AI must surely be the most terrible thing ever wrought by human effort, far more terrifying than the H-bomb. My mind literally blows a gasket when considering AI and its myriad malign possibilities.
I've felt that way ever since staggering out of the ABC cinema in Bradford one Saturday evening in the summer of 1985, blown away by a (strangely unheralded) film called The Terminator....and the horror of Skynet.
AI has always been presented to the public as a fait accompli, just another 'inevitable' aspect of so-called 'progress' . Yet it didn't 'just happen'. Somebody came up with it. Somebody wanted it, and somebody funded it. AI represents the terrible harvest of a mighty R &D effort. It would be very interesting to look at its origins, development, funding and ownership.
I shall do just that when time permits. Thank you for another thoughtful piece, Morgoth.
The farcical part of all this is that AI will eventually destroy those very hand-rubbers that funded its development. Not before it does for the rest of us, of course.
I’ll be honest with you Morgoth, when I heard that clip of Emma Watson, a terrifying thought dawned on me. How will we know if our favourite content creators, like yourself, have not been covertly booted off the internet and replaced with an AI voice? If even we plebs can create convincing AI voice clips or pictures, then the regime certainly has the more advanced tech to create indistinguishable results. I’m not trying to create hysteria here, but I can’t help but think I won’t know either way if I’m really hearing the voice of E Michael Jones on his newest podcast for example, or a generated voice, which might be programmed to slowly transition his talking points to a more leftist and globalist rhetoric, thereby influencing his listeners to go along with what he has said.
The same goes for written text, how does anyone know I’m not AI typing this? No one but me can know.
Even as far back as Forrest Gump in the early 90s, where they had to use those box computers, they managed to create convincing CGI that the viewer could not discern from real footage. It’s made me realise that probably, over 90% of the Covid stuff we saw, even on TV, was fake. This sudden access to the technology seems like a revelation of the method to me.
I’m not pessimistic either though, I just think we’ll have to be extra cautious but in the end rely on old physical books, religious texts and philosophy, and of course real human interaction in the future if we want to make any decisions. After all, how can what we see or hear on a screen truly dictate what we do in our lives unless we let it?
I'm thinking that eventually I'll have to show my face, problem is that can be faked too. I think people like myself and E Michael Jones will be fine mainly because we go live on streams which can't be faked.
But, I can imagine it being impossible for new people to emerge without the allegation being hurled at them that they're fake. On a platform such as Twitter this is probably already happening, they could literally replace leftist influencers with AI bots.
How can I know it’s truly live or not though? Calling in and asking a question? Okay - I understand that might be getting too paranoid at that point, still, I do think about chucking my ‘smart’ phone in the bin more and more everyday now. Reality when viewed from the internet does feel like it’s collapsing or at least fragmented beyond repair.
Didn’t mean to make you feel you have to dox yourself by the way, it really was what came into my mind though.
That’s true about Twitter, the same could be said for rightwing accounts that may pop up.
There is no way, because the human brain is just something else that AI eventually learns to effectively imitate. Our destruction looks to inevitable, unless we start destroying technology rather than letting it advance further. We won't do that though. Even among the dissident right, there is no appetite for even getting rid of the internet.
Obviously, I myself am not prepared to either which is why I'm still able to comment on this article. I cannot recall any moment of genuine pleasure the internet has given me, in the last 25 years, yet I'm as hooked on it as the rest of you are. I need it to be taken away from me. Choice is not always a good thing, because human beings are flawed.
I'll just say I'm with jay dyer here , our entire reality is fake and gay. The internet has been fake since about 2016 with most comments on twitter ext as A.I programs and bots , manufacturing consent as gnome Chomsky puts it
Unless you can check in person with your physical senses, verification seems impossible now thanks to the unveiling of this new round of tech.
What I've come to ask of what I see is not "is this real?", but rather "why am I seeing this?". I believe that everything we see has been chosen for us, either by algorithm or by hand. Questioning motivations, instead of truths, has made more sense of the world to me.
Thanks for all the stimulating articles Morgoth, and have a great weekend!
Just wanted to take this opportunity to say how much I enjoy everything you’ve produced, written and video pieces. I first heard of your work through the Alex Kashuta interview, and am catching up with all your YouTube content. I was so impressed I signed up for the substack.
You have a lovely way with words, while I agree with at least 90% of your political and cultural opinions I most enjoy the pieces on nature, the seasons, just observations on life. The video with all the clips from the English seashore in what looks like the 50’s was heartbreakingly beautiful.
