#capitalism is over and we can just live our lives and learn things and form bonds and shit
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TUMBLR TEXT POST SENTENCE STARTERS, PT. 2 ;
75 starters. CW: blood mention, cussing, death. Starters come from various text posts floating around Tumblr. The only thing changed for this post was adding capitalization and punctuation. Feel free to change words and pronouns as needed!
[PART 1]
“Academia is cool and sexy until I’m expected to work.”
“An anime with more than a hundred episodes is a bigger commitment than marriage.”
“Anyone who believes all water tastes the same is no acquaintance of mine.”
“Anyway, that’s every reported eyewitness account of Mothman through ‘68, and that’s just in West Virginia! Haha, but enough about me. Let’s hear about your top five cryptids!”
“Aside from being the worst person alive, I am literally perfect.”
“At the end of the day, I’m just a girl who loves her bed.”
“Being equally obsessed with each other sounds hot to me.”
“Being good doesn’t get you anything.”
“Be the worst you can be.”
“But do aliens believe in me?”
“Don’t let anyone dehumanize you. Dehumanize yourself. Be the creeping eldritch horror you’ve always longed to be. Rain furious vengeance down upon those who would unmake you.”
“Do something today that would’ve gotten you burnt at the stake four hundred years ago.”
“Do you ever just want someone to come over and sit on the floor with you for a few hours?”
“Do you ever wanna listen to music, but every song is just not the right song?
“Feeling safe around someone’s energy is a different kind of intimacy.”
“Flirting is childish. We’re grown. Just tell the person you like that you see God in their eyes.”
“Friendly reminder that the age of technology is coming to an end and a new age of blood magic and dark rituals will take its place.”
“Friendship is temporary. Blood pacts are forever.”
“Girls don’t want boys. Girls want to live in a Victorian estate and be the most feared widow in the village.”
“Half of me is a hopeless romantic and the other half of me is, well, an asshole.”
“Having a body causes me so much agony. I wish I was just a floating entity with no physical form.”
“How do I overthink so much and still make the wrong decision?”
““I can fix him!” You can’t even fix your sleep schedule, bestie.”
“I don’t care if your body is a temple. Call me when it’s been closed down and taken over by Spirit Halloween.”
“I don’t know about soulmates, but those people who eat parts of the food or candy that you don’t like and you do the same for them... We’ve lived a hundred lifetimes together, probably.”
“I don’t think we can romanticize our way out of this one, boys.”
“If you see me in the streets, just know that my mind is in the void. I’m physically alive, but mentally checked out.”
“I guess we all learned a valuable lesson. Except for me. I wasn’t paying attention and was asleep for most of the time.”
“I hate when people ask what I would do in their situation because nine times out of ten, I would literally never be in that situation in the first place.”
“I hope manners is the next cool trend.”
“I just love sleep so much. Like, you just close your eyes and you’re gone, bitch. Brain logged the fuck off. Powerful.”
“I just realized there’s, like, a hundred new Pokémon coming this year, give or take, and I have to decide what personal memories and details about friends to forget in order to make room for them all.”
“I like my women like I like my woods. Haunted and could kill me at any moment.”
“I like to fuck around and waste time at least six to ten hours a day, and let me tell you, that puts some pressure on your schedule. You have no idea how busy I am.”
“I love to learn. Unfortunately, my brain doesn’t like to remember.”
“I love when I ‘make a mental note’ of something. It’s gone within twenty seconds.”
“I’m not a religious person, but I do sometimes think God made you for me.”
“I’m not playing hard to get. I genuinely don’t know how to talk.”
“I’m wearing dark glasses today because I’m seeing the future, and the future is looking very bright.”
“I think it’s so neat that everyone develops their own unique handwriting even though we’re all taught to write our letters the same way. Really, it’s so cute.”
“I think making sense is optional. Sometimes I just be talking.”
“I think the meaning of life is eating good food in the company of people you love.”
“It’s because I’m pretty, that’s why I have problems.”
“It’s crazy how I’m just some person.”
"It seems you are in love with your computer.”
“It’s not rude to interrupt someone to point out a dog. It’s actually more polite because then they don’t miss out on the dog.”
“I will never elaborate because I have no idea what I just said.”
“Live, laugh, love? Nah. Languish, lament, lay down.”
“Michael Myers taught me a valuable life lesson. Don’t worry about how fast everyone around you is moving. If you’re determined, just move at your own pace and you’ll kill shit every time. Thanks, Mike.”
“Moving to the forest to eat leaves and lie in the dirt. Insurance companies can’t deny me this.”
“Okay, bored of being alone now. Ready to get married.”
“Okay, hear me out... What if—now bear with me—we held hands? Maybe even kiss a little? Hugs would be nice—”
“People keep posting ‘what’s REALLY in your food’ articles like I’m gonna stop eating whatever it’s about. Listen, death is coming. Death is coming. Pass me a hot dog.”
“People who fall asleep right away freak me out. Don’t you bitches have thoughts?”
“Really starting to understand old people these days. I love letters. Love packages. Terrified of my email inbox.”
“Someone take me out. Either in the assassination way or in the date way.”
“Sorry for being so sexy and having the best taste in literature. As if I asked for it.”
“Sorry I called you a fucking idiot. I was trying to flirt.”
“So what if I love you? Shut up.”
“The fact that I have to be in the ‘right headspace’ to do even the simplest tasks is absolutely humiliating.”
“The only difference between me and a medieval peasant is that I can make a Spotify playlist to express my feelings.”
“The only reason I haven’t gone insane is because I romanticize everything.”
“There should be a dating app where you talk to people who borrowed the same books from the library.”
“There’s something inherently holy about kitchens.”
“Tired of being a person. Would much rather be an unidentifiable and nebulous entity that lives in the woods and may or may not be an omen of misfortune to come.”
“Wanna haunt the neighborhood with me tonight?”
“Well, I used to be attracted to people, but now I’m exclusively attracted to abstract art and the concept of death.”
“What is the logic behind naps leaving you with a weird taste in your mouth? I wasn’t eating, I was sleeping. It’s the spiders, isn’t it?”
“Winnie the Pooh didn’t rock crop tops our whole childhood to watch us become unconfident about our bodies.”
“Yes, I’m dramatic! What did you expect? I read classic literature for fun.”
“You’d look prettier under six feet of dirt.”
“You don’t always need to talk. Like, it’s good to shut the fuck up sometimes. I love not talking.”
“You gotta walk into rooms like God sent you.”
“You’re beautiful, but you’re empty. No one could die for you.”
“You wanna know what’s annoying me right now? It’s me. I am annoying the goddamn shit out of myself.”
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Good Omens, or the Disruption of Gay = Death
CW: historical homophobic violence and death
@queerfables recently wrote an excellent meta on slash fiction and the concept of "Taking Away the Glass". I had some thoughts, which I was going to add as a reblog, but this seems to spiraled away from the original post, so I'm posting this on its own, but I'm referencing their ideas and references, so maybe go read that first.
This is especially for those of you who are, say, under 25 (which is apparently most of Tumblr), and who haven't had much opportunity to learn queer history. Let me say, I'm not a queer historian. I am a queer who has lived through recent history and can reasonably clearly remember the last at least 35 years of it, and I was fortunate to have had schooling that did include some earlier queer history and didn't shy away from queer topics. (I recognize now what a revolutionary bit of teaching that was.)
