Categories
Alien Anthropology

Probability

Engaging whole and holistic systems is a little like trying to orchestrate and sustain the infinitely complex requisite variety of a universal remote control. ๐˜ˆ๐˜ฑ๐˜ฑ๐˜ญ๐˜ช๐˜ค๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ/๐˜ข๐˜ด ๐˜ข ๐˜ฅ๐˜ช๐˜ด๐˜ต๐˜ณ๐˜ช๐˜ฃ๐˜ถ๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ง๐˜ช๐˜ฆ๐˜ญ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ค๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜ค๐˜ฆ๐˜ฑ๐˜ต ๐˜ง๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ ๐˜ด๐˜ฆ๐˜ฎ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ค๐˜ด ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ ๐˜ญ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜จ๐˜ถ๐˜ข๐˜จ๐˜ฆ, ๐˜ฏ๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜ณ๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ท๐˜ฆ ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ค๐˜ถ๐˜ญ๐˜ต๐˜ถ๐˜ณ๐˜ข๐˜ญ ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ข๐˜ญ๐˜บ๐˜ด๐˜ช๐˜ด: ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ง๐˜ง๐˜ด๐˜ฆ๐˜ต ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ญ๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜ข๐˜ญ๐˜ญ๐˜บ ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆ๐˜ต๐˜ธ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ฌ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ฅ๐˜ช๐˜ด๐˜ฑ๐˜ญ๐˜ข๐˜ค๐˜ฆ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ต ๐˜ฐ๐˜ง ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ ๐˜ช๐˜ด ๐˜ฑ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ค๐˜ช๐˜ด๐˜ฆ๐˜ญ๐˜บ ๐˜ธ๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ (๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ช๐˜ฅ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ต๐˜บ) ๐˜ช๐˜ด ๐˜ด๐˜ต๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ – […]

Categories
cybernetics

Generative Introspection

Having widely now gained access to this effectively unbounded as relationally networked complexity in generative computational representation, what are the odds that many if not most of the images and texts produced are used to directly or indirectly embellish, validate and incentivise the development of yet more generative and/or (other, as) downstream communications technology?

Categories
Philosophy

Crowdstrike

We have been building a global communications network and irreversible technological dependency on foundationally insecure technologies. It’s not wilfully stupid or cynically opportunistic entrepreneurialism, the logic itself is working as much against as for us. A big shout-out to sleep-deprived system support and cybersecurity teams everywhere. Not a good day to be working on an […]

Categories
cybernetics history Philosophy

Aggressive Insecurity

Humanity has, at scale and en masse, a profoundly insecure dependency on aggressive self-determination. This is the great unaddressed issue of our historical moment, perhaps of history more generally, and may indeed be an undecidable problem. We may not be able to unambiguously determine causal factors or clarify many of the things we really could […]

Categories
Philosophy

Signal to noise?

Signal to noise?  The primary signal is noise. Most of the partisan #insecurity and frictive #political tribalism we are currently experiencing represents convergence towards the regenerative bonding and binding turbulence of high probability, low-energy system macrostates. (Gossip? Tabloid news? Best Practice? Doctrine? Belief? Ideology? Ethics? The underlying dynamics are considerably less flattering or reassuring than […]

Categories
Philosophy

Mind the Gap

Theory of Mind represents the ingestion, curated entrainment and epistemological event horizon of an essentially inarticulable metaphysical Otherness. Much is made of commercial opportunity and/or existential threat represented by artificial intelligence. I’m not sure we should be so concerned about the potential arrival of unregulated superintelligence, if indeed this does ever occur. We will remain […]

Categories
politics

Presidential Debate

Nothing quite so succinctly captures the cultural spectacle and general media Zeitgeist of jousting ideological anachronisms than does the symbolic Greco-Roman wrestling match of a contemporary Presidential political debate. Quite agnostic of personal political and/or philosophical systems of belief, I am worried by the vacuum of integrity and character on display. Having an opinion has […]

Categories
politics

Political Drift

Drift into political extremity represents the ascendance of anachronistic narrative banality masquerading as novelty, significance and exceptionalism.

Categories
technology

LLMs and Institutional Change

Current institutional angst (as sociocultural microcosm) and advice regarding the provenance of machine generated words, sentences and documents feels a little misdirective. That is, it still takes considerable intelligence and patience to extract and usefully curate prose or otherwise insightful text from these new tools. If an LLM has been used is itself neither good […]

Categories
Alien Anthropology

Possible Words

Asteroid City was an entertaining movie. Less roller-coaster, more linear regression but in either case and most certainly a probabilistic approximation to something inexpressible in language. A simple calculus of possibility suggests that not only are there far more meaningful sentences and thoughts than humanity might ever express, but amongst the plausibly infinite set of […]

Categories
cybernetics

World War Z: Disinformation

The soup de jour is disinformation: I found myself watching the movie World War Z (again) recently. The biological plausibility of a zombie virus that can detect and avoid sickness as a critical vulnerability and plot twist wasn’t quite enough to render the movie as being anything significantly other than “Brad Pitt saves the world, […]

Categories
Philosophy

Communicative Simplicity

Communication becomes less ambiguous and more streamlined or efficient when content aligns with dominant (as ascendant) probability distributions. This invokes communicative simplicity as a reciprocal deficit of comprehension. In this way, assurance of significance is plagued by the plausible inevitability of a proliferation of largely meaningless content.