Category Archives: Uncategorized

<< Liberated Merit >>

There will come a day
foresee the futurists

you will be able
to excavate

a saturation remanence of a
probabilistically made up history

you will be able
to unearth

the generated steps
on a Moon landing film set

you will be able
to dust off

The flat Earth from bloated dreams
and pigeons and turtles with girth

you will be able
to identify

those who claim no expertise
yet by doing so get away with accolades

you will be able
to say you were enabled

There will come a day
we will claim you had agency

you will be able
to deny that

and as for this life beautiful
you smile, truce, and let us play truth

to the empowered.

                          —animasuri’24

—-•
trigger

Emirbayer, M., & Mische, A. (1998). What Is Agency? American Journal of Sociology, 103(4), 962–1023. https://doi.org/10.1086/231294

Floridi, L., Cowls, J., Beltrametti, M., Chatila, R., Chazerand, P., Dignum, V., Luetge, C., Madelin, R., Pagallo, U., Rossi, F., Schafer, B., Valcke, P., & Vayena, E. (2018). AI4People-An Ethical Framework for a Good AI Society: Opportunities, Risks, Principles, and Recommendations. Minds and Machines, 28(4), 689–707. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11023-018-9482-5

Hitlin, S., & Elder, G. H. (2007). Time, Self, and the Curiously Abstract Concept of Agency. Sociological Theory, 25(2), 170–191. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9558.2007.00303.x

Independent High-level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence (AI HLEG) set-up by the European Commission. (2020, July 17). The Assessment List for Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence (ALTAI) for self-assessment. Online: European Union. Last retrieved on January 6, 2023 from https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/assessment-list-trustworthy-artificial-intelligence-altai-self-assessment AND https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/dae/document.cfm?doc_id=68342 AND https://ec.europa.eu/futurium/en/ethics-guidelines-trustworthy-ai/register-piloting-process-0.html

Tevlin, M. (2024). Assumptions Become Reality. Assume That I Can. World Down Syndrome. IN: Willingham, AJ. (2024, March 22). This viral Down Syndrome ad is smashing assumptions from every angle. Online: CCN Health. https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/03/22/health/down-syndrome-ad-madison-tevlin-wellness-cec AND https://youtu.be/9HpLhxMFJR8?si=ghyt0QPnODMPWPKq

<< The Intelligent Teeth of Artificial Times >>

While we are collectively & synchronously brushing our teeth –in harmony with taking “the World From Another Point of View,” as the Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman encourages us, (1973)– let us revisit Norbert Wiener.

Besides likely Feynmanian brushing, Norbert also made a few predictions through his publications about “the development of controlled machines and about the corresponding techniques of automatization.” (1960)

Playing with Feynman, when we brush teeth at that sharp Earthly edge of day-to-night, & vice versa, have we been developed into a collective controlled machine by expert “dentists” & “parents” alike? Wiener claimed to foresee this having “important consequences affecting the society of the future.” (Wiener 1960)

Here is one of his 1960 predictions. Several of its attributes might harmonic oscillate with today’s AI applications & mythologies, grinding away at the socially-cleansed enamel we hold so dear:

“If we use, to achieve our purposes, [0] a mechanical agency [1] with whose operation we cannot efficiently interfere [2] once we have started it, [3] because the action is so fast [4] and irrevocable that we have not the data [5] to intervene before the action is complete, [6] then we had better be quite sure that the purpose put into the machine [0] is the purpose which we really desire [7] and not merely a colorful imitation [8] of it”

Today, more than 60 years later: what are the new points of view relatable to achieving our purposes? That is, where the “point” in the “point of view” itself (à la Feynman) is innovative (irrespective of any of our technologies being more, or less, innovative)? Above I highlighted 8 attributes in Wiener’s quote that trigger both teeth grinding & the consideration of view-pointing in the imagined character writing this post. Below, I will touch on only three of those (if any one wishes I can also touch on the others)

This post does not pretend to answer the existence of innovating points of view. Besides hinting at some present concerns & polemic or hyped tensions (Wiener 1960, Samuel 1960) going back to the early days of ethics surrounding AI as a field, this post lets you widen your own points of view

& yet, we can note with text, context & subtext that “therefore, the task is not so much to see what no one has seen before as to think about what no one has yet thought about what everyone sees. That’s why it takes so much more to be a philosopher than a physicist” (Schopenhauer 1851)