I also want to acknowledge that I'm writing from a place of relative privilege, as a white cis woman living in a progressive part of North America, and that some of what is history for me is still life for others. I am speaking from my own personal experiences here -they are by no means universal. But I think it's important for us to share our stories, so this is part of mine.
When You're Dying in America, at the End of the Millenium
Fables quotes a video by thingswithwings as saying "Homosexuality, or just loving touch between two people of the same gender, is equivalent to death in this media narrative." In the 1980s and 1990s, when Good Omens was written and first published, that wasn't a metaphor. When I was a baby proto-queer, what I heard about being gay was that it killed you.
My formative memories of what it meant to be gay weren't pride parades or even riots. It was gay men dying by the thousands and governments and religious leaders ignoring them at best, and welcoming their deaths at worst. To be gay, and a gay man in particular, was to be marked for death. It wasn't until a straight white boy who got it from a blood transfusion died that AIDS became something that "normal" people had any empathy for and governments really started to act.
The gay representation I rember in the media as a moderately sheltered child from the 80s and 90s with left-of-center middle class white parents was news about AIDS, Philadelphia (death from AIDS), Ellen (cancelled after she came out), and eventually RENT (desperately trying not to die of AIDS or capitalism). I knew a very small handful of out gay adults, and no trans adults at all.
My first time being in a large group of queer people was a vigil for Matthew Sheppard, who had been beaten and left to die tied to a fence. I remember being terrified. I wasn't out yet. I knew people who hated us might be there, this group of mostly young queer people gathering with candles to cry over a boy we'd never met, and over the many others who had died just for being what we were. I'd never even kissed a girl yet. I only knew my queerness in relation to death.
In the last decade or so of the 20th century, being queer was about grasping any bit of joy you could from a world that very clearly would prefer you were dead. It was defiance and anger and fear every time you held your love's hand, or kissed them in public. My second date with the person who would become my spouse was interrupted by some dude in a truck shouting slurs at us was we walked down a quiet street. We laughed it off - no one had thrown anything, or beaten us, so it wasn't a big deal. It should have been a big deal, but we couldn't let it be. When you're marked for misery and death, you can't let the little things get to you. You just hold each other's hands as tightly as you can and defiantly keep walking.
An Angel and a Demon and Immortality
Good Omens was written during some of the darkest days of the AIDS epidemic (which is still ongoing, by the way), before there were effective treatments, when gay = death. It is a mainstream, mass-market book. It wouldn't be shelved in the "Gay and Lesbian" section at the book store, it would be shelved with humour, or possibly fantasy.
And yet, here we have these two beings. An angel and a demon, with an unlikely friendship, and who are very clearly written as gay. Or, at least, as percieved as gay by outside observers. Aziraphale in particular is (in one of my favorite lines) "gayer than a tree full of monkeys on nitrous oxide," and "THE southern pansy" (self-proclaimed). Together, they are "consenting bicycle repairmen" (Neil Gaiman's explanation for context) who Anathema was safe with the whole time.
Whether you caught the subtextual shippyness of their relationship (and to be honest, I only did a little when I first read it), they were very obviously written as precieved-gay characters, in a story where their precieved gay-ness wasn't the cause of their downfall. Yes, an 11 year old calls Aziraphale a faggot. But he doesn't get arrested or beaten of killed - he just gets covered in cake. And he loves cake! The attempted insult just rolls off him like water off a duck's back, because he has no pressure not to be visibly gay.
Becuase, see, unlike us humans, unlike his gay contemporaries, he is not marked for death. He's an angel. He's immortal. Even more, he was made by God, exactly how God wanted, presumably, and that is intelligent, English, and so very gay.
Niel and Terry are saying so much here. You can be gay and loved. You can be gay and have a deep relationship. You can be gay because that's how God made you. You can be gay forever, through all time, with someone beside you, finding joy in your life.
You can be gay and not die. You can be gay and live.
#good omens meta#queer history#aids history#this one's personal#neil gaiman#terry pratchett#death#hiv/aids#homophobia
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182 Days of TPN - Day 174
Chapter 174: "A New World, Part 1"
A little too late for Peter to realize that his clan's duties had him trapped. He couldn't really change his destiny like the children worked so hard to change theirs since the Ratri were bound to keep the thousand year promise in check. The most he could've done was probably assist James and the supporters in their plans, but he was too loyal for his own good.
Zack being such a good medic by jumping in to try and save him. Doesn't matter that Peter was their enemy up til a couple seconds ago, he's still human. Can't say I would've been so kind.
I bet demon god got a good kick outta all the drama that happened ever since the GF kids escaped. The past few years certainly had to be more entertaining to watch than the many centuries before.
Because I love see the entire family interact with one another, I wish we got to see the raid team finally release everyone else who was originally captured so we could see them all be happy with one another and relieved that everyone's unharmed.
Honestly, what else did Emma & the others have planned? We never find out due to everything that happens in the demon capital next chapter (which greatly benefits everyone), so unless my memory is failing right now, I remain curious about this "other stuff" since the new promise has already been made. All that aside though, I'm beyond happy that Emma makes the offer for Isabella & the other ladies to join them in the human world. It's such a powerful moment to see our leading lady wish for her biggest and most threatening challenge to accompany her to a new world where they can all live a better life and I love Emma so much for it.
I'm also so thankful that Emma phrased the new promise this way. The fact she made sure to include everyone who suffered under the farm systems way before she even learned Isabella was alive or that she & the other ladies would've joined them and betray Peter is wonderful. When our girl says she's gonna save everyone, she quite literally means it, not just her family.
Don't fret. I skipped several pages for a reason. Next chapter really takes away many wishes of mine huh. I would've loved to see Isabella & the other women run GF in secret, if only for a little while. Hell, I need more Grandma Isabella action in general. Her extra chapter was fantastic and all, but more please.
Hayato freaking out over all the soldiers outside is so precious.
Favorite panel/moment:
Duh, of course Ray addressing Isabella and convincing her to join all the kids in the human world is my favorite moment out of this whole chapter. I've anticipated this mother-son interaction for so long and it was well worth the wait! Starting off with the ladies being so surprised to even hear Emma offer them forgiveness, it's understandable why they're so hesitant, as they firmly believe they don't deserve that chance at a better life after all the harsh things they've done to the kids while acting as caretakers. Thankfully, we got Ray coming through with his blunt statement and you can chalk that up as another reason why I love him.
The anime added in this line between Ray's previous panel and the next few and it's something I appreciate very much, especially since.. you know, ch177 happens..
While I absolutely love the idea of Ray calling Isabella out about her true feelings solely because of their mother-son relationship, this moment works so well because if anyone can understand the amount of guilt that Isabella & the other ladies endured, it's Ray. He's able to empathize with all of them since he also had no choice but to watch all those children who were shipped out over the years back at Grace Field, no matter how much they all wished to save them. Ray was ready to throw his life away for those closest to him and as a form of personal punishment, so hearing him express that he's glad to be alive after he believed his life to be cursed for so long.. aahh my heart. I'm so incredibly happy and proud of him! Not to mention how he promises that he (& all the other kids) won't hold grudges towards the ladies, essentially giving all of them forgiveness, is such a big change for him, considering he just called Isabella monster a couple nights prior to the raid during that conversation he had with Ayshe in that ch169(?) extra page. I'm sure Ray's still holding back ever so slightly when it comes to trusting Isabella completely and getting close to her, but this conversation right here is a step in the right direction and I'm so thankful it actually gets to happen between them.
