK.

NO ONE has worked harder to become a global supervillain than Elon, whose very name fits the role. Richest man on earth, has satellites around the world, playing footsie with dictators in China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia while at the same time sending rocketships into space for the U.S. Defense Department and possibly for intelligence agencies. Recently bought the most influential social media site (sorry, Mark Z) to use as a plaything and direct discourse his way. Is also behind something called Neuralink involving implants into the human brain (!!!) AND is investing heavily in robotics and AI. Musk also, I’m told, runs a car company, and claims to be at the forefront of driverless vehicles. Total control over all of humanity? This guy wants it. One more thing: he also plans for his base of operations to be on Mars! I guess in case the world’s wiped out via one of his schemes.

Estimated worth per Investopedia: $238 billion.

2.) BILL GATES

A FORMER #1 supervillain, this frequent visitor to Epstein Island would make the list on Creepiness-with-a-Capital-C alone, best exhibited in his 1998 Senate testimony about whether or not Microsoft was engaging in monopolistic business practices. (Editor’s Note: Of course they were!) Since then Gates has operated with a lower profile– but one which involves conspiracy stories about buying up huge tracts of land in America, pushing vaccines on Africa, and backing the leading chatbot outfit, OpenAI, with many billions of dollars. If you use Word or Microsoft products in any way you’ll see they’re at the forefront of integrating AI technology into, well, everything.

Estimated worth: $137 billion.

3.) MARK ZUCKERBERG

THIS FOUNDER and CEO of Meta (Facebook etc.) has moved up a notch in the standings because he’s aggressively pursuing AI, as well as billions of dollars of investments in a fake “meta” world of virtual reality, or escaping into electronic artificial insanity. Not to mention Zuck has always looked the part of hyperrich supervillain, AND has raised his profile by his willingness to take on Supervillain #1 Elon Musk in a globally-televised cage match. He’s not playing!

Estimated worth: $117 billion.

4.) JEFF BEZOS

BEZOS MAY BE the most ruthless businessman on the planet in his pursuit of total Amazon monopoly intending to be THE only business left standing– but he makes the list for his reputed insane laugh and the fact he now possesses the world’s largest yacht– displacing Vlad Putin’s in that category.

Estimated worth: $157 billion.

OTHERS: Several weird hyper-billionaires lurk just outside these four, including: Peter Thiel, Sam Altman, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and a whole lotta wannabes, all who’d make a character like Auric Goldfinger appear small time. We’d give thorough descriptions of all of them, but we don’t wish to overly frighten the reader. Unfortunately, this isn’t a movie or a comic book, it’s reality.

KW for Fast Pop

The Literary Establishment’s Maginot Line

It’s funny to see reactions to the emergence of ChatGPT and other AI happenings. An increasing number of writers– especially on the low end– have embraced it as a way to get more “product” out there. Doesn’t matter to them if they can generate a novel in a day, or if it’s not at all any good. If it qualifies in their mind as a novel, that’s enough. Some–like the editors at New Pop Lit— are opposing the gathering onslaught. Meanwhile, a large number of writers, particularly those in or connected to the literary establishment, are ignoring it.

One can liken them to the French army in 1940. At war with Nazi Germany, yet believing they were safe behind a supposedly impregnable series of forts known as the Maginot Line. The forts were a psychological barrier more than anything– false security which enabled the French not to have to think about that which awaited just outside the gates, so to speak– and which swiftly with the roar of dive bombers and tanks came racing through the Ardennes Forest to spread terror and mayhem.

Similarly, literary people don’t want to think about AI chatbots. They believe they’re safe, and can wish the devices and the change they bring away. An illusory dream– writers are nothing if not dreamers.

Most out-of-touch of all are literary critics– those you’d assume would be most on top of things. Instead, they’ve tricked themselves into believing they represent a Golden Age of American literary criticism (I’m not making this up). A Golden Age nobody’s heard of, consisting of writers nobody knows. The height of insularity and arrogance. It’d be like the Essenes– authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls– circa 30 AD designating their inscrutable writings and themselves as a Golden Age.

The reality? I think of auto exec Bob Lutz’s remark about the General Motors car business before it went bankrupt: “brilliantly executed mediocrity.”

It’ll take way more than that to stem the coming tide of AI.

(The Save the Writer petition.)

-K.W.

The Problem with AI-Generated Writing and Art



THE PROBLEM with AI-generated writing and art is it’s unnatural and inhuman. It’s a distorted version of human expression which can never be natural because of the way it’s created– akin to Frankenstein’s monster, when the monster’s creator seeks to play god and go beyond the bounds of the naturally possible into some untrod, uncertain, diabolical territory. Hellishness.

Study the ambitious characters pushing the technology and you see the extent to which they wish to bust natural bounds, no matter the consequences, like that character of plays and operas, Faust. They’re ready to make a Faustian deal. Some– like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman who has paid to have his brain uploaded to a computer– have already made the bargain.

THE RESULT for the rest of us is a bombardment of unnatural writing and art. Every bit as fiendish, lost, and rootless as the creature of Mary Shelley’s classic novel, first envisioned by her in a nightmare.


Words of the monster’s creator about what he made:

–a race of devils would be propagated upon the earth, who might make the very existence of the species of man a condition precarious and full of terror. Had I a right, for my own benefit, to inflict this curse upon everlasting generations? . . . I shuddered to think that future ages might curse me as their pest, whose selfishness had not hesitated to buy its own peace at the price perhaps of the existence of the whole human race.

(The novel, incidentally, is a stunning piece of writing, which could never be adequately captured by any film.)

The Save the Writer petition.

Stop the Tech Zombies!

photo c/o timeinc.net


WHILE we’ve hit our goal of 1,000 with the “Save the Writer!” petition (our initial goal was actually 100), we urge writers, readers, actors, artists, everybody in creative fields– or anyone who simply appreciates human talent– who has not already signed the petition to please do so. All noise made to slow down the tech zombies is good, because they’re appearing everywhere– from gullible wannabe writers and artists to would-be scam artists eager to grab their share of the venture capital big-money pie.

CAN they be slowed down? Or possibly stopped?

I’m not sure. But we need to at least try.

-KW

The Disgrace of Using Chatbots


A sign of A.) ineptitude B.) gullibility: using the latest tech gimmick produced via the plutocratic pipeline.

We view chatbots as a form of bicycle training wheels. Or as batting tees used for beginner baseball players– where they need to keep the ball stationary before they take a swing at it.

In sum: If you use a chatbot in any way– including to write your own emails, you’re NOT a writer. You’re not even a beginner writer. You’re a poser. A fake. A wannabe.

Use the word “writer” to describe yourself if you’re a chatbot user and you’ll be sued for misrepresentation and fraud.

Or should be.