As an influencing side note: in so many ways it is ironical that this quote is not a quote, as many claim on our (mis)informing internet, by the physicist Schrödinger. Either way, in allowing us a place in & a sense of the world, this quote can be extended: it is also our task to relationally look backward, forward, presently, outward & inward, far & nearby, & always confidently celebrate doubt

ITEM [0]

“purposes:” are these now aligned with needs, urgencies, importance? Who is “we”? Whose purposes, needs, urgencies and weighing of importance is addressed and is answered? If probably not all (and if any) needs (etc.) are considered or met, then who is affected by the consequential ethical debt?

Atari, M., Xue, M. J., Park, P. S., Blasi, D., Henrich, J. (2023, Sep 22). Which Humans?. Harvard University, University of Massachusetts Amherst. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/5b26t.

Lazar, Seth, and Alondra Nelson. “AI Safety on Whose Terms?” Science 381, no. 6654 (July 14, 2023): 138–138. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adi8982.

Petrozzino, C. (2021) “Who Pays for Ethical Debt in AI?” AI and Ethics 1, no. 3 (August 1, 2021): 205–8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43681-020-00030-3.

ITEM [1]

agency has been understood as a “temporally embedded process of social engagement, informed by the past (in its “iterational” or habitual aspect) but also oriented toward the future (as a “projective” capacity to imagine alternative possibilities) and toward the present (as a “practical-evaluative” capacity to contextualize past habits and future projects within the contingencies of the moment)” (Emirbayer et al. 1998)

Emirbayer, Mustafa, and Ann Mische. “What Is Agency?” American Journal of Sociology 103, no. 4 (1998): 962–1023. https://doi.org/10.1086/231294.

Does this fit any or all (labeled) agent?

ITEM [5]

quality collection of data (e.g., in pre-process: consent, IPR, right to be forgotten. In post-output: libel via the mislabeled “hallucinations”) is unique from quality of data.  

Garvie, C. (2019). Garbage In, Garbage Out. Face Recognition on Flawed Data. Center on Privacy & Technology (Georgetown Law. May 16, 2019. https://www.law.georgetown.edu/privacy-technology-center/publications/garbage-in-garbage-out-face-recognition-on-flawed-data/.

References:

Feynman, R. (1973). Take The World From Another Point Of View. IN: a presentation of Films for the Humanities & Sciences, Inc. Yorkshire Television. Color Production. https://archive.org/details/richard-feynman-take-the-world-from-another-point-of-view  (00.20 – 1:40)

Samuel, A. L. (1960). Some Moral and Technical Consequences of Automation–A Refutation. Science, 132(3429), 741–742. doi:10.1126/science.132.3429.741  

Schopenhauer, A. (1851) Parerga und Paralipomena: Kleine Philosophische Schriften. Volume 2, paragraph 76, p 93. Berlin: A. W. Hayn. Original: “Daher ist die Aufgabe nicht sowohl zu sehen was noch keiner gesehen hat, als bei Dem was Jeder sieht, zu denken was noch Keiner gedacht hat. Darum auch gehört so sehr viel mehr dazu, ein Philosoph als ein Physiker zu seyn.” https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_WuUOAAAAIAAJ/page/92/mode/2up

Wiener, N. (1960). Some Moral and Technical Consequences of Automation. Science 131, 1355-1358. DOI:10.1126/science.131.3410.1355

<< Prostitute Poet  >>

Some poets are two-liners some are three

They repeat in and out of stride with the page

they call in at the least human hour for errands from the mind coped with ease and pulled out of a hat dangling with whistles and their phrasing ringing a bell It’s the sexual orientation between pen and paper do you carry it left or rightward penetrating upper layers angled onto the smooth skin of the empty canvas period and then nothing more off to the publisher who sanctions the matrimony with a public statement as words as pubic hair as sprinkled as snow as sugar sweet enticement of high brow pornography let the cultured look in for you perform a two by two or a threesome lined up on a sheet of promise and a hint of a punctum as the final resting place for remembrance until the next riddle comes along

 

