Are you still watching?
What a piece in n+1 on Netflix’s ponzi scheme of attention that describes how Netflix has pivoted from distributor of content to creator of it, and the effect thereof on the quality of movies. According to the relentless author, Netflix is ”staffed by unsophisticated executives who have no plan for their movies and view them with contempt”. It’s a long read, but absolutely worth the read, because it makes you reflect on mindlessly binge-watching true crime while clearing out my inbox. Even if it is not easy in today’s firehose of stuff, we have to taking media seriously (if you can’t get enough of the piece, there’s also this this making of!).
Stories have been an important way of thinking about life since ancient times. As Brenda Laurel writes in Computers as Theatre, which I happened to read this week: “Drama was the way that Greek culture publicly thought and felt about the most important issues of humanity … they were tools for thought and discourse in the Polis”.
And you easily argue it as the role or even duty of a media maker to include this role. Bertolt Brecht believed that a play was only finished when the audience applied it to their own lives; Will Tavlin wrote in his interview for good reason: “Bad movies have serious consequences”.
By the way, the magazine n+1 is definitely worth reading. I have a subscription to the paper version myself, and I’ve have often recommended the wonderful piece An age of hyperabundance about how techbros think over the last few months.
The culture of Silicon Valley
Speaking of how techbros think. This brutal takedown in Bloomberg of the new book by Alex Karp, CEO of Palentir. Well, if Bloomberg criticizes a book about making big money this much, it must be really bad! But if you read the piece carefully, it is actually quite nuanced, in the sense that every critical question they ask is justified and deep, not at the level of “haha, look a small mistake” but pointing out gaps in the theory. It shows once again how difficult it is for Silicon Valley types to come up with clear definitions of what they criticize (this is ironic, by the way, since Karp has a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and should therefore know/be able to know better). Karp’s entire book (which I haven’t read by the way, who would after this piece?) breathes the atmosphere of Mencius Moldbug, the creepy architect of the mindset there (if you don’t know him, I would not recommend to look him up).
Closer to home I read about the recently published dissertation by Inte Gloerich about the blockchain hype (remember that?) and what it says about Silicon Valley culture. Now there is a book I would love to read!
Leave American tech platforms!
This week’s tip is: Leave American tech platforms where you can. Dutch tech hero Bert Hubert explains why that matters clearly in The Register. Convinced? Here is a handy overview of alternatives.
Earning money from fake news? It is once more possible on Facebook
TechCrunch reports that Facebook is not only going to fire their content moderators, but they are also going to start allowing people to make money off of posts that are later found to be fake . Maybe I should stop being so surprised at Facebook, but it’s still a bit of a shock every time they do something so obviously bad.
Governments worldwide use internet access as a sanction
Last week, a very worrying report was published at human rights conference RichtCon. The report explains that in 2024, more governments than ever will turn off the internet access of citizens. This also happens in regions where Starlink is used to exploit people.
The report counts at least 296 such cases in 54 countries, from Ukraine to Gaza to France , an increase of 35%. Now more than ever, time to keep fighting for free and open access to the internet, everywhere!
Good news!
We keep our spirits up, and some good news: In Arizona, it may soon be illegal to use AI to assess medical claims , passed by a vote of 58 to 0. Yay, onward!
You know who else is no longer a fan of AI? Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft (who owns half of openAI) has announced that he no longer sees the point of it. The hype is too great, he says in Futurism . If AI is really that good, he says “it’ll be clear when it starts generating measurable value”. Okay, so he has invested billions and now he just has to see it happen. Check! Elsewhere, things are apparently not going very well either, because at Google, they have to work harder, according to Brin. 60 hours a week, otherwise Google’s AI will not come to be people!
Do you, like Brin, think that AI will soon be able to do all the tasks that humans can do? Then read this great piece in the Guardian by neuroscientist MJ Crockett, which makes a clear case that human affection and creativity are not a chore that needs to be done.
And finally, the concept album Is This What We Want , by 1,000 British artists. The entire album is nothing but the sound of empty music studios, because that’s what we’ll get if we let AI into everything. What a brilliant act of protest. More of this please!