I loved the one on “women know your dog breeds”, although a well trained Alsatian (German Shepherd in America) should be controllable by anyone. We’ve run into more than a few off leash loonies and mine was bitten badly by a spaniel one third her size.
This is sobering stuff you’ve written here, and while we all should have seen it coming it does raise a lot of unanswerable questions. The idea that they can further demonize and weaponize the right while scaring people off from what may be the only real life affirming information they can encounter is something we need to be aware of. Forewarned is forearmed as they say, but it has to keep being repeated and we have to try and stay alert to when we’re being gulled and who we can trust.
Thank you very much. I'm long, long overdue one of my rambling fishing videos. I was in the process yesterday of doing an outdoors video on how the North East tries to cover its history through planting woods on the old slag heaps, but my dog chased a pheasant and I had to scrap the project for the day while I went after her.
I wade through your misery porn posts in the slowly fading hope of just one more rambling fishing video ;-) It was the fishing (and lack of fish) and the epic Old Man And The Sea evoking battle with the seal that hooked me. I'm owning that weak pun proudly.
My take on AI is that it will become groupthink mixed with design by committee, but I think AI as the grey goo of the internet is an astute prediction.
I'm at the point where I don't believe anything anymore until time and independent verification comes. Honestly, it's better that way. There's damn little I NEED to know about right away that isn't right outside my door, so a little time and a lot of skepticism is healthy.
It is jarring, on a related note, to find out just how much I did think was true about the world and American history and politics was a lie, fake, an op.
I wonder whether that wouldn´t be a good thing if lots of people started being very skeptical basically about everything that they did not see with their own eyes. Perhaps it´ll be like the Middle Ages again in terms of information.
Perhaps so. There has to be a place for logic and repeatable proofs. The truth must be knowable. However, anyone telling you 'this is the truth' should be tested and held to scrutiny.
Maybe, as many have done with the telly (aka the moron's lantern), it is also time to switch off the computer too. There is much to be said for the old fashioned wireless.
I just think that AI means that how we define actual value will change. Anything that has real value cannot be created by AI. This may lead humans to discover that all creative media has no genuine value whatsoever and, given the group of people who most benefit from creative media, that may not be a bad thing.
The problem is that AI might soon be able to build and control robotics so effectively that it can create organic matter and living creatures (including humans). When this happens, there just isn't any value left in anything at all.
Perhaps that is when this particular simulation is ended and the data is added to what has already been collated from the quadrillion advanced simulations that have already been run by just one of the countless AI systems currently in operation?
I do not think AI will advance to such an advanced stage in the foreseeable future. Beside the question whether that is possible at all in the first place, I think by now it has become increasingly clear that technological and scientific progress is slowing considerably. I think there´ll be enough progress for really convincing deepfakes and the like, with which we´ll be swamped, but not for skynet remote-controling replicating robot-dogs.
When it comes to AI, genuineness and humanity, you've got to play the game SOMA. I'm telling you it's right up your alley mate.
I won't spoil much, but there is an AI in the game which is programmed to keep humans alive, whatever the cost and so turns them into abominations to keep them alive for the good of the mission.
Took the opportunity to rewatch the 4k Total Recall re-release at the pictures after the coof bullshit calmed down with the Missus. Still holds up, classic film.
As an aside, going to the pictures when cinemas reopened after that first coof lockdown in 2020 was glorious, classic movie screenings to very small, quiet audiences minding their own business..
Sad how quickly it rolled back to loud, adolescent dickheads watching endless sub-par generic, woke capeshit.
As I started the article, the dread of recognizing that the powers that be will exploit this issue to the fullest, to be the saviors of "our" truth. Sure enough, there it was towards the end of the article. I can't imagine a scenario where this ends well. The internet may now be made fundamentally useless for much information, the exact opposite of what it was meant to do.
Really nice piece, I totally agree and wrote a similar piece here, I reckon many in this space were having similar ideas. https://open.substack.com/pub/moosefootloose/p/deep-fakes-and-digital-id?r=1ct6q0&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
Excellent!
I'll pin it here in the comments.
AI must surely be the most terrible thing ever wrought by human effort, far more terrifying than the H-bomb. My mind literally blows a gasket when considering AI and its myriad malign possibilities.
