Post B4LquNWhx0tIiuaFSS by froztbyte@mastodon.social
 (DIR) More posts by froztbyte@mastodon.social
 (DIR) Post #B4LquNWhx0tIiuaFSS by froztbyte@mastodon.social
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       an incomplete thought: there's an interesting undertone to observe wrt all the generative/"corrective" things latelythink everyone's favourite prompt vendor, think dlss, think all the pitches game execs are slobbering overthere's an element of "remove imperfections" / glossify to _all_ of it. I don't think I'm the first one to remark on that so I don't think _that_ part is profound. but I wonder: is any part of this a reaction to people recoiling in horror at current harsh realities?
       
 (DIR) Post #B4LquNjTBZ6DMUYRLk by davidgerard@circumstances.run
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       @froztbyte it's not *not* eugenics
       
 (DIR) Post #B4LquNuSWhtDuZhDTk by abucci@buc.ci
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       @davidgerard@circumstances.run @froztbyte@mastodon.social This stuff is quite literally a part of eugenics and goes back at least to the 18th century. The notion that there's such a thing as human "progress", that humanity can be "improved" with technology, population management, healthcare/exercise culture, genetic manipulation, etc.---and that we should spare no cost in the pursuit of this---is an Enlightenment ideal.In order to convince people to "improve", you have to articulate the ideal towards which they should be improving, and the flip side, the dangers they should be improving away from. The rhetoric around AI is quite open about this commitment, by my read. AI makes you more productive (good/ideal); fail to embrace it and be left behind (bad/danger). AI filters make you/your pictures/your art beautiful (good/ideal); if you don't use them you'll produce ugliness (bad/danger). AI chatbots provide companionship (good/ideal) without all the messy lying and backstabbing that humans are capable of (bad/danger). All of these things set up a FOMO-like drive to embrace AI, which of course has commercial benefits for its vendors, but I think it's animated by, made to seem reasonable by, general fantasies of human perfectability.I think we're living through a period in which these Enlightenment-era ideals are breaking down under their own weight and are not really meaningful for many people anymore. I think that's one reason all this (waves hands at computer) seems so perverse.