I was waiting for your “therapist” to return at the end and reveal itself to be ChatGPT, lol.
This was great. One of my favorites.
The mixture of sincerity and satire was tuned just right, and very modern. Metamodern, in fact. Have you heard of the post-postmodern movement?
You have a pretty metamodern take on AI generally, I’ve noticed it before. Might be good to reach into that community—could find some new readers and be EVEN MORE Substack-famous!
Oh! That would've been so perfect haha. Re: post-postmodern movement. Actually have no idea what that is. But you've piqued my interest for sure - Any links to read more?? Thank you Geoff! (I'm low-key aware that I'm quite anti-postmodernism, but didn't know there was a movement!)
And if you really want to dive deep, Brendan Graham Dempsey wrote a good book on Metamodernism that I think he reproduced chapter by chapter in serial format on his substack iirc.
If you follow the links I posted above, I would be interested to hear what you think of metamodernism and whether it matches your concept of neo postmodernism.
"Ontologically, metamodernism oscillates between the modern and the postmodern. It oscillates between a modern enthusiasm and a postmodern irony, between hope and melancholy, between naïveté and knowingness, empathy and apathy, unity and plurality, totality and fragmentation, purity and ambiguity. Indeed, by oscillating to and fro or back and forth, the metamodern negotiates between the modern and the postmodern.[viii]
According to the Greek-English Lexicon the prefix “meta” refers to such notions as “with”, “between”, and “beyond”. We will use these connotations of “meta” in a similar, yet not indiscriminate fashion. For we contend that metamodernism should be situated epistemologically with (post) modernism, ontologically between (post) modernism, and historically beyond (post) modernism.[ix]"
Personally, being a non-dualist and in general finding dialectics of minimal interest, I appreciate the integral view; but suggest that postmodern philosophy wrestled with the integration of great traditional cyclic observations of history, being-in-time and the wisdom implicit in such. 'Meta' more than 'post' reaches out and around for an understanding 'beyond' but when limited to a modern reduction of techno-logos from spiritual art to material mundanity, not to mention stochastic slop, Meta-physics becomes meaningless.
Inspiring stuff. Much appreciated. Managed to make me feel like writing a microstory. Sharing it. Thanks for your writing, always makes me think. And today, made me smile.
---
I tried to do OnlyFans. It was wasn't long before I was deriving at chalkboards in booty shorts, sniffing the chalk dust lines, and playing fast and loose with units. I soon realized I developed a problem. An addiction of sorts. I needed the adulation of lesser scientists, like chemists, to feel better about myself. But in so doing I ended up bringing myself to a level lower than them; I hit rock bottom. I started doing psychology ...
That's when I checked into rehab. Been clean 6 months now.
"Okay, maybe it's not the chatbots exactly, but it's the compound effect of a variety of social and technological trends tearing at our social fabric, which manifest most acutely in the form of chatbots?"
Our bodies weren’t made to handle all of the ultraprocessed content we consume today, with all it’s artificial intelligence and data-farmed protein. We need to go back to more primitive, intuitive forms of societal ills: pasture-raised mood disorders, labor crises packed with whole foods, and regenerative conflict practices like troop rotation and choosing your enemies based on whether or not they’re in season.
I fear this piece lumps retrospectively blaming existing problems on chatbots ( people not having as much sex) with legitimate fears over the increasing role of chatbots + LLM-powered media ( kids spending hours entranced by ultra-addictive machine generated videos).
Yes TikTok already exists. Yes it’s a disaster. But removing whatever human element remains from it is worse in every conceivable way.
You made my point by saying, "yes tiktok already exists." I'm using satire to convey the idea I express in the last section. Chatbots play a role, but they're pretty much never the main or the sole cause of anything that's attributed to them. The fears can be legitimate for every topic I touch here; the satire is not to be taken literally (e.g., kids not having sex is because ChatGPT is not embodied is a joke)
I’ve just read some fairly funny articles about AI psychosis which have contextualised this a bit.