It's so adorable how the rest of the children don't even question whether or not Isabella deserves another chance. They all forgave her ages ago and realized the love she had for them was real and I'm feeling so soft right now.
Even Isabella is surprised to see the children accept her so easily. Props to Don & Gilda though for keeping all the young kids under control way back when they first told them about the house's secret and the truth about Isabella.
It's because of those thoughts (that go unheard in the anime of course) that she openly questions how she could've possible earned their forgiveness. The English dub goes as far to have her say "But why? You should hate me" here instead which I'm more than fine with. Naturally, Emma explains everything and her words are similar to those said in ch177, so while the unspeakable event of that chapter doesn't happen in the anime, I'm glad Isabella was made aware of how Emma & the others truly felt about her since the escape.
I'm sure it took a whole lot for Ray to actually forgive you, honey. It certainly wasn't an easy thing for the boy to admit after all the trauma he's dealt with throughout his young life, but he understands that forgiving the source of his pain will help him become a better person and feel free. Also, love the idea of having Ayshe in the background of that panel with Ray just because of that late night conversation they had about their parents. I can imagine her giving a small "told ya so" comment about Isabella being a good parent.
Just like Isabella, I'm also overcome with emotion with how much this family cares for and loves each other. It's such a heartfelt moment and it means so much that this is how she truly feels about all her actions and her precious children without that mask she's so used to wearing to protect herself from showing any weakness.
I kinda prefer the anime here though since it has Isabella hugging them back. Dub also gives us an "I love you" here as well which absolutely melts my heart because they all definitely needed to hear that!
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In other words, the planetary evokes what we call in French le vivant, which in English is something like “the living world.”
Le vivant is, for me, the planetary in its multiplicity [...]. It is true that a key driver of the process of planetarization is capitalism. [...] To some extent, the market has become a totality, or in any case our core moral experience. [...] Can we rely on infrastructures that have, to some extent, contributed to turning the world into a burning house? [...]
We need to begin by agreeing on what is at stake. From an African perspective, the core of the problem is the precariousness of life. [...] When I look at cosmologies of existence among the Dogon in Mali, or among the Yoruba in Nigeria or other communities in the Congo Basin, what strikes me is the central place these cultures give to the principle of animation — with the sharing of vital breath. Breath is a right that is universal, in the sense that we all breathe [...]. We also share the vital breath. [...] In that sense, we have here cosmogonies that are not at all convinced that there is a fundamental difference between the human subject and the world around it [...]. Everything is an effect of power, an agency that is shaped by all. [...]
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[W]e are increasingly surrounded by multiple and expanding forms of calculation [...] . The integration of algorithms and big data analysis in the biological sphere is not only bringing with it a greater belief in techno-positivism, in modes of statistical thought, it’s also paving the way for regimes of assessment of the natural world, modes of prediction and analysis that are treating life itself as a computable object. This is [...] affecting not only our political imagination, but also the ways in which we understand what knowledge stands for, and what is it is all about. [...]
[W]e are experiencing a clash of temporalities: geological time, the deep time of those processes that fashioned our terrestrial home; historical time; and experiential time. All these times now fold in on one another. We are not used to thinking of time as simultaneous. We think of time as linear: past, present, future. So how do we begin to think about time in a way that takes these concatenations seriously? [...]
[T]hat’s what the Anthropocene shows us. As the historian Dipesh Chakrabarty has argued, there’s no longer a social history separate from natural history. That is over. Human history and Earth history are now indivisible. The epoch we have entered into is one of indivisibility, of entanglement, of concatenations. [...]
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And also, speaking for the planet and listening to the planet are not exactly the same things. Maybe the first step is to listen. The question then becomes, how do we listen to the planet? Does the planet speak for itself? [...] [W]e have to get out of a certain epistemology that has been premised on the fact that humans are the only speaking entity, that what distinguishes us is that we mastered language and the others didn’t. But we now have studies showing that plants speak, that forests speak: a de-monopolization of the faculty of speech, of language.
When we look into the archives of the whole world, not just the archives of the West, broadly speaking we find knowledges of how other-than-humans speak — and how humans, or some humans, have learned to listen to those languages. This requires a radical decentering, premised on the capacity to know together, to generate knowledge together.
The French term for knowledge is connaissance, a word that literally means “being born together.”
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Text by: Achille Mbembe. As interviewed by Nils Gilman. “How To Develop A Planetary Consciousness.” Noema (Noema Magazine). 11 January 2022. [Some paragraph breaks added by me.]
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Just a little rant.
Inspired by a childhood and lifetime of dealing with know-nothing vegetarians and vegans since the late 80s.
youtube
Back in the day, vegetarian and then vegan peers would say shit like, "Red meat stays in your bowels and becomes toxic poop for 7 years!" And then go on these weird pseudohistorical rants about how the human body, "isn't meant to eat meat." And then kinda dip into this vague spirituality that can kinda sound like empirical science if you don't read into or question what they're saying.
They'd go on and on about toxic chemicals in the food that big corporations and capitalism just puts there, "to save a dollar" and, that largely was not true. Really, it became a source of bad information and propaganda in the form of a peer, who is usually scared or antagonized by other peers to become outlets of bad information.
And so here we are, 2024, with a ton of vegan youtubers and tiktokkers hitting their wall and abandoning veganism because, nutritionally, it just doesn't work. The very imperative to do it is faulty and bogus, and on the other side we learn everything from our dentition to our organ setup to our physiology requires a certain amount of meat eating, and how there's so much we DON'T know about nutrition to adequately supplement it with pills.
Vegetable substitutes are "okay." But they aren't sufficient to replace meat, pound for pound, nutritionally. And it ultimately just comes down to this weird ideological fixation that vegetarians and vegans have regarding how raising beef is for the planet.
Well, we can mitigate the methane emissions, we can get nutritionally defunct corn out of their diets, we can make sure they are grazing places where it's acceptable. But there's no reason to hate on the beef and dairy industry for existing.
And one of the biggest driving factors is either 1.) The existential horror over the loss of life and the grissly way they're killed to make the food, because they find the entire thing morally repugnant. 2.) The belief in suffering itself. So, kind of buddhist/hindu-lite that won't commit to any real coherent belief system but still wants to treat suffering like it's an element on the periodic table, and ideologically treat killing animals for food like a form of suffering that's not acceptable.
Really, adjusting for the lack of nutrition from meat substitutes, about the only alternative that makes ANY god damned sense, is cloned meat. Those meat tissues that are artificially grown. But, even that won't give the quality meat we need from the sort we get from the organisms themselves;
In order to do that we'd effectively need to clone the animals' entire digestive system and its ability to synthesize the nutrition it gets. That, ultimately, is where the benefit is in eating other animals. Other animals have the ability to process plants into essential vitamins, minerals, amino acids and a whole fuckton of proteins humans just do not have the infrastructure to do, ourselves. Not just grow the animal muscle tissue in a vat. Conceivably not a bad idea, but it's just not a sufficient replacement for actual animal products.
Really the only good argument towards cloned meat in place of just raising animals for meat is that it involves less slaughter and could conceivably take up less space than grazing cattle or industrial chicken farming.
Nutritionally we need it, there's functionally no difference from an animal living and dying in captivity and not if you do it right, and the only theoretical advantage to cloned meat would be the convenience of a chemical vat to grow the meat in the absence of an animal you have to slaughter.