I've felt that way ever since staggering out of the ABC cinema in Bradford one Saturday evening in the summer of 1985, blown away by a (strangely unheralded) film called The Terminator....and the horror of Skynet.
AI has always been presented to the public as a fait accompli, just another 'inevitable' aspect of so-called 'progress' . Yet it didn't 'just happen'. Somebody came up with it. Somebody wanted it, and somebody funded it. AI represents the terrible harvest of a mighty R &D effort. It would be very interesting to look at its origins, development, funding and ownership.
I shall do just that when time permits. Thank you for another thoughtful piece, Morgoth.
Thanks, and yes, we have to question the idea of inevitability. What exactly is the purpose of a thing, is it worth the negatives? And so on.
It actually opens up quite the philosophical can of worms.
The farcical part of all this is that AI will eventually destroy those very hand-rubbers that funded its development. Not before it does for the rest of us, of course.
I’ll be honest with you Morgoth, when I heard that clip of Emma Watson, a terrifying thought dawned on me. How will we know if our favourite content creators, like yourself, have not been covertly booted off the internet and replaced with an AI voice? If even we plebs can create convincing AI voice clips or pictures, then the regime certainly has the more advanced tech to create indistinguishable results. I’m not trying to create hysteria here, but I can’t help but think I won’t know either way if I’m really hearing the voice of E Michael Jones on his newest podcast for example, or a generated voice, which might be programmed to slowly transition his talking points to a more leftist and globalist rhetoric, thereby influencing his listeners to go along with what he has said.
The same goes for written text, how does anyone know I’m not AI typing this? No one but me can know.
Even as far back as Forrest Gump in the early 90s, where they had to use those box computers, they managed to create convincing CGI that the viewer could not discern from real footage. It’s made me realise that probably, over 90% of the Covid stuff we saw, even on TV, was fake. This sudden access to the technology seems like a revelation of the method to me.
I’m not pessimistic either though, I just think we’ll have to be extra cautious but in the end rely on old physical books, religious texts and philosophy, and of course real human interaction in the future if we want to make any decisions. After all, how can what we see or hear on a screen truly dictate what we do in our lives unless we let it?
I'm thinking that eventually I'll have to show my face, problem is that can be faked too. I think people like myself and E Michael Jones will be fine mainly because we go live on streams which can't be faked.
But, I can imagine it being impossible for new people to emerge without the allegation being hurled at them that they're fake. On a platform such as Twitter this is probably already happening, they could literally replace leftist influencers with AI bots.
How can I know it’s truly live or not though? Calling in and asking a question? Okay - I understand that might be getting too paranoid at that point, still, I do think about chucking my ‘smart’ phone in the bin more and more everyday now. Reality when viewed from the internet does feel like it’s collapsing or at least fragmented beyond repair.
Didn’t mean to make you feel you have to dox yourself by the way, it really was what came into my mind though.
That’s true about Twitter, the same could be said for rightwing accounts that may pop up.
There is no way, because the human brain is just something else that AI eventually learns to effectively imitate. Our destruction looks to inevitable, unless we start destroying technology rather than letting it advance further. We won't do that though. Even among the dissident right, there is no appetite for even getting rid of the internet.
Obviously, I myself am not prepared to either which is why I'm still able to comment on this article. I cannot recall any moment of genuine pleasure the internet has given me, in the last 25 years, yet I'm as hooked on it as the rest of you are. I need it to be taken away from me. Choice is not always a good thing, because human beings are flawed.
Digital ID and cryptographic signatures ought to solve that issue. Convenient? Eh?
I'll just say I'm with jay dyer here , our entire reality is fake and gay. The internet has been fake since about 2016 with most comments on twitter ext as A.I programs and bots , manufacturing consent as gnome Chomsky puts it
Unless you can check in person with your physical senses, verification seems impossible now thanks to the unveiling of this new round of tech.
What I've come to ask of what I see is not "is this real?", but rather "why am I seeing this?". I believe that everything we see has been chosen for us, either by algorithm or by hand. Questioning motivations, instead of truths, has made more sense of the world to me.
Thanks for all the stimulating articles Morgoth, and have a great weekend!
Just wanted to take this opportunity to say how much I enjoy everything you’ve produced, written and video pieces. I first heard of your work through the Alex Kashuta interview, and am catching up with all your YouTube content. I was so impressed I signed up for the substack.
You have a lovely way with words, while I agree with at least 90% of your political and cultural opinions I most enjoy the pieces on nature, the seasons, just observations on life. The video with all the clips from the English seashore in what looks like the 50’s was heartbreakingly beautiful.
