In The Orders of Simulacra, Baudrillard details stages of abstraction from reality: mimicry; reproduction and obfuscation; absorption and destruction; and emergence of the abstract, entirely separate and distinct from any initial source (would this be akin to the proverbial “singularity”?). I wonder if these stages can be moved through at the level of individuals or specific categories of abstraction, or if in Baudrillard’s conception this is always happening at some collective, societal level. How are these phases moved through? Can they be rolled back? As I was reading the introduction, I thought, surely we are in stage two — the scale of difference between original and abstraction is lessening and lessening,…

I had this blog idea for a while now; it connects my thoughts around my concerns for our future with the use of AI. Each week we discussed different aspects of generative AI and how it’s impacting our surrounding. I keep coming back to  the movie Wall-E. To start, for those that haven’t seen the cute Disney movie, earth has become unlivable, there’s trash everywhere and the water looks like tar or oil. It appears only one garbage collector robot (Wall-E) and his pet cockroach are left cleaning up the mess made by humans; while the humans are on a cruise ship in outer space (which is supposed to be…

                  I watched the episode of Black Mirror called “Be Right Back” for class this week and will briefly summarize it before adding some reflection. The episode revolves around grief, with a woman losing her boyfriend to a tragic accident at the beginning of the episode. The woman spends the remainder of the episode dealing with the grief of her sudden loss, a situation that is profoundly human, raw, and relatable. The story takes a turn when the woman is introduced to an AI technology that uses her deceased partner’s public digital record, such as all of his social media posts, which is a reminder that in the digital world has…

I cannot help but see the ending of Ex Machina as an allegory for the triumph of lesbianism. I’m half kidding. But in one of the culminating scenes, Ava: discovers the discarded and outdated previous models stored in the mirrored cabinets surrounding Nathan’s bed like perverse, mutilated game trophies; is faced by Kyoko who reveals she is made of the same bot stuff; whispers a plot delicately in her ear to stab their captor; and ultimately peels off Kyoko’s skin to provide her own body cover for moving undetected through the “real” world upon escape. You cannot tell me that is not a concise and potent allegory for feminist alliance,…

Thank you all for an intriguing discussion this past week around creativity and the implications of machine-agent entanglements for artists creating layered referential work. I can’t help but feel that our discussions, and current perceptions of ai image technology, is just the surface. A flashy user oriented click-bait discussion that allows ai companies to distract from the politics of long implemented computer vision technologies. Aspects of image recognition have been around longer than LLMs and contemporary image generation tools thanks to decades of defense funding for target, aka enemy, recognition tech. Making an ai image of your pet in a fancy outfit, or transforming yourself in Studio Ghibli style, seems…

This week, I most appreciated the longest reading, the in-depth research inquiry into the effects AI use has on human creativity and cognition. Even just the invitation to slow down enough to consider AI’s contributions to divergent vs convergent ideation was a helpful framework, and one that I haven’t seen emphasized in conversations on how to incorporate AI into one’s workflow — at least in such verbiage.  And it’s somewhat apparent to me why not. The study seemed to show indications of effects we’ve suspected and talked about anecdotally from our own experiences with AI; that diversity of thought is stifled by using AI. The researchers state that they’re results…