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ZorbaTHut  2yr ago (text post)   45539 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 5, 2022

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You're underselling the effect of these things because they're normal now, but we used to live in a world where on-demand entertainment meant picking one of 3 channels on TV whose content was made by very similar people. Hell, there was a world where to even own a copy of a book was a huge status symbol, because we didn't have a way of quickly copying them. The democratization brought by computers, the Internet, new tools, etc. has created a golden age of creativity.

In previous eras, if you wanted to be an artist, you needed a wealthy person to sponsor you. Now, open a Twitter or ArtStation account and get to work. If you are a writer with ideas too weird for publishers, you can get a following on Twitter and outsell most published authors. Musician? No need to sign a deal with a label anymore, just make good music and network. Interested in video? There's YouTube, TikTok, Vimeo, etc. Take your pick of media — books, games, short videos, fanfiction — it has either been improved by or invented as a result of new technologies. If your media is too samey, then that might be due to a lack of looking on your part.

My fear is we will turn us into mindless consumers, incapable of creating anything beautiful anymore, or even understanding the world around us.

Why is this? From my point of view new tech that democratizes creation is the best solution to those that would like to gatekeep and limit the range of acceptable thought. If people seem dumber now because of things like Twitter, I'd counter that the average person isn't much of a thinker anyway and you're just able to see them more clearly now.

The democratization brought by computers, the Internet, new tools, etc. has created a golden age of creativity.

You go on to describe what I already described in my comment. Yes, computers have made it easier than ever before to create art, and the Internet made it easier to publish it... but I just don't see the explosion of creativity. In fact creative people seem to be barely hanging on, against all odds. Everything is set up encourage commentary and criticism, rather than actual creative expression, and on top of that, to do it off the cuff, rather than plan you want to say.

This isn't necessarily the fault of the Internet. Like I said, I do think the creative utopia is theoretically possible, but to get there, we need a lot more than tools to make stuff as cheaply and easily as possible.

Why is this?

Because the less you practice something the worse you become at it, and AI generated art doesn't give you a lot to practice.

If people seem dumber now because of things like Twitter

First of all, I'm not on Twitter, so I don't think it's that. I'm not even sure if people are dumber now (though I am open to the possibility), I just think the kind of people that would use to play music at your local pub, paint, or join a theatre group, increasingly just don't bother anymore, and that AI will only make it worse.

In fact creative people seem to be barely hanging on, against all odds.

They seem to be flourishing. It feels like every day I can find something new and amazing that I'd never heard about before. The problem is that there is too much good stuff out there right now, because as an individual you have limited free time and lots of responsibilities and goals.

Because the less you practice something the worse you become at it, and AI generated art doesn't give you a lot to practice.

I can see that. I still think art as a hobby will be widespread despite it not being economically viable. Art as a means to an end is where things get exciting. To give an example from my own life, I moved for work and started an online tabletop campaign with some friends of mine. This is normally something I'd do in person, but the situation is what it is. Moving online has its drawbacks but also gives me a lot of opportunities to increase the production value of my games with pictures and maps while we play. I'm not great at drawing and it isn't feasible to make that much art myself, but being able to generate it instead of hoping I can google an approximation of what I want to show? That's really exciting.

I just think the kind of people that would use to play music at your local pub, paint, or join a theatre group, increasingly just don't bother anymore, and that AI will only make it worse.

An overabundance of entertainment does make it easier to just consoom, but better tools and more time due to cheap/free labor from automation similarly frees up creatives to create. We'll have to see how it balances out. We used to have to have 9 farmers to support 1 non farmer. Better technology has turned that number on its head, and I would bet on it continuing to do so.

It feels like every day I can find something new and amazing that I'd never heard about before.

In the off chance you haven't come across them...

Kill Six Billion Demons

Unsounded

Black and Blue

Thanks! I've heard the names of some before but often a mention on the motte is a good push to actually give something a read.

They seem to be flourishing. It feels like every day I can find something new and amazing that I'd never heard about before. The problem is that there is too much good stuff out there right now, because as an individual you have limited free time and lots of responsibilities and goals.

I don't know if I'd call 2013 "almost every day", and I only skimmed, so I don't know if it's amazing, but setting issues like this aside, the problem is most definitely not that there's too much stuff. I can accept the idea of Big Tech, and Big Media conspiring to hide all the good stuff from us, and flooding us with mediocre crap, but not that I never saw this comic because there's so much good stuff out there.

I still think art as a hobby will be widespread despite it not being economically viable.

I sure hope so, but I'm worried. Few forces are as powerful as human laziness, and even personally, I can feel myself giving into it quite often.

That's really exciting.

To be fair, I also know where you're coming from. I have my own art project, where I used AI generated voices to make a... I suppose "short horror story" would be the best description. Yeah, was loads of fun! But so was early Youtube, and now it's corporate schlock. I'm worried same thing will happen with AI.

We used to have to have 9 farmers to support 1 non farmer. Better technology has turned that number on its head, and I would bet on it continuing to do so.

Yeah, but that was about materially supporting people. For the most part, you don't run into weird Pareto-distribution winner-takes-it-all social dynamics, when switching from farming to non-farming labour.

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