Andrew Smith author

YouTube video by Greens Organise The GODFATHER of AI: 'Socialism'

When I set out to write *Devil in the Stack* my aim was to understand the tech defined by code. I thus think AGI soon is unlikely but degradation of life inevitable w/o action. AI "godfather" Hinton might be right here. Capitalism can adapt but needs a will to do it. Brian Eno said same last week.

Chicago Sun-Times Prints AI-Generated Summer Reading List With Books That Don't Exist "I can't believe I missed it because it's so obvious. No excuses," the writer said. "I'm completely embarrassed."

Why the life of writers is getting fraught: fake book recommends (below) are one thing. My publishers trying to use AI to proofread my book *Devil in the Stack* is another. Irony given the book involves me learning to code to investigate the impacts of code/algos on the world! Looking good so far!

Oh yes. And just round the corner: the DOGE-directed production of Bromeo and Juliet. A cast of three people and a dog. None can read - but who cares?

Seen in Manhattan last night. Now they've got their own museum, d'you think they might leave us alone?

Happy Earth Day, friends.

Our homeworld, seen by the crew of Apollo 8 in 1968.

Reposting this at a UK/Europe-friendly time :-)

Third clip from Big Ears '25, maybe my favorite from dozens of brilliant shows: Portishead singer Beth Gibbons in solo mode. Her Lives Outgrown album was stunning to hear, but for the encore she caused mayhem by treating us to one from the old band...

Not surprised by Sagan's social conscience. Anyone who's looked into the cosmos has a special love and respect for life on earth, because we realize how rare and precious it is.

Think I saw this guy playing with Tyshawn Sorey at Big Ears...

This'll be quite something if it turns out to be true, courtesy Cory Doctorow. A reminder why we need to be cautious about letting tech firms access our stuff, even when it seems to our immediate advantage - that's the model: give us something, take more. pluralistic.net/2025/04/15/m...

2nd Big Ears clip. Musicians love the festival cos they set up lots of unlikely collaborations. Here Sun Ra's Arkestra + Yo La Tengo. And yes, that's Marshall Allen at the front (age 101), who was a Buffalo Soldier in WWII, stayed in Paris to study sax & joined the Arkestra in '58. Some kinda life!

Finally gathered vid snippets from the Big Ears Fest in Knoxville, always my fave four days of the year. Will post over coming days. This the simply staggering Anohnie & the Johnsons: *It Must Change* from wonderful recent album My Back Was a Bridge...what a voice huh? Great London-based band.

Golden Festival 2025 - Zlatne Uste Golden Festival Golden Festival is North America's largest Balkan (and beyond) music & dance festival. NYC, Jan 17-18 2025! Experience 40+ bands at Astoria World Manor.

Hi. It's in Astoria. Friends tell me it's one of the things they most look forward to every year - this'll be true for me now too. This year's website:

Adolescence writer Jack Thorne backs Smartphone Free Childhood group Writer joins more than 100,000 parents who pledge to withhold smartphones until children are at least 14

Just finished the simply staggering Netflix (I know!) series *Adolescence*. Never mind the timely subject matter of the incel "manosphere" seeping into schools, the technical and creative audacity of its execution is mindblowing. Already having an impact too. SO well done everyone involved.

Trump pumps eponymous meme coin On Sunday, President Trump used his social media platform, Truth Social, to promote his eponymous meme coin, $TRUMP.

Report from the ever-essential Popular Information on insider winners and general public losers from the $Trump memecoin. Insider grafter methods almost identical to those used in the dotcom boom and crash (as sleuthed and exposed in my book Totally Wired.) Do we ever learn? (answer: no)

Buying the vote In Wisconsin, an Elon Musk-backed super PAC is offering registered voters $100 in exchange for their contact information and signatures on a petition condemning “activist judges.” Signers can receive ...

Any student of British history knows there's a name for what a Musk administration super pac is doing in offering voters $100 to sign a petition against one candidate in a Wisconsin election. It's called "pork barrel politics." Outlawed in the mid-19th century over there...but ok here in the US?

Books

Were the Covid Lockdowns Worth It? A conversation with two political scientists who argue that there is no evidence the measures saved lives.

NYT Daily podcast on evidence that covid lockdown policies did more harm than good. I thought of the UK's evacuation of kids from London in WWII, which were later found to have caused such psych damage that losing some to bombs would have been better. Don't forget both from the best intentions tho.

Weirdly, I seldom read music books. Here are 2 I loved tho: James Wilson's brilliantly-written mystery The Pieces, about the hunt for a vanished 60s folk singer; and Hugh Hodges' superfun The Fascist Groove Thing, a history of the Thatcher years told through the music she inspired - brilliant idea!

Things to find joy in pt2: the fabulous Slavic Soul Party at this year's Golden Festival of Balkan Music in Queens, one of the most remarkable fests I've ever been to. David Byrne in the background (goes every year it seems.) Here's why:

Things to find joy in, pt1: stayed an extra night in Nashville after appearing at the Southern Festival of Books, for bluegrass at the Station Inn. It was open night, bring your own instruments, and just impossibly fun and brilliant.

Thanks Dorian - just ordered this!

Don't be to hard on those words Ben. It's the quality that counts more than quantity. And when they're shy it's usually because something's being distilled in your mind and is not quite ready for the page yet. Feels like wasted time but seldom is :-)

I fear there is deep truth here.

Yes they are :-)