Still, I feel like this is at odds with your brilliant articles about the Vibes app and phone use.
To compare the recommendation algorithm of an essay sharing site (sidenote: I think Substack is a great but not infallible platform and will abandon it if it goes too far in the needy feedy direction) to the brain hijacking dopamine draining endless slop machine seems a bit unnuanced.
If I drink Sprite and I see that meth is being added to the Coca Cola recipe, my concerns are not invalidated because Sprite contains Potassium K!
Hmm, I guess you don't know Substack does have a video feed? It's in the app. Go there and tell me how different it is from TikTok (perhaps in content although I'm even willing do debate that, but surely not in form)
Just had an unpleasant 25 seconds on the Substack video feed. Can confirm it’s pretty terrible.
I am maybe misinterpreting what the article is getting at.
From my perspective for the last few decades several technological ’innovations’ have changed our lives individually and societally for the worse. LLM-generated media content (like vibes and any equivalent) seems like it really has potential to be one of these steps. I don’t think anyone serious is blaming existing mental health conditions on it.
My perspective of this piece is that it lumps fears about Vibes etc in with silly things like blaming ChatGPT on psychosis.
I believe your position is that Vibes is a potentially catastrophic technology from reading your other work. But if I hadn’t I probably wouldn’t think that
It is a bad addition to the world but calling it "catastrophic" is definitely a stretch. I don't think it is. That's exactly what this article says: bad but there's no need to exaggerate. The other one is a longer diatribe about short-form video in general and about AI-generated kind in particular, but reducing it to "vibes is catastrophic" is against my intentions! My goal is, and has always been, to add common sense to the conversation.
I was waiting for your “therapist” to return at the end and reveal itself to be ChatGPT, lol.
This was great. One of my favorites.
The mixture of sincerity and satire was tuned just right, and very modern. Metamodern, in fact. Have you heard of the post-postmodern movement?
You have a pretty metamodern take on AI generally, I’ve noticed it before. Might be good to reach into that community—could find some new readers and be EVEN MORE Substack-famous!
Oh! That would've been so perfect haha. Re: post-postmodern movement. Actually have no idea what that is. But you've piqued my interest for sure - Any links to read more?? Thank you Geoff! (I'm low-key aware that I'm quite anti-postmodernism, but didn't know there was a movement!)
I was introduced when someone linked me to this article by Joe Lightfoot (who is actually here on Substack now) https://www.joelightfoot.org/post/the-liminal-web-mapping-an-emergent-subculture-of-sensemakers-meta-theorists-systems-poets
And if you really want to dive deep, Brendan Graham Dempsey wrote a good book on Metamodernism that I think he reproduced chapter by chapter in serial format on his substack iirc.
Edit: Found a link for you: https://brendangrahamdempsey.substack.com/t/metamodernism
Awesome, thank you!
We call it neo-postmodern but metamodern probably has legs. Thanks for the creativity...
If you follow the links I posted above, I would be interested to hear what you think of metamodernism and whether it matches your concept of neo postmodernism.
Vermeulen and van den Akker:
"Ontologically, metamodernism oscillates between the modern and the postmodern. It oscillates between a modern enthusiasm and a postmodern irony, between hope and melancholy, between naïveté and knowingness, empathy and apathy, unity and plurality, totality and fragmentation, purity and ambiguity. Indeed, by oscillating to and fro or back and forth, the metamodern negotiates between the modern and the postmodern.[viii]
According to the Greek-English Lexicon the prefix “meta” refers to such notions as “with”, “between”, and “beyond”. We will use these connotations of “meta” in a similar, yet not indiscriminate fashion. For we contend that metamodernism should be situated epistemologically with (post) modernism, ontologically between (post) modernism, and historically beyond (post) modernism.[ix]"
Personally, being a non-dualist and in general finding dialectics of minimal interest, I appreciate the integral view; but suggest that postmodern philosophy wrestled with the integration of great traditional cyclic observations of history, being-in-time and the wisdom implicit in such. 'Meta' more than 'post' reaches out and around for an understanding 'beyond' but when limited to a modern reduction of techno-logos from spiritual art to material mundanity, not to mention stochastic slop, Meta-physics becomes meaningless.