                                                   —animasuri’23 

<< Ignoring Bodies of Work >>


wishing a painting
ground pulped juice
with pigment of berries: circular red

wiping with Gustav
fills lips color
worn bodies of reflection: citrus gold

windows on soles
hold ceramic deeds
would wooden surface: crunch popped

when stills notice
gushing feeding hungering
wayward digitization exhibition: crippled voyeur

wiping with Gustav
feet fingers faces
wiping sour I was there: criminal allure

                                   

                           —animasuri’23 





           ref: IMG_20230708_084746_1.jpg
           8 Jul 2023, at 15:42 via Dr. WSA


Epilogue: “IMG_20230708_084746_1.jpg” or a picture speaks a thousand words. What if one hints at these thousand words and then removes the picture? Does this pervert, augment, represent what “IMG_20230708_084746_1.jpg” visualizes or what one imagines it visualizes?

<< I could >>


I could rekindle faith
now that what was known
Has been been balled into

The enticement of the Elegant Demon
If it were not for Peaches, Sweet Thing
Strange Fruits and Poplar Trees

There is no courage in daring to be different
if the metaphors change while his urges remain, main and mean

troubles do not melt when the toy hardens
into the stake for the taking and breaking
loaning the moan to the soft, ripped other

for the second release of one’s own selfish lazy pleasure; it feels nice from where the taker’s standing: I could, I could I will I did

Drop her for soon the year will be over
all could be, tailored I could be, it could be
The Elegant Demon.


—animasuri’22
24 December 2022
Beijing

<< Same Utopia Different Tech >>


Warning:
the following might induce
undesired palpitations of heart and ego.

Is there a scientist out there?
Is there one out there
in the field of computer science or physics
and, yes, perhaps chemistry?
Is there, instead, perhaps a mathematician among you?

Is there an academic
who would prefer not to be treated with respect,
not with compassion, not with duty of care
nor with supportive discernment for their life?

Yes, note the “not.”

Just one,
one who prefers
not too be explained how they are being transcoded (into datasets),
treated and used
for the well-being of any unknown other,
who might, or might not, include themselves?

Just one, any one?

Is there one
that could transcode
these previously-mentioned processes
(for those who forgot: compassion, respect, duty-of-care, positive discernment for life)
into a complex of mathematical functions
that are narrated as being artificial mimicry of neural networks?

Is there just that one
who would claim to be able
or simply willing to do the previous
with or without a kiss-and-make-up with deductive logic
to be turned into symbolic artificiality,

creating a neuro-symbolic system
worthy of harmony, beauty, good and right among humans; amidst present-day biological life?

Any 1? Or would anyone rather wish to ask why and what need that would serve ?

—animasuri’22

<< Diffused Referencing >>


Diffusion Models are a digital technology allowing for graphic output, triggered by (human) prompting of the tech, with a well-groomed (human-written) textual phrasing. This here is a verbal play on these models, back to human-struggled and confused text. It’s all hand made. If you are an engineer or scientist you might find it irritating or infantile. Yes, it is human play. Hence you are most invited reading it.

Please read with as much “wink” you wish to add, to make it digestible.  [ diffused translation: imagine a solid, colorful Polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride wink-diffusion slider on a meaning-making mix console]

as for the above visual: resist being mesmerized. (A diffused paraphrasing from an utterance by an actual human academic)

Welcome to the real of Referencing Technology (RefTech). [diffused translation: welcome to the extremely large models with billions of features and a referenced database, as part of a pattern recognizing technology]. There is meaning here, you do think to recognize something. Your brain is obsessively trying to place it.  

We trust the referencing automated by the RefTech to output a nonreferencable. In the nonreferencable we trust. [ diffused translation: imagine a visualization of an unreachable heavenly ivory tower, domesticated by a wizard behind a curtain telling you: “it’s all your creativity, kid!”]

Some might imagine that for thousands of years we have been preparing for our RefTech by creating narratives and spin-off institutions of that what should not be named (ie not referenced) and by diluting that what could have been named (ie observed, tested, deduced, inferred or otherwise transparently thought-exercised) with gradual, unveiling, and yes, humanly failing effort. [diffused translation: envision a visual of an organic, mysterious yet liberating RefTech as the 3D rendered misinformed cherry on a simulated cake, presented to celebrate humanity’s greatest achievement: your tweaking and prompting into the world]

The recipe is simple: forget roots and assign metaphysical magic to that what is no longer known, not yet known, or made to be kept unknown. [diffused translation: the unknown known of a photorealistic word to pixel, birthed by your hyperrealistic yet de-textured mind to smoothened hand]. 

