Recently I moved up to the ChatGPT Pro subscription, and was surprised I felt mixed feelings about it, a sort of self-consciousness. I found myself thinking through a talk track to justify it, from a humanities perspective. I don’t think I have well-informed thoughts on the methods – theft, presumptive use, plagiarism, rights of the creators, etc.. I’m sure that’s written elsewhere and better.
But I did think about the history of humanity, and culture as this technology to promote ourselves forward – what we honor, stories we share, mistakes we’ve made, progress we’ve gained against the terrors we create or stumble upon, the collective wisdom of the ages. And now have a place where it’s consolidated. That’s cool, even if it’s a fuzzy composite.
I also think about the idea of scenius. where in a time and a place, people come together and form something special. I’m not sure you can do that with just yourself and an LLM, in the same sense, but there may be something analogous – a willing and skilled collaborator at hand, one that by definition some experiences much vaster than your own. That’s cool!
I grew up a library kid, in large part because my mom is a library adult. The type of library adult that gets a temporary visitor card at the local branch while on vacation. And now the library is right here, and you can have it be a teacher, too. “The great thing about dead or remote masters is that they can’t refuse you as an apprentice. You can learn whatever you want from them.” While it’s not individual, and we’re I’m not sure we have any new and distinctive works from AIs to inspire us… if you just want to learn a variety of things, you really can just dial one up and join the guild.
This week I had a teammate at work break down in tears. What a deviation from the norm! I’ve only seen this a couple times. Interesting experience to have to show up in a familiar way, in a totally different context.
I made a calendar of my 2024 running routes and finally got around to a test print. Need to do 2023 and get’em properly framed.
Art
Silhouette, illustration in India ink, charcoal, and gouache on wood pulp board by Man Ray. River Light, glass mosaic by Kiki Smith. Greatest New York, panoramic print by Henry Wellge. Freedom and Order: Children Playing, East 116th Street, photo by David M. Bernstein.
Books
Middlemarch. Need to pick up the pace. I’m still loving it, 2/3 complete, but also getting restless!
Articles & Episodes & Twoots
A vision of peak male performance, from an Economist profile of Tyler Cowen. “There is no concrete return on most of the data-accumulating he does. He has been researching, unpaid, for decades, at a rate that would put most people in hospital.”
“For better or worse, when you start thinking about tractable problems, you’ll almost always find that you’re doing less than you could be doing and you might start to feel guilty.”
“The place’s dual nature — its existence on the border between utopia and dystopia — has always been a part of the aesthetics.” On the Severance building.
“This website collects movie clips with inaccurate binocular shots (i.e., two overlapping circles instead of one, as you would see in real life).”
Music
A few from west Africa to start the week. Starting with Youssou N’Dour, upbeat Senegalese:
- The Guide (Wommat). “Generations” has these great bippity rippedy bass lines.
- Joko: The Link, love the layere drumming in “Beykat“.
Amadou & Mariam’s Dimanche a Bamako didn’t really click, but I did like the desert blues in the last track, “Gnidjougouya“, the way the melody rises and falls and loops back, the dueling electrics, the harmonies crowding and clearing.
Speaking of desert blues, Tinirawen did click pretty well:
- Elwan, especially with the grungy guitar and unison vocals in “Sastanàqqàm“.
- Idrache (Traces of the Past)
Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 7 rec. Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra cond. Simon Rattle. There’s a lot happening in this piece. I remember really liking it when I first deep-dived Mahler years ago, but it didn’t hit the same!
Bonjour Tristesse, The World Without Us, metal.
Scotch Rolex, Shackleton, Omutaba, Three Hands of Doom, sampled electronics. See “Insect Vibration“.
Movies
Final Destination. It has a proper opening credits sequence, an efficient opener with good suspense and ensuing anguish, and then veers into Rube Goldberg death machines lol.
Running
I underestimated how much regular running improves my mood. Hard to recognize the value without the contrast of going without it for a while, but: it’s great to have something consistent in your week that will put the juice back in.
TV
The X-Files, s4e9 “Terma“. Back to the larger arc, with an action-movie feel. Mulder’s re-entrance with a tan and a smirk is A+ television.
The White Lotus, s3e1. This is my first exposure to the franchise. I get why people would watch it.
Severance, s2e4. Irving was right!
Paradise, s1e1. Good excuse to rewatch The Shot™.
Mark Larson 