Inspiring stuff. Much appreciated. Managed to make me feel like writing a microstory. Sharing it. Thanks for your writing, always makes me think. And today, made me smile.
---
I tried to do OnlyFans. It was wasn't long before I was deriving at chalkboards in booty shorts, sniffing the chalk dust lines, and playing fast and loose with units. I soon realized I developed a problem. An addiction of sorts. I needed the adulation of lesser scientists, like chemists, to feel better about myself. But in so doing I ended up bringing myself to a level lower than them; I hit rock bottom. I started doing psychology ...
That's when I checked into rehab. Been clean 6 months now.
---
"Okay, maybe it's not the chatbots exactly, but it's the compound effect of a variety of social and technological trends tearing at our social fabric, which manifest most acutely in the form of chatbots?"
Hmm, yes except the last part. "Most acutely" I wouldn't say so. Just the last manifestation, the last piece in a long chain
Our bodies weren’t made to handle all of the ultraprocessed content we consume today, with all it’s artificial intelligence and data-farmed protein. We need to go back to more primitive, intuitive forms of societal ills: pasture-raised mood disorders, labor crises packed with whole foods, and regenerative conflict practices like troop rotation and choosing your enemies based on whether or not they’re in season.
I fear this piece lumps retrospectively blaming existing problems on chatbots ( people not having as much sex) with legitimate fears over the increasing role of chatbots + LLM-powered media ( kids spending hours entranced by ultra-addictive machine generated videos).
Yes TikTok already exists. Yes it’s a disaster. But removing whatever human element remains from it is worse in every conceivable way.
You made my point by saying, "yes tiktok already exists." I'm using satire to convey the idea I express in the last section. Chatbots play a role, but they're pretty much never the main or the sole cause of anything that's attributed to them. The fears can be legitimate for every topic I touch here; the satire is not to be taken literally (e.g., kids not having sex is because ChatGPT is not embodied is a joke)
I’ve just read some fairly funny articles about AI psychosis which have contextualised this a bit.
Still, I feel like this is at odds with your brilliant articles about the Vibes app and phone use.
To compare the recommendation algorithm of an essay sharing site (sidenote: I think Substack is a great but not infallible platform and will abandon it if it goes too far in the needy feedy direction) to the brain hijacking dopamine draining endless slop machine seems a bit unnuanced.
If I drink Sprite and I see that meth is being added to the Coca Cola recipe, my concerns are not invalidated because Sprite contains Potassium K!
Hmm, I guess you don't know Substack does have a video feed? It's in the app. Go there and tell me how different it is from TikTok (perhaps in content although I'm even willing do debate that, but surely not in form)
Just had an unpleasant 25 seconds on the Substack video feed. Can confirm it’s pretty terrible.
I am maybe misinterpreting what the article is getting at.
From my perspective for the last few decades several technological ’innovations’ have changed our lives individually and societally for the worse. LLM-generated media content (like vibes and any equivalent) seems like it really has potential to be one of these steps. I don’t think anyone serious is blaming existing mental health conditions on it.
My perspective of this piece is that it lumps fears about Vibes etc in with silly things like blaming ChatGPT on psychosis.
I believe your position is that Vibes is a potentially catastrophic technology from reading your other work. But if I hadn’t I probably wouldn’t think that
It is a bad addition to the world but calling it "catastrophic" is definitely a stretch. I don't think it is. That's exactly what this article says: bad but there's no need to exaggerate. The other one is a longer diatribe about short-form video in general and about AI-generated kind in particular, but reducing it to "vibes is catastrophic" is against my intentions! My goal is, and has always been, to add common sense to the conversation.
Time will tell.. I believe every major step towards Nozicks experience machine is potentially catastrophic