let's THiNK about it – Détails, épisodes et analyse

In this lecture, Ryder Richards, an artist currently based in Fort Worth, explored the intersection of art and artificial intelligence (AI), specifically focusing on a project that reimagines Salvador Dali's "Alice in Wonderland." Richards delved into public fears and misconceptions about AI, emphasizing a lack of understanding about how AI algorithms function, including generative adversarial networks (GANs) and diffusion models. By showcasing AI-generated images and discussing the differences between various AI platforms like Dolly, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion, he illustrated AI's capabilities and limitations. Richards highlighted how each platform has its strengths and weaknesses in creating art, the humorous mistakes they can make due to misunderstandings, and the importance of understanding these tools to navigate the burgeoning field of AI art effectively.

The lecture further ventured into the implications of AI in society, touching on concerns of dependency, the impact on human skills and creativity, and the ethical dilemmas surrounding AI-generated content. Richards presented a nuanced view of AI's role in art, arguing that while AI can facilitate the creative process, it also raises questions about originality, authorship, and the value of human touch in art. Through the lens of his project, which attempted to fuse AI's capabilities with the essence of Dali's work, Richards explored the challenges of using AI to replicate human creativity. He concluded by discussing the broader societal and philosophical questions AI raises, including the potential loss of human agency and the importance of storytelling in preserving humanity's unique attributes. This reflection underscored the complex relationship between technology and human creativity, suggesting that while AI can be a powerful tool, it also prompts us to reevaluate the essence of art and creativity in the digital age.

Essay, Deck and Transcript can be found at 
https://www.letusthinkaboutit.com/step-82-art-and-ai/

Artificial intelligence (AI) has exploded onto the cultural scene, raising pressing questions about the role of technology in art and society. Artist and thinker Ryder Richards recently gave a lecture analyzing AI through a philosophical lens, exploring its potential promises and perils.

Richards began by taking the pulse of AI adoption, finding about a quarter to a third of attendees actively using AI for creative pursuits. With hype swirling, many came curious to know more. Richards set forth to report his findings from the AI landscape.

Weaving history, art, and philosophy, Richards traced how we arrived at this crossroads. He discussed early 20th-century visions of fusing humans and machines, driven by the worship of progress, machinery, and speed. Richards questioned assumptions of human rationality and effectiveness, asking if AI necessarily leads to worse outcomes.

Richards suggested that while AI promises to democratize creativity, it may also distance us from the personal touch of craft. He demonstrated how artists employ AI to generate variations and select results. While convenient, this process mediates the human-object bond. Richards pondered if submissions lack an imprint of humanity itself.

Examining racial and gender bias in AI datasets, Richards noted the need to peer inside “black box” algorithms. He considered whether language models actually “think” creatively. While founders exude optimism, their infighting hardly inspires confidence. With AI infiltrating emotional resonance and politics, vigilance seems vital.

Richards explored speculation that glitches enable AI creativity, just as neurological differences may have sparked human innovation. He discussed AI’s potential for independent evolution, questioning our ability to discern machine consciousness. If the future remains opaque, Richards suggested artists’ role is to absorb and share cultural truths.

Lawsuits against AI companies form growing resistance. But will profit motives trump ethics? How do we balance an accelerating economy with human dignity? As the lines blur between creator and creation, now is the time to ponder what kind of future we want to code.

0:01 Why camouflage is like a rhizome.

• The complexity of camouflage and abstraction.
• Why camouflage is a better survival strategy.

2:44 The servant as master.

• How to become low like water and remain powerful.
• Master as servant - martyr. 

5:16 The boss who tries to also be your best friend.

• The parent who guilts you. 
• Undermined core self: camouflage needed for shame concealment. 

6:56 The ubiquity of repetition and mass media.

• The ubiquity of marilyn monroe as a sex symbol. (Andy Warhol)
• Society normalization disperses desire: at once object and landscape. 

9:18 Desire has become decentralized and dispersed

• Mimetic desire has become decentralized and mimetically dispersed. 
• The role of libido in camouflaging.

12:13 The decentralization of the self.

• Camouflage through subject, context, confusion or dispersal at scale.
• Decentralization of self: the self or desire as a rhizome.

14:45 Disguise is the facade that shelters the self, but also enables psychopathic killers. 

• The digital world lacks trust, artificial intelligence, and the travails of insecurity.
• Crowdsourcing wikipedia is a battleground.

16:57 We no longer trust the image.

• The attention economy and the loss of trust.
• The destabilization of America, 

19:28 Do you still have the power to focus or just act?

• Focus is the only thing that can determine who we are.
• Hunker down and live dangerously. 

Introduction  

- Recap of previous episodes on the mimetic desire.

- Rene Girard's model of scapegoating.

2:33 How do we prevent mimetic desire?

- One way to solve mimetic desire and scapegoating.

- The dispute plan to prevent future luxury.

4:42 What do you do after the revolution?

- Government ineptitude and bureaucracy is what the people actually want.

- What to do after the revolution, or after the orgy.

- The French army became the first to create a dedicated camouflage unit.

- Art as an artificial art.

8:54 Fiction is artifice that becomes truth.

- Imitation is natural to man from childhood.

- Art is the lie that makes us realize truth.

11:17 Three ways to hide; camouflage in nature, military and politics.