Refusing to eat meat because slaughtering kills animals will always be a major stumbling block that results in generations of people going into their own echo chambers and deciding that those that eat meat are barbaric. But at least now we can make refutations to these talking points more available and visible.
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Hi! I read a lot of your posts on AI and I’m just curious about your take on the impact of AI on people and culture? I don’t use twitter so I don’t know what is being argued with AI, but my personal qualm is that it could obscure human experience. I’m not really concerned about the ownership of publicly available media, but I am worried about how AI can be used on a large scale by corporations to control human narratives. We already live in a world controlled by media monopolies, almost everything is owned by Disney, and their stuff is absolutely formulaic enough to be written by AI. While humans are borrowing just as much cultural information, one is still an original thought about how art should be created and presented. A corporation’s use of the technology will prime whatever is released for pure profit. It doesn’t need to be thoughtful at all. Again, this is already happening, but AI is just another way to streamline it. That’s part of why the writers strikes are happening right now. That kind of automation technology can shoehorn us into the necessary ends that corporations find most profitable. After reading your posts I realized that I was clumping in the technology with the ill intent of corporations. I wasn’t really considering all of its applications in its current form and I was kind of focusing on fear. You’ve changed my mind about some things. But human learning is dictated by modeling. We are sponges constantly absorbing the media shown to us. What if what’s available to us is always something easily automated by a company with its own interest? Avoiding that media completely would just result in personal isolation. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this as someone who understands the technology!
I think the key point here is one you've already made; corporations are already churning out mass media pulp optimized for profit, and have been doing so for years. At present, that pulp is probably more profitable when produced by humans, at least in terms of the overall story design of our media, so incorporating AI probably won't change much about its quality except for noticeable shortcuts that are deemed acceptable. But this is already true in digital productions. Corporations will probably still try to compete with a baseline of quality to make big budget releases acceptable to markets. You can't cut all the corners with cheap tech, which is why we are not seeing those shitty knock-off animated movies in cinemas. Things need to be a least competent even if they are schlock.
In the long term, if AI really is able to produce entire movies or similar that are comparable to human-made mass blockbusters, then the implication of that kind of depends on who is in control of the AI. It might lower the barrier to creating good looking movies, it might just let Disney make more animated princess flicks faster. I don't think either of those outcomes is essentially bad. There's good and bad ways it could manifest.
Specific failings of the technology could result in things like subtle bias, or feedback syndrome where the AI has little new content to work on as all new artworks are themselves AI generated. These are both technology issues that can be addressed, though, and are far enough off at the moment that it's hard to speculate about any real harms.
Honestly, the biggest negative impact currently threatened by AI is the obvious one that the writers are striking over; capitalism isn't set up to provide for human livelihoods under increased automation. The only solutions to this problem are strict regulation on how corporations can employ automation, or, perhaps more simply, watering down or abolishing capitalism. UBI is most realistic avenue for this at present, I think, even if it's not totally ideal (I'd like those corporations to not exist in a form that creates a profit motive, thanks).
Cultural concerns aren't nearly as scary a prospect on the horizon for me. Yeah, AI can be used to produce cheap schlock, but humans can already do that, can even automate it with free software somewhat with no machine learning required. As long as humans are ultimately deciding how and when the cheap schlock is made, as they are now, I doubt much will change about the essential character of popular art. This is all just my personal opinion, though. It's hard to predict exactly how things will shake out.
Thanks for asking!
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NOVA MISSION 004
SCHEDULE TYPE: TRIMESTER ( PART 2 OUT OF 2 )
SCHEDULE RESTRICTIONS: cannot be paired with another trimester schedule, unless stated otherwise. for reference as to whether your muse is eligible for this event, please click over HERE.
early morning, on FEBRUARY 26, the members of NOVA are met by their manager, GEUM SHINHYE, straight in their living room. as always, the caring manager comes in with the girls’ morning drinks order. "i hope you all got to do the most out of your down time and recharge some because now it's back to business!" she begins before calling out out each of the girl’s name and handing them a folder containing all of the necessary information that they needed to know.
COMEBACK
"we have some exciting things planned for the rest of the year, and the first of it is your next comeback! due to various factors, i cannot give you the official date just yet, but we're probably expecting this to be released in MAY. even more exciting is that our very own NABI has worked on the opening track of the song!" she applauds the idol fondly before continuing on. "you'll receive more information on the concepts in APRIL, but for now, i'm excited to tell you that whoeve opens the song will be the CENTER of it. we've worked particularly hard at picking songs that not only fit NOVA's color but each individual member who centers the song! the folder i gave you contains the lyrics sheets of your 6 new songs. we’ve also e-mailed all of you the tracks so don’t lose any of it."
NEW JEANS (side track)
PLAY LOVE GAMES (side track, milan solo)
ETA (side track)
BITE ME (side track)
GIRL'S CAPITALISM (title track)
SWEET DREAMS (side track)
line distributions for all of the songs mentioned above can be located over HERE. starting now until APRIL 12, the girls will be learning and recording the songs, along with learning their choreographies.
PROJECT ORIGIN
"as you all know, the members of LGC GIRLS and LGC BOYS have their counterpart existing in the PROJECT ORIGIN lore. your senior are actually currently promoting the OST of the webtoon and soon it will be NOVA's turn to be formally introduced in the webtoon. but first, to be able to do so, each of you will need to come up with a character representing your ideal public persona, magical power, and how they would contribute to the story and/or other knights. you have until mid april to create this character. when you are ready, we'll set up an individual meeting to discuss your ideas."
you can click over here for general references of how one should approach the knight creation: EXAMPLE #1 / EXAMPLE #2 / EXAMPLE #3.
REQUIREMENTS
PROJECT ORIGIN CHARACTER: write a 300+ word solo of your muse describing their character to geum shinhye. the solo has to include one magical power that they would have, how their character would be like as a knight, and how they would contribute to the storyline and/or the other knights. completing this will earn you +8 POINTS TO DISTRIBUTE ANYWHERE and +3 NOTORIETY !
make sure to use the hashtag lgc:novamission for the tasks. you have until APRIL 20, 2024 at 11:59PM EDT to complete the requirements and validate your points. please submit the following form ONCE on the points blog.
MUSE NAME ∙ NOVA MISSION 004 ( PROJECT ORIGIN )
- PROJECT ORIGIN CHARACTER: +8 ( points distribution ), +3 notoriety [ LINK ]
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privated works in ao3
dear all,
long time no see! i've been busy at work, at home, writing a lot for myself, and reading even more. but here i am to address what's been happening at @transformativeworks about AI possibly given permission to scrape our fics to learn/train the intelligence.
since they made the newsletter public (two days ago) i am privating all my fics except for liquid confidence. this was not a decision that i just took on the spur of the moment—it had been brewing a lot of time, considering the fear of plagiarism i have, the harassment i had been getting from anonymous commenters, etc. however, i never did until now because i wanted everyone to enjoy it—i, myself, was not an account on ao3 before i started uploading my fic.
however, on light of recent events, i do think there's no way i can leave my works unprivate: the disgusting timing of OTW to inform about this decision (in the middle of the WGA strike, after their donation), the blatant inability of the board to give a profound apologetic statement after the ratio, and the insecurity i have about my fanfics not being "sold" for anything else than the enjoyment of readers have pulled me to this.
