Phetasy News - Creative Destruction
The Dumpster Pail Kids, Creativity Is Your Birthright, Ian Lara Will Come To Your Town & Sleep With Your Wife, Politically Homeless - Completely Lost Recently, Bridget & Malice, plus NEW MERCH!
Greetings from the Phetaverse!
This week on Factory Settings, Jeren and I talked about one of my favorite topics: creativity. I’ve long maintained it’s one of the things humans do right. Our ability to conceive of a building or a painting or software or a dance and manifest it is something that, until recently, was uniquely human. With the recent advances in AI, this is no longer the case. A computer can generate an essay, a piece of art, a photo, a software program, or a building in a fraction of the time it would take us. AI is replacing accountants, lawyers, and even (ironically) replacing the “human” in Human Resources.
TikTok released new filters that are disturbing, not only in their air-brushed aesthetic that makes everyone a more “beautiful” version of themselves based on computational models— but the technology has evolved to the point that it’s almost impossible to tell you are even using a filter. It’s eerie watching the women demonstrating them instinctively grab their face and try to wipe the filter off—the strange cognitive dissonance of experiencing the uncanny valley while staring at themselves. Chills went down my spine when I realized that we are officially living in the Black Mirror Era and there is no going back. (Until we are forced to and that will be End Times.)
The deep fakes are getting so good it is nearly impossible to tell whether a video of someone is real or fake, a weapon of chaos in the age of information. We humans use our creative ability to usher in this new augmented reality. Our desire to create outpaces ethical considerations, moral implications, and unintended consequences. We rarely stop to consider if we should when we realize that we can. If we do pause, it’s usually too late.
I spend an inordinate amount of time pondering what this means for us. Human innovation is a double-edged sword. We are sowing the seeds of our own destruction. Some argue it’s progress and it will free up our time. Others say it’s evolution. Some see it as the end of mankind. Maybe it’s all of these things—only time will tell.
Call me old fashioned, but I prefer a painting made by a human; each stroke an effort, imperfect, influenced by every condition and mood acting on the painter in that moment and every moment of their lives leading to that exact stroke. The generations of their ancestors who had to survive in order for that piece of art to exist. I prefer the squishy, vulnerable carbon beings to the sleek, high-speed, silicon cyborgs—but that’s just me—I might be the last generation that appreciates such corporeal limitations as we fly ever closer to the sun.
Thumbnail artwork by Lara Cullen.
Email laracullenstudio@gmail.com to inquire or contact her.
I love you Bridget! The more I learn of technological “advances,” the more I want to run screaming to the Amish community, and beg them to allow a sassy Jewish middle aged broad to become a part of their world. I’ll roll pretzels - no problem! Horse and buggy? Sounds great to me!
I realize I cannot stop the tsunami. All I can do is control the choices I make in my life. While I do sit here clicking on my app laden iphone, I am growing out my natural grey hair and reducing my exposure to things that cause me psychic harm. I want to go the other direction completely...to age naturally and be content with that.
As for AI, pushing a button to have work created in a nanosecond is a pact with the devil. While students can get away with not doing work, and corporations can get away with saving tons of time and money, where is the soul reward one has for an actual accomplishment?
I have faith there will be a substance rebellion, where people say, fuck this shit and get flip phones, make their own clothes, and become woodworkers and painters. Or maybe I am just an idealist, who knows.
"You see it with kids particularly; their minds are so open and able to make connections..." -BP
I think connections are the key, and for new connections to happen, your mind needs to be open. Solving problems forces new connections. Imagining and dreaming inspires them.