Since there is a non-trivial chance that humanity will be wiped out by the end of the decade, I might as well splurge on these floral-accented Dia De Los Muertos Vans shoes.
Since there is a non-trivial chance that humanity will be wiped out by the end of the decade, I might as well splurge on these floral-accented Dia De Los Muertos Vans shoes.
Charles Homans takes a different perspective on the changes brought about by 9/11. In fact, he argues that much of the changes we attribute to the attacks we actually brought about by technology.
These artifacts span the pre- and post-9/11 years, and the lost innocence they represent has nothing to do with the attacks. Their interest comes from their evocation of a period when people hung out with friends in person and sweated alongside strangers at clubs and music festivals; teenagers goofed un-self-consciously for cameras rather than posing for them like jaded celebrities; and popular culture could be loud and dumb and not picked apart in the digital panopticon for its social politics. The shape that looms ominously over them isn’t the Twin Towers. It’s the iPhone.
It’s taken for granted that things really changed after the September 11th attacks, and it’s measurably true. But how much of that is actually due to the attacks is highly debatable.
Sean Hollister from The Verge reminds us that Final Fantasy VII shipped on 3 discs. Man, it was glorious.
Cal Newport believes much of the fearmongering that is done by tech executives in the A.I. space is due to their backgrounds in Rationalism and related philosophies.
This reality, that Rationalism deeply influenced many of today’s major A.I. companies, helps us calibrate the unnerving language we’ve been hearing from their leaders. When Mr. Altman declares their pending models will be “sobering” for humanity or Mr. Amodei frets that this technology “will test who we are as a species,” it doesn’t necessarily mean that they discovered frightening new evidence that something catastrophic is imminent.
I listened to Newport expand upon this theory on the Not Dead Yet podcast. He’s got a convincing argument that the Rationalist movement has so strongly influenced these executives that they are simply parroting its talking points. He points out that tech execs who don’t come from those backgrounds — such as those in China and Jensen Huang of Nvidia — speak in an entirely different way about A.I. Newport’s view seems to explain a lot about the rhetoric we’re used to hearing from certain quarters.
Finished reading: The Nineties: A Book by Chuck Klosterman 📚. It was interesting to see the genesis of many of the trends we are now experiencing. Klosterman makes a wise choice by ending the decade at September 11, 2001.
My son had to return a book to Amazon because he accidentally got the kid’s version of… Flowers of the Killer Moon.
I’ve read a few pieces recently that focus on the negative effects of activities that were believed to be universally helpful to mental health. One, an article by Bryce D. Fuemmeler in Mere Orthodoxy, explores the era of self-focus.
I like Bluesky but this about sums it up. Click on the link and what you get is not actually people posting their Labor Day plans but people asking how you can possibly enjoy a hot dog when you should be protesting the Trump administration.
My absolute favorite record for the transition from late summer to early fall is Yo La Tengo’s I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One. The affinity has to do with more than just the fact that there is an (excellent) song called “Autumn Sweater” on the album, but that surely doesn’t hurt. The guitars crackle like stepping on dead fallen leaves. There’s a whole section of this 2xLP where it sounds just like the cooling down on a hot summer night (complete with crickets chirping). You can almost see the lightning bugs flickering on and off.
Antique shopping with this guy. He looks like a Toy Machine character.