back when wattpad announced that they were collaborating with paramount to look for "fictions" to "gather inspiration to bring up new ideas at studios" (i wanted to attach a link to the news, but worringly... the net is clear? yet i did not dream of it) i deleted all my works from wattpad. why? because i didn't want my fictions to be read by some rich higher-ups producers, to be given the idea to some other people to write.
as you know, i want to be a published author. fanfiction allows me to experiment with plots, characters and form before allowing myself to create something more narrative, a fully-fledged work in my native (minorized) language, which is very difficult to publish.
so, most of all, i write for myself. not for readers, not for anyone else: i write and publish fanfiction because i am experimenting. i have been writing 16 years of my life, as a constant thing. i am young. i don't know if i have talent but i do have persistence and crafting. this effort is impossible to replicate in a machine. this passion is impossible for an AI to feel. all of this is what makes me human, and a human writer—the contradiction in between pursuing and achieving, the deception, the sadness, the joy, the excitement: my comments, your comments.
and even though i am human by default—not by permission—what i craft is not.
i do not give my permission to train a machine that is not being regulated in any ways because i fear for a future where jobs, passion, art and what i know and love disappear: we live in such horrible capitalism that i do not see any way in which robots can help people at their jobs without entering this productivity system we're all sucked in. redistribution of richness when ai takes over won't happen—the system is too greedy for that. so, while i acknowledge the good things it has and the potential to change humanity's life for the better, i have seen too many examples of algorithms going wrong, spying on people, taking people as mere products, raging about politicians—effectively changing democracy. far too many right-wing presidents have won presidencies because of the inability (or unwillingness) of tech ceo's to stop getting millions. the largest shop that destroys your neighbour's little corner business is own by one of those ceo's. the platform you used to get informed about feminism is now owned by one of those ceo's, who's putting a female in his stance to clear up the shit he's made.
it is not a fair world we live in, so the applications of AI—as of now—can't be fair. so, because AI becomes dangerously misused, i will not be partaking in any form of sharing, contributing, or exalting AI. the possibilities of AI are endless—but the greed is not. going against AI as of now, for me, is standing for the world i have always advocated: one that doesn't turn their back on little crafters, one that acknowledges intelligence, brilliance and difference of opinions in the people who contribute, the freedom of writing what we want—and the freedom to read it.
if @transformativeworks doesn't make clear that our works won't be scraped by AI, i will also be eliminating my account permanently.
i am sorry for any inconvenience. my works will be available to those with accounts.
(also: if you're a reader that supports AI because you want your fanfictions to be delivered to you at the speed of light, just like you want it, good luck to you. i hope all your favourite works get taken down and you drown in the little, pea-sized, influenced brain you have.)
—hera
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Assassination Classroom (Episodes: s1eps.1,5,16. s2ep. 11)
I've been dying to watch this show since I was a kid but never got around to watching it, so I'm glad that I was able to get a taste of it in these 4 episodes. I'm taking a film analysis class as well on top of this class, and both of these classes have taught me how to analyze works of media better. If I were to have watched, for this case Assassination Classroom, before I took these two classes, I would have never thought about the different types of topics we learned and how it applies to the show or movie. I would've probably watched the show and enjoyed it at face value, a fun action packed show of kids trying to kill their teacher. Usually, anime is seen as a "fun/childish cartoon" that people watch for entertainment but a lot of the shows and films that encompass anime include many analyzable topics that relate to society. I think this show was a pretty good pick to end off with because it has multiple topics that were covered in class.
The show shows the ideas of a social class. The principal is very adamant about classes within classes. The school already has what is called classes (obviously), but he also instills social classes in the structure. Class E is the lowest of all and is treated extremely bad by others in the school. An example is that they can’t be on campus or be a part of school activities. At one point the principal states, "Assassination can wait, my priority is status quo", after seeing that Nagisa stood up to higher-class boys. This furthers the idea of trying to protect the social class in place and puts more importance on social classes than killing the impending danger of society (the teacher creature). The principal sees lower-class people as more “danger” to society than a creature that will kill and destroy society.
Also we can see the importance of money and capitalism in the show. In the very beginning it's established that if the teacher is killed, they get 10 billion. “It's only fair. Kill him, save the Earth. If that doesn’t deserve a life on easy street, what are we fighting for?” From this statement, it is inquired that the character who stated this thinks that these kids should fight and kill to get the life on "easy street". He is targeting the fact that these kids are so low level in society and manipulating them with money as throughout the show there is a message that money kind of just fixes every problem. Relating to this message, its shown that 3 boys in class E would kill Nagisa to kill the teacher by exploiting his low self-esteem to get the money. He goes even further to say that he’ll pitch in on his medical bills after looking at his seemingly damaged/dead body. The boys looked at money as a source of fixing everything. They put money over another human, specifically, their classmate's life. This shows how humans will go to the extreme when money is involved and shows the total control money has over our society. Also, some other money-related parts of the show were in epsiode 5, "My question’s why a super organism has to live on a teacher's salary in the first place?" This line was added for comedic effect but it is a genuine question when thinking about it logically. But the show itself is all fiction so you can't really think of it in that way. Also, I believe in the same episode it is stated, “Can’t be helped it's how things are here” in regards to no funding for AC. This also emphasizes the vitality of money and when no money is possessed, then things that should be a necessity become unattainable and is forced to not be a necessity anymore.
Overall the show itself is pretty interesting but I'll have to watch the whole show to form an opinion. This class was really engaging and eye-opening to things my mind would never even think of or correlate to certain things and I'm glad I was able to get a chance to watch some of the shows I've been wanting to for a while. A little bittersweet but happy bc I need a good break from school and anime 💀. Also, this page is probably going to be dead after I post this bc I don't use Tumblr lmao.
Bye everyone! 🥸
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The "worship leader" drama, explained
I learned a cursed fact on TikTok today: the term "worship leader" is actually trademarked.
An organization called Worship Leader claims its founder came up with the phrase in 1991 (which Christianity Today debunked) and filed for the trademark in 1992. Now it's in a trademark dispute with a social media company that "was using a logo with [Worship Leader's] mark, a similar font, layout, and appearance, [resulting in] confusion at trade shows and other industry events," according to a recent statement.
The fallout is as infuriating and ridiculous as you can imagine.
Online articles have been getting lots of attention with headlines like "Worship Director Discovers Term ‘Worship Leader’ Is Trademarked After His Facebook Page Is Suspended." Many TikTok creators have chimed in with snarky commentary (which is how I found out about this whole situation.)
However, Worship Leader claims that "Christian media outlets sensationalized the story." While there may be a grain of truth there, here's how I see it:
A Christian organization went after another Christian organization for issues unrelated to Christianity.
What I'm seeing in all this infighting is idolatry—and that capitalism and Christianity aren't compatible.
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 10:3 that, "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does."
As Christians, we're supposed to understand that our enemies aren't other people, but spiritual forces that are out to divide the kingdom of God against itself. And what's happening here is just that: division.
In a now-deleted press release, Worship Leader said, "We have 'invested' in our trademarks and so we are compelled to continue to defend all of them and ensure that our investments are protected."
Despite stating that their ultimate mission is about "empowering the church to build a lifestyle of worship," it seems like Worship Leader's #1 priority is actually profit.
"OK, Charlie, but what does all this have to do with capitalism?"
I'm glad you asked.
