Fellow Bedmates

 Just finished: The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI by Cory Doctorow. This was very good. Like I said in my last post, there are a few areas where I disagree. I think Cory's objection to copyright makes sense and he backs it up well but also it's ideological and that means he's not taking into account copyright reform and its use to protect, rather than profit from artists. (Full disclosure: I get a cheque every year from Access Copyright, which I very much appreciate.) He ultimately takes a line of AI as normal technology, which I find ideologically abhorrent, as currently my prison abolition beliefs are warring with my desire to see every AI techbro in forever jail for what they are doing to our climate and our culture. He is optimistic about what could be left after the bubble bursts. I guess we'll see.

I'm disheartened in the way that I find it disheartening when people took the "let's make covid endemic" line or when people talk about climate resiliency rather than fighting against the corporations and governments that are accelerating the climate crisis. Maybe it's the utopian optimist in me but I really think we could put the brakes on a technology that no one asked for and no one wants and that is being shoved down our throats. We will have to write our own emails but that seems a small price to pay (and I already write my own emails).

But this is absolutely worth reading, because his analysis is always very shrewd and backed up by evidence and insights. The basic framing of the essays in terms of technology meeting human needs and extending human capabilities vs. dictating agency is vital, as is the framing of AI as a labour issue first and foremost. Plus, because it's Cory, it's entertaining and accessible to read.

Currently reading: The Long Red Tomorrow by Erik Grove. I met the author at one thing and then another thing and he was like, oh do you want an ARC of my upcoming book, which can always be a bit dicey. Just because you get along with a person doesn't mean you'll like their book. However! It is actually engrossing af. It's a cyberpunk noir set on a Martian colony and the vibes are impeccable. An ex-cop searches for a missing guy, while haunted by the literal holographic images of two women he has lost, and accidentally also seems to have acquired a dog. This is 100% Elon Musk's Mars, settlement in a place where no life is meant to live, with gritty miners and dust everywhere and shortened lifespans. It's also very Catholic-inflected for some reason (the cyberpunk interfaces are called halos, the cops are Saints, guilt and sin lurk around every corner). It feels like someone kind of wrote a neo-noir for Mark Fisher. I'm loving it so far.