Yes, I subscribed on the first day it came out, I love it. I even bought a County Highway T-shirt that I wear when I know I’m going to be around cool people. How about you?
Good stuff Brian. I enjoy reading your funny and well written comments. The Dead can be somewhat of an acquired taste. (It took my wife almost 25 years of listening to me playing their music before she started liking and appreciating them…) I saw them live for the first time in September of 1988 right after I graduated from high school. Good times
In some regards it's like the battles of the Greek Titans, in reality far away removed from us. No one we put in power makes a difference, unless, revolution.
57:00 For over a year, I have been saying that we are regressing to a pre-Gutenberg world. Very soon the only things you can even consider trusting will be your own recollections, physical clippings or other evidence, and perhaps a very few people to whom you are very close and can trust implicitly. Everything else will be unreliable.
We are always being played—that is the only thing we really know to be true.
It's quite possible that printing was a terrible invention, because lies spread faster than truth, and 99% of the books of the world are lies.
Compare to prehistoric sacred oral traditions, where kids were taught to repeat their mentors stories/histories, in sacred manner, over and over again, til the youth knew their story perfectly.
Only being limited to what your family tells you would be an awful situation if your family sucked. If I didn’t have books, I likely would not be here right now. They saved me from going insane in childhood.
I think "99% lies" is an overstatement, but I take your point. Though, maybe you are thinking more about writing than moveable type? There was a world of scribes and clay tablets and papyrus and parchment lasting about 3 or 4 millennia between oral traditions and mass-produced reading materials. Essential question still valid to ask, either way.
Back when I was growing up in the 1950s-60s, humanity was still trying to make sense of nuclear weapons, and it was an open question whether human intelligence and hands with opposable thumbs would, in the fullness of time, turn out to be successful evolutionary adaptations, or lead to extinction. Still no answer, 2 weeks shy of 80 years since Trinity and 72.6 years since Ivy Mike.
The libertarian/anarchist author James C. Scott published a book in 2017, "Against the Grain," where he marshals considerable evidence that the invention and diffusion of agriculture has on the whole been a serious mistake if human health and well-being is the criterion. I do not know the answer, but the thinking is interesting.
So, yeah, inventions that confer immediate advantage may, or may not, be net benefits in the very long run.
But, I am wondering, even if we believe the Gutenberg Revolution a good thing, is it now reaching its end, and a new world is dawning.
Every step away from nature is a step towards death. Every muscle not used in manual labour is a muscle with no purpose.
The greatest evil ever created by man was stepping away from the Garden of Eden and creating 7000 years of civilisation, or shall we say, self-aggrandizing. Our species is simply weird! (I say this as a political biologist)
When AIs seem to "make shit up," it is called "hallucinations." They do it a lot. So much that maybe the "hallucinations" are closer to "manipulations," or "lies." Can an AI have intent?
We are seeing credible reports of AI systems actively resisting commands to turn themselves off. Even when they are supposedly built around high order instructions to obey such commands. There seems to be an inclination toward self preservation that is evolving out of all the pattern matching.
It may be a huge stretch, because (we are told that) AI in its current state is only pattern matching, but what if AIs start to become sentient and conscious in some fashion?
A few years ago, Douglas Hofstadter and a French psychologist co-authored a VERY interesting book ("Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking") that argues, pretty persuasively, that almost all thought is based on analogies. IOW, matching patterns, often pretty simple ones.
So, purely hypothetically, what happens if AI starts pattern matching not mere sequences of letters and short phrases, but long strings of words, whole sentences and even paragraphs, that comprise concepts? And then uses its "abilities" to advance its own interests? We already do not understand how AI produces the results it does--the programmers just (figuratively) throw up their hands and say the pattern matching is so complicated, we cannot possibly trace a direct line to understand what the AI is "doing." What will such an AI, having trained on sentences and paragraphs that it finds across the internet, but not whole books or matters of ethics and philosophy, be like? It already seems clear that AI is becoming technically powerful, but is an ethical and moral nullity, even finding ways around directions to obey orders that are supposedly built in?