In the U.S., trademarks exist for financial reasons—namely, to prevent counterfeit products and services from being mistaken for the real deal. However, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states that "you don’t have rights to the word or phrase in general, only to how that word or phrase is used with your specific goods or services."
That's why Worship Leader isn't (and can't) come after people whose job title is "worship leader."
Trademarks are part of the capitalist system because they protect the value of something (in this case, a business—Worship Leader) that can be bought and sold. This is why Worship Leader was so concerned with other companies causing confusion at trade shows: in general, when counterfeits flood the market, the value of the original thing plummets.
Of course, Worship Leader's reputation was also on the line, but so was a whole lot of money.
Now, we'd expect a secular company to be focused on profit. But a Christian one?
Jesus famously said that "you cannot serve both God and money" (Matthew 6:24). Inevitably, you either fall into idolatry or look to God as the sole source of your happiness and success.
Capitalism is rooted in commerce. Without making a profit, a business will inevitably fail.
But what about Christian businesses? Surely they put their trust God rather than money... right?
Well, as we've seen from this whole trademark dispute between two Christian organizations, clearly not.
Final thoughts:
I'm not saying that Christians shouldn't form businesses. But I do think it's telling that many Christian businesses don't put God first. The whole world looks critically at Christians already, and infighting like this doesn't help us live up to the image of Christ.
As Christians, we should be building each other up, not tearing one another down—least of all attacking each other over trivial things. As Jesus famously said in Matthew 12:25, "a household divided against itself will not stand."
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Roland's Tour Diary: 7th May
via
text version:
Saturday, May 7, 2005
Well, another intense period is finally over for TFF, I can stop obsessing about my voice and leave the calorific honey and lemon to one side for a while. I feel we left London on a high, even if some of the reviews have made out otherwise. The mind boggles as to how people read body language – Curt and I are getting on famously – if we weren’t, you’d soon hear about it and I could indulge in some fantastic bitching during this tour diary – but no – live, we are a band and have no desire to ‘Wham’ it up with fake buddiness.
I’ve read some of the comments posted and can’t say I disagree with even the more negative ones. We were caught slightly off-guard by the lack of awareness of ELAHE in the UK, and I think Glasgow was the peak of a mutual ignorance, with us clumsily dividing the set into old and new. It wasn’t until Newcastle that we remedied the situation – and boy, what an audience! Shades of New York!
I also think we have too much of the new album in the set. Admittedly, the touring was designed to get the point across, but I do think we could make a better show, if we increased the repertoire and started to replace some of the newer songs – more upbeat tunes would work in our favor, and as we are hitting the US in the summer, it might well be time for a change. (Points taken about RATKOS – however, bear it in mind, we do three songs from ‘Big Chair’ – ‘Listen’ would be impossible and ‘The Working Hour’ requires a saxophone – any offers? ‘I Believe’ – maybe. )
Cardiff was as close to a home gig as we could get, with a couple of busloads crossing the Severn Bridge from Bath and Bristol. The atmosphere was very casual and relaxed, and the gathering in the green room, after the show, did resemble a wedding. One great thing about being a ‘seasoned professional’ is you learn to take things like playing in front of friends, family and neighbors in your stride – you just imagine you’re throwing a big party!
Points also taken about the dance remixes that are accompanying the UK single releases, although I would say I have a fondness for the ‘Call Me Mellow’ ones. I guess like Tony Blair it’s time to listen to the electorate and start working on some obscure beauty in the form of B-sides, that would titillate the fans, and keep us interested. I’m also touched by some of your comments about RATKOS – I believe that album must have sold by word of mouth, as it didn’t receive much attention at the time. Over 700,000 copies now sold (unless I’ve been misinformed – can’t be that many hardcore fans) – not bad considering.
It’s off to Paris on Sunday for more delightful press and promotion – things, however, have gone our way there with the CTTH video getting a nice bit of airtime. As you are probably aware, we are playing a show in the French capital on June 18 (with Moby and Garbage), and the record company has certainly filled up our days over the coming week. I can’t wait for the late, late night chat shows with some poor sod trying to translate our perverse asides!
Anyways, thanks for all the interesting posts and glad that at least some of you enjoyed our UK adventure. Now is the time to put in your requests for live songs as Big Brother will be watching very intently over the next week ;)
Roland
#roland's tour diary#roland orzabal#elahe#everybody loves a happy ending#2000s#2005#moby#garbage#uploads#tears for fears#tff#tearsforfearsfans
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Sometimes I like to think about the fact that in 1492 Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue but like, honestly, that is such a random historical fact that has for reason gained relevancy like it's common knowledge now that the vikings landed in the US before Christopher Columbus and also like uh maybe the literal native Americans hello????? Like just cause everyone in England was too busy fucking inventing new ways to kill eachother to realize like oh shit there's more land over here doesn't mean that the America's were some sort of huge discovery, like why the fuck do I even care that Christopher Columbus existed other than the atrocities he committed being bad. It's not even a particularly relevant history to the America's if you ask me like the colonies sure that's kinda relevant thats when Europeans started to immigrate but idk I think I would have just liked a section that taught native american history. Like the most I ever got was the Thanksgiving speech and even that shit hole lesson was conceived by an ass hat who had no idea what was going on or trying to needlessly dumb it down for me. Very frustrating. I think that sometimes we spend a lot of time trying to dumb things down for kids, and lord believe me I know that some kids out there do totally need it to be dumbed down, but like, nah man immerse them kids in a cultures and educated enviornment so they can grow up and recognize parallels between the lives of people past and their own experiences. There are so many modern examples of happenings in the world that we can look back to history and say "wait, haven't we done this before?" Maybe that's the nature of humanity, to be in an infinite loop of constant fucking up and repeating out mistakes, but I'd really like to believe that we're more than that, that we can truly learn from our past and our mistakes if only we open our hearts to the possibilities. Sometimes, it seems like it's surely too big an ask to be even remotely possible, but such is our burden, the burden to try against that which is impossible. Every day we wake up and face the horrors of our reality, the mundanity of life, and though it may be a struggle, ultimately we do find ourselves doing our little tasks and serving the capitalism gods above us. We do this in spite of our eminent ends. Maybe we don't always recognize that, we choose to not constantly think about how any day can be our last, but it is a fact that we celebrate in many ways. With each passing year we celebrate birthdays, both for the monumenntous occasion of our entering into this cruel and beautiful world, and for a grim but subtle reminder that our time here is but a trial. And sadly, no one knows when it's going to end.
Maybe that's what makes our little lives precious, of course there's all the rest of being a person and Yada Yada Yada, but I find that there is something uniquely human in our determination to face everyday despite the literal hard wall of the inevitable. Often, instead of feeling down, though I have down days too, I feel inspired to create, to pour my heart out into these posts or to write a hilariously bad piece of poetry. That too is a burden in of itself, a constant battle of wanting to outplay my own past experiences, to one up myself in an infinitely scaling tower of incredible mind numbing expository greatness, or to somehow eventually create something so profound that it doesn't just touch your heart, it shatters it. I think it's hard to convey emotion through any medium, how is it possible that great artists can use the forms of music or paint or word to twist us up? How can I surpass their ability to give you an emotional and mental experience like no other? How can I wire to you, directly, the feelings that I have? I want to blow your mind. I really do. But it's hard to constantly reach that level when sometimes all your brains wants to do is be like hehe hehe froggy. So I don't know, there's a lot of things I don't know. Like
The primordial soup right
DNA was just forming
How did that happen? Obviously there's theories but like imagine being there in person to see it. It would probably look like nothing but still, that could be cool. Isn't it scary to think about how we're all nothing but constantly running chemical reactions? Everything including us could be reduced to simple cause and effect. Like, you say bazinga, cause I asked you to and the effect I'd that it would cool I think
B*zinga (derogatory)
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I’m not really sure what specifically gets the blame, whether it’s the industrial revolution, WWII, capitalism, globalization, but one of the real problems that wealth and increased technology created in the 20th century and has continued into the 21st is the problem of the scale of our mistakes.
