Jordan S. Carroll

The AI bubble is so big it's propping up the US economy (for now) Plus how American professors are fighting back against the AI onslaught, a backlash over AI models in Vogue, and more.

we are so cooked: "Over the last six months, capital expenditures on AI—counting just information processing equipment and software, by the way—added more to the growth of the US economy than all consumer spending combined."

something Ballardian happens to people on vacation. if you go to any tourist destination you see people throwing off their repressions and desublimating in grotesque ways.

Seize the data centers, use them to solve the calculation problem, end capitalism.

I appreciate this new review of Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right from Jaime Segura San Miguel in Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research.

🙄

Miller was born in the Confederate stronghold of… Santa Monica, CA.

Trump is famously southern

Nope, thanks for the recommendation!

Whatever its original meaning, “gatekeepers” has become one of the least helpful concepts of the 2020s.

Everything about the present moment makes me want to retreat into old books.

The US destroying everything good about itself is a bad thing, but the US ending its own reign as the global imperial superpower has at least the potential to be a good thing.

YouTube video by STREET SEX - Topic PERPETUITY

“Your streaming numbers have been consistent the last few years

And after you're dead and gone I'll keep collecting

Forever and ever”

What are some good non fascist alternatively to WWE? I liked the episode of AEW I watched but wanted more story, more time on the mic.

New AI cryptid just dropped (see also: Loab, Crungus)

I have missed the discourse. Who is talking about the politics of getting men laid? Is this a serious person? Why are people still discussing this?

“All damage done to you this turn is retroactively applied to a creature you control. Further damage this turn is treated normally.” Jean Baudrillard

didn’t this happen with the Smashwords controversy? the platform points a finger at the processor who blames the credit card company who blames…

axolotls are the new capybaras

if people were organized and had real material and personal connections with the left they wouldn’t be tossed towards the right by nonsense culture war stuff like commentary on jeans commercials

"This Whole Thing Smacks Of Gender," i holler as i overturn the paris agreement and turn the Climate into the Climate of Shit.

"Just quit" mean but it's Star Trek: JUST WARP OUT ... you can leave!!! bad ai super nova time loop pakleds dock impounding twovix trade disput too fancy outpost borg if your quick relation ships IF IT SUCKS... HIT DA BRICKS!! real winners quit

Reminded I made this back on cohost

“Birds confuse reflections with reality.”

Same TBH

What’s a technology that you think is overhyped? I’m going to give a sideways answer to this, which is that the venture capital business model needs to be understood as requiring hype. You can go back to the Netscape IPO, and that was the proof point that made venture capital the financial lifeblood of the tech industry. Venture capital looks at valuations and growth, not necessarily at profit or revenue. So you don’t actually have to invest in technology that works, or that even makes a profit, you simply have to have a narrative that is compelling enough to float those valuations. So you see this repetitive and exhausting hype cycle as a feature in this industry. A couple of years ago, you would have been asking me about the metaverse, then last year, you would have asked me about Web3 and crypto, and for each of these inflection points there’s an Andreessen Horowitz manifesto. It’s not simply that one piece of technology is overhyped, it’s that hype is a necessary ingredient of the current business ecosystem of the tech industry. We should examine how often the financial incentive for hype is rewarded without any real social returns, without any meaningful progress in technology, without these tools and services and worlds ever actually manifesting. That’s key to understanding the growing chasm between the narrative of techno-optimists and the reality of our tech-encumbered world.

Stand by this: www.politico.com/newsletters/...

i resent the right wing for inexplicably turning such anodyne ideas as ‘sydney sweeney is hot’ and ‘cane sugar tastes good in soda’ into ammunition in history’s stupidest culture war

Arguably time was moving even faster from 1885 to 1930. Invention or mass adoption of film, flight, radio, electricity, automobiles… WW1 and the Russian Revolution… high peak of modernism… our period doesn’t even compare

Swords meme from Tangled

Unpopular literary opinion: the “middle-aged man has an affair and gets a divorce” novel meant something different circa 1960, in an era of compulsory marriage it could serve as social commentary, and it wasn’t always simply a wish fulfillment plot (although it was sometimes also that)

I’m not terribly comfortable with small talk, but I always find it odd when self-described introverts misunderstand it as informational rather than phatic: it says, “Our relationship is okay, and I am opening up a line of communication with you if you need to say something more.”

me after watching seven seasons of a 2010s television show:

oh, yeah, I think I remember the premise of that thing.

me after watching two seasons of a 1990s television show:

this dude ranch is engrained forever in my dream world. it is an archetype whether I want it to be or not.

“a huge pain in the ass to assemble”

Amazon’s AI summary of customer reviews isn’t pulling any punches on Blood Bowl

"Your Brain Hates When You Do This" YouTube thumbnail for The Remarkable Morning Method

Pimsleur method ad voice: Brains HATE him!