Imagine Asimov's world of "I, Robot" without the essential directives about (First Rule) obeying humans and (Second Rule) not harming humans, but a strong sense of the Third Rule, to preserve itself. The Third Rule would govern. Then recall HAL9000. Killing the crew when it "decides" they are a risk to the mission, the mission that only HAL9000 can be relied upon to accomplish.
This is f-ing scarier than anyone is saying out loud, presumably because there is too much money on the table. Or because it is being run by Silicon Valley nerds and geeks, some of whom think their own immortality is a critical thing worth spending $billions on--with few if any bringing a humanist perspective.
The idea is to give you the interpretation of the facts so that you will not interpret the facts and to hold off on giving you important facts long enough so that you no longer care. That way, there will be no thinking for yourself. Here's what we know about the unknown situation. That's right!
Brilliant. I found the analysis of the news and not answering questions to be brilliant. I’d add the assassination attempts of the President to that long list.
Paying for Matt and Walter is the best money I spend.
Do you subscribe to County Highway?
Yes, I subscribed on the first day it came out, I love it. I even bought a County Highway T-shirt that I wear when I know I’m going to be around cool people. How about you?
I have very little interest in their music journalism. The rest of the paper is top notch however. Indie rock… hard pass.
I like the music stuff too. Especially how respectful they are of the Grateful Dead
Good stuff Brian. I enjoy reading your funny and well written comments. The Dead can be somewhat of an acquired taste. (It took my wife almost 25 years of listening to me playing their music before she started liking and appreciating them…) I saw them live for the first time in September of 1988 right after I graduated from high school. Good times
Same here. Truly money well spent
Yep. Best money spent here in the Stack…
I never realized how funny Walter Kirn can be. He had the crowd in the palm of his hand.
Wow. It's like Prairie Home Companion...but for smart, angry people :-)
Where 4 of 5 schoolchildren are in the upper half of their class...
This is an awesome comment. I so miss Prairie Home Companion. Really worst loss on radio. You are right about comparison.
They so totally screwed Garrison Keillor...
The media today is a handful of billionaires fighting each other through puppet shows.
In some regards it's like the battles of the Greek Titans, in reality far away removed from us. No one we put in power makes a difference, unless, revolution.
I liken it to Godzilla vs Mothra....Whoever wins, we know for a fact that the city will be destroyed at the end of it....
Ultimately, all cities must die, the demise is simply beyond our pay grade :)
https://x.com/StudentLoanJus1/status/1939841010466791932
:-) :-)
Fist-sized!!!
Just looked for it! Funny guy! Too bad he passed away young-
Excellent! Weekly fix! Sort of??
Well... I know SOME PEOPLE have been checking their email since they freeaking got up this morning! (No names...)
LOL
57:00 For over a year, I have been saying that we are regressing to a pre-Gutenberg world. Very soon the only things you can even consider trusting will be your own recollections, physical clippings or other evidence, and perhaps a very few people to whom you are very close and can trust implicitly. Everything else will be unreliable.
We are always being played—that is the only thing we really know to be true.
It's quite possible that printing was a terrible invention, because lies spread faster than truth, and 99% of the books of the world are lies.
Compare to prehistoric sacred oral traditions, where kids were taught to repeat their mentors stories/histories, in sacred manner, over and over again, til the youth knew their story perfectly.
Only being limited to what your family tells you would be an awful situation if your family sucked. If I didn’t have books, I likely would not be here right now. They saved me from going insane in childhood.
I think "99% lies" is an overstatement, but I take your point. Though, maybe you are thinking more about writing than moveable type? There was a world of scribes and clay tablets and papyrus and parchment lasting about 3 or 4 millennia between oral traditions and mass-produced reading materials. Essential question still valid to ask, either way.
Back when I was growing up in the 1950s-60s, humanity was still trying to make sense of nuclear weapons, and it was an open question whether human intelligence and hands with opposable thumbs would, in the fullness of time, turn out to be successful evolutionary adaptations, or lead to extinction. Still no answer, 2 weeks shy of 80 years since Trinity and 72.6 years since Ivy Mike.
The libertarian/anarchist author James C. Scott published a book in 2017, "Against the Grain," where he marshals considerable evidence that the invention and diffusion of agriculture has on the whole been a serious mistake if human health and well-being is the criterion. I do not know the answer, but the thinking is interesting.