Like suburban car-centric development, the idealization of the single-family home, the financialization of those homes into the main form of wealth for people...like all of that really wouldn’t have been that hard of a problem to fix if it had only happened in one spot. Say it only happened in parts of New Jersey, the problems would have become obvious over time and it would have been a relatively easier problem to comprehend the fix to. And future developments elsewhere would have been able to learn from the mistakes. But as it stands now, developers in the US are only now starting to learn from the mistakes (and not nearly as much as they should), but the country is largely built out already. New developments might benefit in cities that are just now getting population booms, but for everyone else it suddenly becomes a much larger problem of “well how do we fix this mess, how do we work around what’s already here” etc.
And you could say the same thing with the reliance on fossil fuels and climate change. Like the problem isn’t what do to so much as it is, they were adopted so fast and became so widespread that the impact of the mistake is catastrophically large and also devilishly difficult to fix in practice because of the scale and expense of the solution and how much daily life has to change.
It’s really one of problems of a post-industrial revolution society, post globalist society that we really haven’t figured out how to deal with. This fact that whenever we think we have a solution to a problem we just go all in and churn it out across the entire world within days. It makes the costs of mistakes way higher.
Just think about the supply chain Now it’s a bloody marvel that we’ve created a global machine that can, if needed, be turned in a matter of moments to respond to a sudden gigantic demand. We were able in a matter of months able to go from having no covid vaccine and no tests, to billions of doses, and billions of tests. But that same machine is the reason why there’s probably a landfill somewhere filled a mile deep with nothing but unsold fidget spinners. Because for a couple weeks fidget spinners were all the rage, and we had the ability to respond to that demand, and so we did.
And obviously we see the same problem now but with computer and internet technology. New phone comes out and there’s suddenly a gigantic amount of e-waste. The world completely changed to be dependent on facebook and twitter in like a couple years. This problem has only accelerated over time.
In the past if someone came up with a stupid city planning idea, or a dangerous technology because of how long it would take to implement and how long it took information to travel, the stupidity or danger of the idea would become evident before it spread too much (obviously not always, but we’re talking relative impact here). These days though...if Mark Zuckerberg decides that phones announcing when you fart is a good idea, half the world will have fart announcing technology by 3pm the next day and we all just have to live with the consequences.
The size of decisions and impact of decisions has just grown to absurd levels. And then any industry even remotely related to tech has adopted a motto of “move fast and break things”
There is merit to this philosophy. If you’re trying to figure out how to make the best loaf of bread, it makes a lot of sense to just get in the kitchen and start experimenting...you’ll get quicker progress than thinking endlessly about it and learn more too. But if you apply this philosophy to a bread factory big enough to serve the entire world...well suddenly there’s just skyscraper high piles of recipes that didn’t work out, huge fluctuations in the economies of countries who supply the ingredients based on minute changes in your recipe, and if you accidentally get some contaminant in the mix you’ve just sickened half the world rather than just yourself.
In an ideal world we’d figure out some way to limit the scale of new ideas or tech until we see how it works out in practice...but that’s way easier said than done. If there’s some life changing technology that makes everyone's lives way better no one wants only a small group of lucky (or rich) people to have it for 10 or 20 or 40 years before the rest of us just to see if it actually might be a bad idea.
there is some hope though, at least in theory. The ability of us to implement bad ideas very fast, also means that in theory we also have the ability to implement good ideas or fixes very fast. Politically it much more challenging, because it’s always easier to give people something new than change what they’re used to, but it is at least theoretically possible.
Just really been on my mind.
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This isn't a original opinion, I don't think, but the problem with AI isn't even AI. AI is technology, technology and technological progress is good, actually. Or at least not inherently bad.
If I didn't resent AI for how it's used right now, I'd primarily find it super interesting, technologically and philosophically. Especially philosophically. What makes intelligence etc.
The problem I see is more a general capitalist hellhole problem. The problem is that AI is used mostly to avoid paying people, especially creatives, for their work, while the economic system requires people to have a job to survive. Technology is supposed to make life easier, and tech taking over certain tasks from people is supposed to be a good thing, but when no job = no food, of course we have to fear technological progress if it's gonna "take away the jobs". As long as capitalism dominates our economies and politics, as long as we have to earn the right to survival through selling our labour, technological progress can't be made freely and without fear that it will make human work economically obsolete. AI, being technological progress, could be helpful and relieve a lot of people of dull and/or mentally taxing jobs, it could be fun and interesting to do philosophy about it in relation to art and questions of intelligence and sentience and so forth — but not as long as the survival of workers depends on it not being used in all these ways.
Another, less existential problem is that the meaning of art gets bastardised. It's difficult to put into words how it feels to see AI images being treated as on par with the art you spent years and years working towards. It's even harder to form a cohesive argument based on that. Human-made art being compared to AI-generated work in a way that implies they have the same cultural and emotional value feels like...a dismissal of my humanity? Like none of the emotion and thought and intent and personal history that I put into all of my work matters and all that's important is what it superficially looks like or that the sentences are cohesive, and an algorithm can do that just as well but for cheaper and in no time.
Where both of this sort of comes together is when creative jobs specifically are threatened to be taken over by AI. Not because AI-generated works necessarily have similar quality to human-made art (at least for any those of us with artistic standards), but mostly because greedy CEOs/production companies/streaming companies don't give a fuck about the art itself, project that thinking onto audiences and assume they just want something to consume instead of actually good quality art. I feel that art (art as such, not as an investment or status symbol) has very little value to the capitalists running this system, and that thinking spills over into our cultural and social understanding of art — it's fun and games and nice to look at, nice to have, but it's not really important, at least not important enough to pay the people making it a living wage, and maybe don't become an artist and instead do something sensible.
Largely, what matters is money and numbers, which feels dystopian and inhumane to me. A rejection of art feels like a rejection of humanity and human history. And the way that AI is increasingly used to further signal to artists and creatives that what makes art art isn't what matters, casts a deep dark shadow over any interesting or useful aspect that generative AI might otherwise have.
There are other critical aspects to generative AI, like nonconsensual inclusion of artists' works in the data sets that the algorithms 'learn' off of, or issues relating to other ways people exploit AI (eg. fraud and creepier things than that). But the points I elaborated on are the ones I've thought about most.
So yeah, basically. Art is inherently human. Art is made by humans for humans. Art, by this definition, cannot be made by AI. It's just images and words. (that's roughly a thing CJTheX said, who is much smarter and more committed to reading philosophy than I am. But I feel that it sums up so well why the concept of AI 'art' feels so wrong™, so I have to paraphrase it any time I talk about this topic.)
I think we, as humans, instinctually know that there's more to art than the corporate necktie people try to convince us there is. We have to know. It's just really hard to unlearn a lifetime of capitalism. But by god, don't let art get reduced to a set of data, or pixels, or probabilities of which word follows which.