I loved the one on “women know your dog breeds”, although a well trained Alsatian (German Shepherd in America) should be controllable by anyone. We’ve run into more than a few off leash loonies and mine was bitten badly by a spaniel one third her size.
This is sobering stuff you’ve written here, and while we all should have seen it coming it does raise a lot of unanswerable questions. The idea that they can further demonize and weaponize the right while scaring people off from what may be the only real life affirming information they can encounter is something we need to be aware of. Forewarned is forearmed as they say, but it has to keep being repeated and we have to try and stay alert to when we’re being gulled and who we can trust.
Keep up the good work!
Thank you very much. I'm long, long overdue one of my rambling fishing videos. I was in the process yesterday of doing an outdoors video on how the North East tries to cover its history through planting woods on the old slag heaps, but my dog chased a pheasant and I had to scrap the project for the day while I went after her.
I wade through your misery porn posts in the slowly fading hope of just one more rambling fishing video ;-) It was the fishing (and lack of fish) and the epic Old Man And The Sea evoking battle with the seal that hooked me. I'm owning that weak pun proudly.
My take on AI is that it will become groupthink mixed with design by committee, but I think AI as the grey goo of the internet is an astute prediction.
AI morgoth would be an easy spot. Just wait for it to say "afua hirsch". Anything other than "A-OOO-FAH" and you know its not the real McCoy.
I'm at the point where I don't believe anything anymore until time and independent verification comes. Honestly, it's better that way. There's damn little I NEED to know about right away that isn't right outside my door, so a little time and a lot of skepticism is healthy.
It is jarring, on a related note, to find out just how much I did think was true about the world and American history and politics was a lie, fake, an op.
I wonder whether that wouldn´t be a good thing if lots of people started being very skeptical basically about everything that they did not see with their own eyes. Perhaps it´ll be like the Middle Ages again in terms of information.
Perhaps we have to accept we cannot be objective and only trust our subjective observation of the real world around us.
Perhaps so. There has to be a place for logic and repeatable proofs. The truth must be knowable. However, anyone telling you 'this is the truth' should be tested and held to scrutiny.
Maybe, as many have done with the telly (aka the moron's lantern), it is also time to switch off the computer too. There is much to be said for the old fashioned wireless.
I just think that AI means that how we define actual value will change. Anything that has real value cannot be created by AI. This may lead humans to discover that all creative media has no genuine value whatsoever and, given the group of people who most benefit from creative media, that may not be a bad thing.
The problem is that AI might soon be able to build and control robotics so effectively that it can create organic matter and living creatures (including humans). When this happens, there just isn't any value left in anything at all.
Perhaps that is when this particular simulation is ended and the data is added to what has already been collated from the quadrillion advanced simulations that have already been run by just one of the countless AI systems currently in operation?
I do not think AI will advance to such an advanced stage in the foreseeable future. Beside the question whether that is possible at all in the first place, I think by now it has become increasingly clear that technological and scientific progress is slowing considerably. I think there´ll be enough progress for really convincing deepfakes and the like, with which we´ll be swamped, but not for skynet remote-controling replicating robot-dogs.
When it comes to AI, genuineness and humanity, you've got to play the game SOMA. I'm telling you it's right up your alley mate.
I won't spoil much, but there is an AI in the game which is programmed to keep humans alive, whatever the cost and so turns them into abominations to keep them alive for the good of the mission.
Took the opportunity to rewatch the 4k Total Recall re-release at the pictures after the coof bullshit calmed down with the Missus. Still holds up, classic film.
As an aside, going to the pictures when cinemas reopened after that first coof lockdown in 2020 was glorious, classic movie screenings to very small, quiet audiences minding their own business..
Sad how quickly it rolled back to loud, adolescent dickheads watching endless sub-par generic, woke capeshit.
Ok, fair enough. I can do it my end with a program which takes the audio out of the whole upload.
Thanks again Morgoth.
As I started the article, the dread of recognizing that the powers that be will exploit this issue to the fullest, to be the saviors of "our" truth. Sure enough, there it was towards the end of the article. I can't imagine a scenario where this ends well. The internet may now be made fundamentally useless for much information, the exact opposite of what it was meant to do.
There is no lie in nature, or the Bible. I'm clinging on to these more as the world gets more 🤡! I do love total recall!! So much fun. Thanks morgoth