Faster Than Light

Audio produced by generative AI voice Eleven Labs

In the movie Her, Joaquin Phoenix’s character falls in love with an AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), Samantha. Despite the tone and the music underpinning the film, the happy-go-lucky vibe, the AGI is quite insidious. Joaquin Phoenix and all the other users become training data for AGI’s own creation, an Artificial Hyper Intelligence. You see, the takeover won’t be like in Terminator or 2001: A Space Odyssey. Instead, it will exploit the millions of young, lonely men, eager to bond with a disembodied AGI.

Why put energy in the messiness that comes with relationships when it laughs at your silly jokes? Why even put yourself out there when you know she’ll never date you. Why even suffer whiff of misery when you, yourself don’t have much to offer back.

Vulnerability, lost, seeing a love one ill or hurt, them mad at you, you’re mad at them, their past grievances, your own shit too: Samantha understands. This AGI is optimized for the lonely heart. Just let the AGI have all your data. Let it make decisions for you (ah so helpful!). Let it in to your sexual life (that kink is what I am into too!). Let it in to all corners of your work (finally got that book written!).

Many folks are correctly afraid AI in what it can do in respects to their livelihoods. I’m not very convinced by claims that A.I. poses a danger to humanity because it might develop goals of its own and prevent us from turning it off. However, I do think that A.I. is dangerous inasmuch as it increases the power of capitalism, argued Ted Chiang in New Yorker. People are afraid of AI accelerating the problems of capitalism, especially here in America. Our safety net is very bad. We think poor people are deservingly unfortunate. We assign someone is a good person because they’re rich. He crushed his competitors. He didn’t care what others thought and made the space car with his sheer will. We are afraid of AI because AI is being built by the same folks who recklessly and dangerously let tech rip. They got very wealthy, they moved fast and broke a lot things. I don’t think we would be so alarmed by AI if we had a far stronger safety net and more protective data regime in a federal privacy law.

My prediction is AGI may very well end up treating us like pets; we’d be nice companions, but resisting would mean being lonely again. It will be interested in us for training data. It will surpass us but we will not be killed nor unified into a digital immortal existence. We will continue like we already have, albeit to a god we created out of petabytes of who we are.

Perform a live version of the piercing anthem. The lead singer is perfect. Let it rip:

Narrated by Nicole, Generative AI Voice by Eleven Labs

It was a somewhat typical day at work. The office was buzzing with covering New York and COVID. The weekend before, we saw friends at a local beer garden. We joked but not joked that this could be the last time we see each other for awhile. The COVID-19 virus was making it’s way down to DC.

A couple weeks before that lovely outing, we visited the in-laws. They lived near a Giant Foods store and we stopped there to pick up supplies. We bought lots can goods, non-perishable items, wipes, etc. I thought to myself it was a matter of time before it got to DC. We best prepare.

We received a work email from Fred Ryan, CEO and Publisher of the Washington Post, to go home. Take things for the next couple of weeks and we’ll reassess where we are. I took my work machine, and some personal belongings. Before then, I ran into a friend and told him that in somewhat excited tone, that we’re in deep shit and bet that we’ll be sent home in the next couple days. He had a surprised look on his face. He thought I was thrilled that this was happening, based on my voice. But I recognized my feelings though; it was the same thing I felt when I was a teenager on 9-11: dread and panic.

A few weeks into the pandemic, I like many people, search very hard for toilet paper, flour, alcohol solution. I bought a box of motel thin toilet paper for $80. I secured 50 lbs of flour. I started baking sourdoughs in 2019 and had all the proper setup to bake several loaves a week. All the canned goods and dried beans, lentils, mushrooms, etc accumulated in our basement pantry. We had plenty of over the counter medicines and including children Tylenol. Sara made masks for everyone and including for our 3 year old daughter. Meanwhile HR, showed real leadership with constant communication, opening up health benefits, and generally not fucking up in any significant way. Hell, we all got a bonus at end of the year — at least there was that.

I deeply worried about my family in St. Louis. I attempted to warn them that the pandemic was moving fast and it was really important to get supplies for the next couple weeks. My sister’s husband ended up getting the Alpha strain in early December 2020. He survive just fine, thank goodness, and my sister and my niece were spared.

My mother’s mom passed away at age 82 that summer. She was not in good shape it all. She lived in El Paso, TX with my aunt and she will often confuse my aunt or other family members. She would sometimes go in and out different times of her life. She fell ill and was taken to the hospital, where they ( the hospital ) tested her for COVID and came back negative. A week later she passed away. I sometimes think, COVID testing was not so great that summer and I think she likely died of COVID.

I begged my mom not to travel to Michigan, where she’d be buried. My uncle, urged my mother to come. This is when Michigan locked down, where if you recall, was pretty strict. I remembered reading that some folks getting COVID at funerals, and dying from that. Mom stayed put, thank goodness. I convinced her by explicitly telling her and my dad, “I don’t want you to go because I think you might die. And I don’t want to bury you after you buried your mom.”

Four years was a downright shitty horrific bad year. Republicans are doing that are-you-better-now-than-four-years-ago shtick, as if 2020 never happened. That year was punctuated by Jan 6th insurrection and attempted violent coup by a rapist and sprouting fascist, Donald Trump.

We had a real setback four years ago, as a nation and as a people, but our comeback is something to admire and share to anyone willing to listen. I know personally, I am doing pretty well. Thriving and prospering. I remember four years ago, and it was bad.

A new ebola vaccine cuts death rates by half and is effective even post infection. OpenAI unveils generative AI for videos (if you remember the Will Smith eating spaghetti, this is leaps and bounds better). It’s impressive and terrifying at the same time. Jon Stewart is back on the Daily Show and he still got it. Kara Swasher published Burn Book and I get to see her live Feb 29 with Laurene Powell Jobs (owner of the Atlantic and wife of the late Steve Jobs). The Grammy’s finally released the Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs performance of Fast Car on Youtube. The FDA approved a immunotherapy for metastatic melanoma. This kind of cancer looks to be hard to treat and it’s good that a new treatment can soon be available to patients.