- The three main purposes of camouflage.

- Three ways to hide camouflage via nature.

- Blending or hiding in nature, military and politicians.

- Blending in politics.

16:02 Dazzle Camouflage.

- Dazzle in the animal kingdom.

- Trump is a dazzler like AOC.

18:53 Dissembling and dazzle.

- The third type of camouflage, obfuscation, is dissembling and dazzling simultaneously.

- Obscure and dazzle.

21:28 Mimicry of the actor.

- Mimicking a skunk to endear yourself with someone unlike you.

- Mimicry and mimicry.

- The pantomime of the mime, mimicry of the mimic.

- Art vs art.

26:15 Camo as a symbol of confusion.

- The role of camo in the city.

- How camo has evolved in the modern world.

28:40 Turning camouflage into a threat.

- The reversal of utility in camo and dazzle.

- A densely packed spiral of signals and motivations.

30:44 Simulating media into the real.

- The seduction by aesthetics and ideology.

- Camo as a tactic for minimal distance

0:00 How violence is provoked by fantasy.

2:31 The balcony and the revolution.

5:14 How far does mimetic desire go?

6:54 Most things happen twice: the story, then reality

9:41 Post-terrorist architecture.

12:40 Turning the desire into a blueprint (simulation to be de-simulated)  

14:37 Recognize that the world is f***ed.

16:43 The parable of Bill Clinton or George W. Bush.

18:55 The desire to be the simulacra of man. (oh, to be a machine)

21:43 The black mirror of capitalism. (Amazon and the state)  

Reversing inner pressure outward requires a scapegoat to sacrifice in order to stabilize society. By discovering the hidden models driving it reveals our motivations, but more importantly, Rene Girard‘s theory accounts for civilizations' cybernetic energies and release valves. Paired with Georges Bataille’s theory of sacrifice necessary due to excess (the general economy) we find explanations for seemingly irrational behavior. 

Drawing from Luke Burgis's "Wanting: Memetic Desire in Everyday Life" we look at the basics of memetic rivalry, hidden models, and mediators before jumping to scapegoating, then we move into Lacan's notion of the "objet petit a" to consider the subject as desiring, and the self as commodified. In the end, we turn to Bataille's "The Accursed Share, vol. 1" to intertwine scapegoating and sacrifice. 

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0:00 Intro:  Mimetic desire and the imitation loop.

2:37 We are programmed automatons who will never capture the flag.

5:00 Introduction of the desire by a mediator.

7:57 Intentional rationality vs instrumental rationality.

12:38 How to relieve the anger?

15:17 Happiness is created by condemning one: scapegoating.  

17:41 Old habits are hard to break.

22:57 Bataille: The general economy of the natural economy is excess.  

25:01 How do you deal with excesses? through sacrifice.

27:28 Violence comes from memetic desire. 

https://www.letusthinkaboutit.com/step-69-memetic-desire/

0:00 Intro

1:22 What is mimetic rivalry? memtic desire.

2:48 Mimicry as an internal set of neurosis.

5:05 What we want is the attention and control that someone else wanted first.

7:14 If somebody else wants something, our survival depends on us getting to it first.

9:47 Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

11:28 Accelerationism is a means to break out of the deadlock of capitalism.

12:56 All of our focus is now embodied in winning the object.

14:46 If the system is good enough, it will disperse the energies.

16:37 How capitalism fits into all of this.

0:00 Introduction to this episode.

1:53 In 1879 there was a horrible train wreck: the promise and cost of technology

4:27 A cautionary tale about the influence of the machine on communism.

6:53 What is the frame of Capitalism? (Marxism into desire) 

12:17 The problem with capitalism is not just the machinery, but also our social and libidinal economy.

15:04 Our desires are shaped by society, work, and culture, which are not easily overthrown altogether. 

17:52 How do you manifest the spirit of man at his boldest while denying him his rude desires?

23:33 Accelerationism as a “sadistic” approach to crisis: rush towards death. 

25:49 Barbarism is the only way to get to socialism: nihilism of values. 

27:53 Accelerationism grasps misery: The world of work is confronted as one of future horror. 

0:00 Intro _ the Gods of Technology (Deus ex Machina)  

3:56 Part 1: some context  _ the capitalist trap, double binds, and looking for an escape, reality vs. abstraction

11:27 Part 2: the futurists_ from industrialization to deregulation to cyberspace, 1909 manifesto, praise machines and war, but scorn for women

17:41 Part 3: the accelerationists _ the 2008 crash, bailout, failures and no foreseeable changes, humans slow down tech progress, we have lost imagination and are dying anyway

23:33 Part 4:  the death drive and the implications, breaking the machine, following capital  

29:54 Outro _ next episode on Malign Velocities by Benjamin Noys

Full episode in writing as well as video at:

https://www.letusthinkaboutit.com/step-66-cybernetics--capitalism/

0:00 Intro 

1:56 Part 1: cybernetics _ machines, feedback, and cascades 

6:22 Part 2: one-dimension of capital _ Marcuse, consumerism’s false needs, subjecting justice to capitalism

9:55 Part 3: deterritorialization _ Deleuze and Guattari, positive/negative energy, decoding the regulation valves

14:00 Part 4: reterritorialization _ Mark Fisher, immediate recapture, mark fisher, refusal as lack of feedback 

23:26 Outro