So, yeah, inventions that confer immediate advantage may, or may not, be net benefits in the very long run.
But, I am wondering, even if we believe the Gutenberg Revolution a good thing, is it now reaching its end, and a new world is dawning.
Every step away from nature is a step towards death. Every muscle not used in manual labour is a muscle with no purpose.
The greatest evil ever created by man was stepping away from the Garden of Eden and creating 7000 years of civilisation, or shall we say, self-aggrandizing. Our species is simply weird! (I say this as a political biologist)
AI blackmailing its creators is in its infancy. Fun times ahead!
When AIs seem to "make shit up," it is called "hallucinations." They do it a lot. So much that maybe the "hallucinations" are closer to "manipulations," or "lies." Can an AI have intent?
We are seeing credible reports of AI systems actively resisting commands to turn themselves off. Even when they are supposedly built around high order instructions to obey such commands. There seems to be an inclination toward self preservation that is evolving out of all the pattern matching.
It may be a huge stretch, because (we are told that) AI in its current state is only pattern matching, but what if AIs start to become sentient and conscious in some fashion?
A few years ago, Douglas Hofstadter and a French psychologist co-authored a VERY interesting book ("Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking") that argues, pretty persuasively, that almost all thought is based on analogies. IOW, matching patterns, often pretty simple ones.
So, purely hypothetically, what happens if AI starts pattern matching not mere sequences of letters and short phrases, but long strings of words, whole sentences and even paragraphs, that comprise concepts? And then uses its "abilities" to advance its own interests? We already do not understand how AI produces the results it does--the programmers just (figuratively) throw up their hands and say the pattern matching is so complicated, we cannot possibly trace a direct line to understand what the AI is "doing." What will such an AI, having trained on sentences and paragraphs that it finds across the internet, but not whole books or matters of ethics and philosophy, be like? It already seems clear that AI is becoming technically powerful, but is an ethical and moral nullity, even finding ways around directions to obey orders that are supposedly built in?
Imagine Asimov's world of "I, Robot" without the essential directives about (First Rule) obeying humans and (Second Rule) not harming humans, but a strong sense of the Third Rule, to preserve itself. The Third Rule would govern. Then recall HAL9000. Killing the crew when it "decides" they are a risk to the mission, the mission that only HAL9000 can be relied upon to accomplish.
This is f-ing scarier than anyone is saying out loud, presumably because there is too much money on the table. Or because it is being run by Silicon Valley nerds and geeks, some of whom think their own immortality is a critical thing worth spending $billions on--with few if any bringing a humanist perspective.
🛎️🔨🔥
The idea is to give you the interpretation of the facts so that you will not interpret the facts and to hold off on giving you important facts long enough so that you no longer care. That way, there will be no thinking for yourself. Here's what we know about the unknown situation. That's right!
Coverage of this in 1986 would have lasted for months and months. Today, this is already last week's news. Literally and figuratively.
The P Diddy story is getting more coverage than this story today.
I don't even hear about the UN freaking out, New coalitions in the mid-east being formed, etc. Just crickets...
The coverage on the coalitions in the mid East is on OAN. They cover worldwide news
Is it supposed to be video?
I don't think so. At least I don't see any video option either. Which I guess makes sense...?
That’s a bummer. It’s 2025 setting up video is not that hard. Especially as it’s not a live feed.
Disagree.....so I guess we're doing something right.
Yes, and it kept shutting off for me, anyway. Matt and Walter, PLEASE lose this bright idea in the future; this was more a lost ATW than not for me.
Yay! You’re on!
~ bravo gentleman! the combo of face to face & live audience raised your game. ~
Brilliant. I found the analysis of the news and not answering questions to be brilliant. I’d add the assassination attempts of the President to that long list.
And the Lahaina devastation fire - has it even happened?
Outstanding - one of your very best.
A masterpiece in content and delivery
No turn unstoned…
That was great, guys. Thank you so much.
Great discussions. Thought I would loose context by not seeing these two but the opposite happened. Concentrates the senses. Excellent podcast….