Thanks for sticking around. I've always appreciated long-form intellectual articles (that fall short of reading a whole book) that let me think.
It looks like we are really in an experiment of pure market takeover/integration into every facet of life, where it's essentially impossible to leave. Maybe the purpose of this is to provide future generations with a definitive statement of what capitalism is, the same way Israel has written its definitive statement on Zionism, and in that recognition they can choose to do something different.
But in so many industries we now have direct individual subordination to market tendencies. The irony is instead of a stifling publisher, record label, practice, or company acting as a barrier, we face these coercive forces in the raw. Just thinking about being a therapist, ethically you don't want to be financially reliant on your clients. But if you work independently, you are inherently reliant on clients, and this creates a conflict of interest. Everywhere now there are all these conflicts of interest and "incentives" that warp or pollute the function of most aspects of society.
If someone blew up the internet, in the West we'd have a really hard time as the industrial backbone of production is largely gone. Some friends have been proposing how to escape AI influence in the music industry, and one idea is to do everything analog, with tape, and make vinyl records, physical artifacts that have never touched computers would have more inherent value. But we don't actually have the capacity to be making tape, or records, or even analog recording consoles, nor does distributed capital exist to afford building these costly studios. I think the same is happening with book publishing, and happened years ago with film.
I do appreciate what you do, and I do feel there is intentioned signal that makes it through the noise. Having a systems-level detective working for the collective mind has to be important, and even if we are (temporarily?) captured by the system, our minds don't have to be. Unless the extreme-long shot possibility of Evgenia's dictatorship of the proletariate happens, we may have to wait until human tendency and culture finally overindulges in these impulses to such an extreme and absurd extend that we all get sick and decide to move on and wake up a little.
Here's a weird thing about the internet: if you quit writing, I'd feel like I lost a friend. Reading your essays is often a highlight of my day. It's bizarre and irrational, but deep writing that resonates with your own thoughts makes you feel like you found a soul mate. What sucks for the author is that they rarely get to know it, and the little box I'm writing this comment in is entirely inadequate for explaining the depth of this one-sided emotional connection. I'd like to think that somehow, through the fabric of the universe, you'd occasionally feel it, but of course we both know it's bullshit. Nevertheless, this is very real and meaningful to me, and I truly appreciate you.
I experienced this through posting photography on Instagram. It completely took away my sense of what I like myself artistically. Then I joined a photography collective who shared spreadsheets of hashtags that would get the most traction. This was years ago before the algorithm changed and now you need to pay to play. At one point, I had to step back and question why I was letting some non human algorithm dictate what I was inspired by. I love you and Evgenia’s point of view. It has expanded my thinking and I very much appreciate your writing.
> The problem, to her, is that the people don’t know what they want.
When I despair at the state of the world, I remind myself that in the end, people get the government they deserve. If the human race drives itself into extinction, as it likely will, well, we have earned it. I can't control that, but as long as I know that, throughout it all, I did the right thing, that's okay. Somehow, this nihilistic thought brings me peace.
"Ultimately, I stayed" I'm glad for this. Nice essay. +1000 for "media gang bangs", that is fucking right on the money, I lol'd
I would totally miss the internet and everything it provides me (like reading content and reacting here) if it went away but, while I defo feel the same dopamine hits, it seems I'm nowhere near addicted to it as others (thanks be to gawd) I'm far more addicted to my garden and musical instruments and my pals and my pints - the loss of those would be kinda devastating. And the market...the market or a market is everywhere all the time in one way or another. I suppose like almost everything else tech just makes markets mostly faster and shittier? I wonder what difference med school would make - in USA might be worse than media.
Thanks for sticking around. I've always appreciated long-form intellectual articles (that fall short of reading a whole book) that let me think.
It looks like we are really in an experiment of pure market takeover/integration into every facet of life, where it's essentially impossible to leave. Maybe the purpose of this is to provide future generations with a definitive statement of what capitalism is, the same way Israel has written its definitive statement on Zionism, and in that recognition they can choose to do something different.
But in so many industries we now have direct individual subordination to market tendencies. The irony is instead of a stifling publisher, record label, practice, or company acting as a barrier, we face these coercive forces in the raw. Just thinking about being a therapist, ethically you don't want to be financially reliant on your clients. But if you work independently, you are inherently reliant on clients, and this creates a conflict of interest. Everywhere now there are all these conflicts of interest and "incentives" that warp or pollute the function of most aspects of society.
If someone blew up the internet, in the West we'd have a really hard time as the industrial backbone of production is largely gone. Some friends have been proposing how to escape AI influence in the music industry, and one idea is to do everything analog, with tape, and make vinyl records, physical artifacts that have never touched computers would have more inherent value. But we don't actually have the capacity to be making tape, or records, or even analog recording consoles, nor does distributed capital exist to afford building these costly studios. I think the same is happening with book publishing, and happened years ago with film.
I do appreciate what you do, and I do feel there is intentioned signal that makes it through the noise. Having a systems-level detective working for the collective mind has to be important, and even if we are (temporarily?) captured by the system, our minds don't have to be. Unless the extreme-long shot possibility of Evgenia's dictatorship of the proletariate happens, we may have to wait until human tendency and culture finally overindulges in these impulses to such an extreme and absurd extend that we all get sick and decide to move on and wake up a little.
Here's a weird thing about the internet: if you quit writing, I'd feel like I lost a friend. Reading your essays is often a highlight of my day. It's bizarre and irrational, but deep writing that resonates with your own thoughts makes you feel like you found a soul mate. What sucks for the author is that they rarely get to know it, and the little box I'm writing this comment in is entirely inadequate for explaining the depth of this one-sided emotional connection. I'd like to think that somehow, through the fabric of the universe, you'd occasionally feel it, but of course we both know it's bullshit. Nevertheless, this is very real and meaningful to me, and I truly appreciate you.
I experienced this through posting photography on Instagram. It completely took away my sense of what I like myself artistically. Then I joined a photography collective who shared spreadsheets of hashtags that would get the most traction. This was years ago before the algorithm changed and now you need to pay to play. At one point, I had to step back and question why I was letting some non human algorithm dictate what I was inspired by. I love you and Evgenia’s point of view. It has expanded my thinking and I very much appreciate your writing.
> The problem, to her, is that the people don’t know what they want.
When I despair at the state of the world, I remind myself that in the end, people get the government they deserve. If the human race drives itself into extinction, as it likely will, well, we have earned it. I can't control that, but as long as I know that, throughout it all, I did the right thing, that's okay. Somehow, this nihilistic thought brings me peace.
"Ultimately, I stayed" I'm glad for this. Nice essay. +1000 for "media gang bangs", that is fucking right on the money, I lol'd
I would totally miss the internet and everything it provides me (like reading content and reacting here) if it went away but, while I defo feel the same dopamine hits, it seems I'm nowhere near addicted to it as others (thanks be to gawd) I'm far more addicted to my garden and musical instruments and my pals and my pints - the loss of those would be kinda devastating. And the market...the market or a market is everywhere all the time in one way or another. I suppose like almost everything else tech just makes markets mostly faster and shittier? I wonder what difference med school would make - in USA might be worse than media.