What better augmentation to this non-linear development by creating not only that what should not be referenced and also cannot be referenced —by giving users a virtual slider or two to fiddle with— and out comes an uncanny close-enough. 

In a desert of the real can grow a beckoning flower that sirens ownership. Is this desert from, of or via Boudrillard?

Were his words diffused, resynthesized and co-opted by the first film in the Matrix series & then later taken by Žižek for a book title or did the imperial uber-randomness strike twice? 

Or trice: Boudrillard himself might have reformatted the idea of the desert from other authors who described “real virtuality,” hyperreality, “death of the real” or deserts as ideal places for forty days long visions of real proportions.

These (non)references could understandably be upsetting to some reader (eg if the ontology of one’s measurable and almost-tangible deductive logic becomes endangered or upset), or too hyped by yet others who “enjoy” the less measurable. [diffused translation: false dichotomies are such easy and low hanging fruits]. 

RefTech as a “wished for” technology to allow more anthropomorphization. This offered by tactile interaction, into the idealized & utopian “geniusness” of creative output easily diffusible by the click of a “button.” Buttons and diffusions allowing it and oneself to become as-if-one’s-own. The “beauty” of the paradox does not go unnoticed realizing the single spacetimed button leading to (entropic) diffusion; thermodynamically atomic.

This process is fashioned all the while we are allowed to mechanize, simplify or deny the human, and the humane of the creative relationships, weavable within the real of you and me, ever slightly touching indexes. (Yes, in metaphorical counterpoint, some might now be reminded of Bob Dylan and his diffusions of man across the fields upon which winds howl. No, no one would think of a chapel here. The latter is the elephant asked not to think about and this so not to slide toward yielding it with historic and spiritual meaning).

Granted, with the RefTech we are offering and answering unknown-needs in a metaworld of unknown-urgency: the (lesser/greater) geniuses among us do gain access to tools for diffused referencing, while the mean of the common among us gain and repurpose play and distractors 

RefTech doesn’t enable the creator and  “prompt engineer”to reference all the referenced works used to create “real” & more-than-human output, as much as any word written here was once in a past referencable to its ancient Creators, yet now diluted and lost in the diffusions of human-mounted noise.

Welcome to the real unreal engines where history is ravaged; welcome to the pixel of a word spread out as a dust spec(k) of ridiculed substance into an unlabeled future.

references.


Sohl-Dickstein, J. (2015). “Deep Unsupervised Learning using Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics” https://arxiv.org/pdf/1503.03585.pdf

ImageGen by Google: https://imagen.research.google

Dall-E2 by OpenAI: https://openai.com/dall-e-2/

Huggingface: https://huggingface.co/blog/ and: https://huggingface.co/blog/stable_diffusion

crAIyon:https://www.craiyon.com/

StabilityAI: https://beta.dreamstudio.ai/home

midjourney: https://www.midjourney.com/home/

Automated prompt generation: https://typestitch.com

no I did not add all authors whom I diffused across and in between the above words.

—-•
questions:

• What could ‘RefTech’ be imagined to be(come)?
• What could “referencing humans” (be imagined to) mean to you?

source: (wink)


<< World is a Story >>


what world do you live

with hawk-eyes on her
safeguarding she
does not create disorder

what world do you create

with yelling in her face
taking away her words
doing so she cannot speak

what world do you hide

convincing her being the barer
of chaos and fear.
then as much:

she will bring the change

—animasuri’22

thinking of Albert Woodfox
passing August 4, 2022
Woodfox, A. (2019). “Solitary. Unbroken by four decades in solitary confinement. My story of transformation and hope.” New York: Grove Press

<<γνῶσις>>


I seem to be against all institutionalised, ritualised, and mediated forms of religion. 

and yet,

“G*d” is a Pythagorean cup for everything I don’t understand
I’ve been given an endless supply of this ambrosia

and then,

When rising toward in-sight
I become flushed

—animasuri’22

the three visuals of seemingly “antique plates” were created in the liminality between text and tech: artificially with craiyon by using the above humanly-composed poem as input. Of the latter, and preceding feeding it to craiyon, the first line was perversely, yet with a human in the loop, substituted with a paraphrased version, artificially iterated with quillbot .