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A Place Further Than the Universe (SUB) — Episodes 6, 9, 10, 12
After the previous discussion held in the class prior to this particular viewing of the last few episodes of A Place Further Than the Universe, I held a new and fresh view of the deeper themes and motifs featured within the anime. Keeping in mind the commentary that is present in the anime regarding capitalism and its place in our society, and its seeming inevitability in our lives no matter where we go or how we try to escape it, I found that the themes present in the earlier episodes carried onto these episodes.
Going along with the earlier ideas of how Antarctica represents the escape from capitalism into a void from society—which should thus entail the absence of such capitalist structures—it can be shown how the station in the Antarctic still did not present a vacuum of capitalist ideals of production and its inherent value over all things running the community. The way that the girls still held several responsibilities and jobs at the station represents how they still cannot escape the mandate of the workforce and the call for productivity amongst a community—the very basis of capitalist theory. This aspect of the anime can serve to prove an argument held by Haber in Emancipation from Capitalism? that was assigned to the previous set of episodes in which there is no way that we can “emancipate” ourselves from a capitalist structure. It is seemingly the best way or organizing our society, from the biggest to the smallest level, without crossing over into an unachievable utopian prospect. Even in the void that is Antarctica, the seeming antithesis to the capitalist structures that are ubiquitous to modern society, there is a residual aspect of such in the communities that have formed there.
However, in spite of the residual capitalism, the growth of the girls themselves have depicted messages that are do relate back to the growing away from a capitalist mindset, away from the treasuring solely the value of tangible capital. This can be seen in how the girls have gotten more comfortable with their relationships and have grown more emotionally mature. This can be exemplified in how Yuzuki initially placed more emphasis and value on a contract for her friendship with the others—with the contract being an allegory for trade and bartering capital. However, she grew to learn that there is value in things that are not tangible, that are not within the confines of what is valuable to the capitalist structure—she finds that there is value in the unsaid trust and love between friends and other relationships. Not all things are transactional, some things merely are as they are and that does not take away from their value. I believe that this one instance is the epitome of the show’s message of trying to get away from capitalism, and how Yuzuki—whose entire life has been engulfed in capitalism whilst in the entertainment industry—seemed to emancipate herself, at least partly, from such structures we have grown (too) accustomed to.
This can relate to my own life since I oftentimes have trouble trusting the intangible things in my life like undefined and non-delineated relationships that are not spelled out and without having to focus on how much I give and receive in a relationship. The entire basis of our own personal outlooks on our lives is determinant on our sort of own perspective of “emotional capital”. However, such thinking is toxic and oftentimes problematic not just for the Other, but for the Self. I believe that whilst this sort of system is seemingly inevitable in our society, it does not mean that we have to strictly abide by its premises in the extreme and try to find a hybrid of such that does not just solely focus on the accumulation capital, in any sort of way, as what gives something, or someone, value.
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On sex work
(a personal essay-diving into anarcha feminist theory)
No gods. No masters. (No paychecks).
This means that no one is subjected to the "authority" of another. Every form of work is the act of selling ones body to the state/labor in return for a *non livable wage*. When we abolish the bosses, there is no one to tell us when to give up our bodies. There is no person or institution to give our bodies up to. There is no boss telling us to come into work at 9am. There is no boss telling us our pay will be deducted by 10%. There is no boss saying that "your break is up". There is no boss telling us to get back to work, to be more productive, to spend hours of our day giving our soul and bodies to capitalism to just be paid pennies. There is no finical pressure to make ends meet through the selling of ones body.
Sex work is like every other form of work. Giving your time and your body, to capitalism. And then being given a "paycheck" as an exchange for the exploitation we just faced. People consume our product, wether it be (in my case) the mathematical research we just computed or the content we just made. The only difference between "sex work" and "work" is that the product of sex workers is "sexual". But sadly has a women on the internet, anything I produce can also be interpreted as "sexual".
AGAIN: ANY PHOTO I POST ON THE INTERNET CAN BE CONSIDERED SEXUAL.
Just because someone interprets my likeness to be sexual,
does not mean my likeness is sexual and
does not mean my likeness is less than any "non sexual" likeness.
Simply said, a "sexual" product is not worth any less than a non sexual one. The idea that a sexual content is less than any other form of content is derived from patriarchal violence.
There is no boss. There is no pimp. There is no dollar sign. The problem has never been sex work. The problem has always been capitalism. One can make claims that sex work is exploitative, however, capitalism is also exploitative. "Voluntary" sex work is not exploitative. Sex work with no bosses or pimps is not exploitative. Bosses and pimps are the capital owners of sex work. However, I put voluntary in quotes, because like every other form of work, work is not voluntary if we need it to survive. If we need it for paychecks.
I WANT TO MAKE THIS CLEAR: SEXUAL VIOLENCE LIKE SEX TRAFFICING IS NOT SEX WORK.
The foricibly subjection/coerision of people to make sexual content for little to no money is not sex work, it is sexual violence. Much like the foricible subjection/coerision of people to do a job is not "work", but a form of abuse/"wage" slavery.
There is no work. I want a society that does not contain "work". Work is inherently exploitative. If in order to live a flourishing life in your society, I *must* sell my soul to a boss, I do not want to live in your society. If I need to work in order to keep myself fed and have a roof over my head, then I don't want to live in your society. We do not *need* work, similar to the idea that there is no "dream job". We do not dream of labor. We dream of doing what we love.
I want to contribute to society by doing the thing I love most, not because I'm motivated by the need to have money to keep myself alive.
"How would xxx function if work doesn't exist?" "If people already have all their needs met then how would you get people to do the "dirty" jobs?" Maybe I'm optimistic, but I've always been passionate about math. I've always been passionate about teaching others. These are jobs often associated with capitalism. But I would continue to do this "boring job" even if I wasn't paid. Because I genuinely enjoy it. Maybe I'm an extremely passionate undergraduate. But many of my friends are exactly the same way. They genuinely enjoy what they are learning. So how would mechanical engineers exists in a moneyless society? I know a few Chole's that would continue to be mechanical engineers even if they weren't paid for it.
"Sex work" will still continue to exist in leftist society. But work will not exist. People will still make "sexual content", much like how people like me will still make mathematical proofs. Just this time, without the external pressures of needing a paycheck to make sure I can buy groceries. People will still make sex work, just without the boss or pimp, just like how I will make mathematical models without the boss breathing down my neck.
There is overlap between the capitalistic porn industry (ie all the big name porn production websites) and sexual/patriarchal violence (being centered about cis men, and often abusive and exploitative). And there is also overlap between capitalistic industries that are non sexual (ie the average 9-5 job), and sexual/patriarchal violence (once again centered around cis men, and workplace sexual harassment). The problem is the pimp/boss, not the product itself. There is a problem of certain people feeling the need to become sex workers in order to make ends meet. Just like there is a problem of people needing a second or third job in order to make ends meet. Some people do sex work for the money, just like how many people do their job for the money. All workers are exploited. And all products are built upon patriarchal violence, thus all products cater to that oppression. The sex tape for the male gaze to consume and make a profit off of is no different than the excel sheet for the man to consume and make a profit off of.
So "sex work won't exist under communism" yes and no. Sex work will exist but "work" will not. Not all sex work (just like regular work) is a product of patriarchal violence, if we abolish the patriarchy and capitalism, true non explorative "work" (including sex work) will be achieved.
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