Link Round Up: September
Nicolas Magand, aka [The Jolly Teapot], does a monthly round up of links and so, I borrowed the idea here. There are so many things that I read which make an impression but which don’t require a complete note or article. Here are some other things I have ben reading and ruminating upon.
The Creator and the Machine
A long essay about the history of fine artists and computers, drawing parallels with how artists are embracing — or not — this generations generative AI possibilities. Artist Vera Molnàr is a fascinating example of artist turned programmer (who also lived to be 100 years old).
One interesting offshoot worth mentioning is how someone observed is how some engineers turned into artists. Computers as an artistic medium expanded the definition of art and made those that would not consider themselves artists previously reconsider that distinction.
[The engineers] have occasionally become so interested in the possibilities of this visual output, that they have started to make drawings which bear no practical application, and for which the only real motives are the desire to explore, and the sheer pleasure of seeing a drawing materialize.
The Ten Thousand Choices: Writing as a Human Act in an Age of AI
I’ve been following Monika Jiang and the Oneliness Project for a few months. I appreciate someone talking about human loneliness at this time in history when the promise of “social” media has cut us off from other humans in the lack of real, face-to-face communication.
As someone who writes to think, I greatly appreciate reading this essay even though I already agree with it. It puts into words some of the thoughts I have been having in a lovely poetic way:
Writing is formative, not just expressive. When a baby is born, so is a mother. When you write (painstainkingly labouring), you become a writer. The act of wrestling language into meaning changes you. The struggle to find the right word, the right rhythm, the right pause…this isn’t inefficiency to be solved. It’s the work itself.
The author goes on to investigate why they write, and they introduce the idea of “writing to compost.” I particularly like this metaphor:
We are constantly composting each other’s ideas… breaking down what we’ve read, heard, experienced, and transforming it into something that makes sense to us. Every conversation, every book, every moment of understanding becomes part of this ongoing decomposition and rebirth.
Design is a conversation
An interesting essay which breaks down what design means, how many things it means, and whether or not it is lost its meaning by having so much meaning. It also takes issue with the word “vibe,” which admittedly, I have not thought much about. Is it the right word? It describes something very human — a feeling. Is that the right word to sue when AI is creating the outputs?
If design is a conversation — which I also believe it is — than AI has already been invited. Hell, it crashed the party. And the question becomes how will we listen to what AI has to say, how will we weight its outputs against those of the humans we design for. Designers need to continue to be the connectors of meaning, and AI provides just one voice of many within the conversation.
Frame of Preference
On the more fun side, this interactive essay is one part nostalgic trip through time via vintage Mac interfaces and part easter egg hunt.
AI as teleportation
Great encapsulation of the how I feel about AI. I think it can do a lot of good in the world but there are also many intended and unintended consequences. The metaphor of teleportation is a good one.
[S]ometimes the friction and inconvenience is where the good stuff happens. Gotta be very careful removing it.
The Last Days of Social Media
This piece might be full of nostalgia for the good ole days, but it has its salient points and it echos some of my personal feelings as well. Our social media feeds have replaced a community of people with a factory of content. The connection is truly gone. Not to mention it is full of vitriol and “othering” as well. We’ve moved from attention to exhaustion.
It turns out that not everyone should have a voice that we all can hear.
I have a Facebook account, but I only keep it to be in touch with my older relatives. I use Instagram as an escape because I have been able to keep politics (mostly) out of my feeds and I use the “Following” view more often than not. If they remove that view, I will likely ditch it. I left Twitter years ago and have not replaced it with anything else. I created a Reddit account a few years ago to lurk and find out more about when local restaurants are opening or closing. My online social life isn’t terribly social and I am ok with that. I have Slack DMs and SMS group chats for that instead. Robots are not invited.