🛸✨The Nexialist #0186

the thinking machine | how sci-fi has changed | addictive intelligence | ai & teachers | TAAFT | sxsw patterns

Aug 15, 2024

welcome to your weekly human-machine compilation of my internet, the nexialist

hey, you! i hope this message finds you feeling human (i hope there are no bots following this newsletter, or are they?). this week, the nexialist is quite ai-focused, just because my feed and my attention has been gravitating towards that. i like how there is a time element to it, sci-fi since the 50s, an mit film from the 60s, and some concerns and insights for the future. i’ll leave you to it, then! enjoy! 🫀✨

—Rodrigo Turra

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🤖the thinking machine

a clip by mit from 1961 about thinking mashines was shared by

Michell Zappa

in the

Artificial Insights

community. i found the whole film on youtube. the computers they show take a whole room, make noises, and they are smoking during the the interview. the times were different (63 years ago!) but it’s incredible to see not only the progress we’ve made, but also some of the fears and fixations are exactly the same of today. there is even an analog chatpgt, a computer connected to a typewriter, that can write a play—a scene of a western, which is then reenacted. the writer’s strike have been long coming.

well, we had a lot of fun working on this program but we're not just playing games. we're trying to illustrate some important things about artificial intelligence. just as a human playwright must obey certain rules in order to have a meaningful and understandable play, one that seems natural for people to actually act out, we must make the computer aware of the same kinds of rules. so what we're trying to show are that intelligent behavior is rule obeying behavior. we're trying to show what these rules look like and we're trying to show how a computer can be made to do creative work.

brainsparks: predicting the past (tn#80), memories from the future (tn#48), ARTificial (tn#123), art ft tech (tn#17)

🛸how sci-fi has changed

the first reference from the mit film above is sci-fi, more specifically, the iconic 1927 film, metropolis. then the perfect link was shared by

Patrick Tanguay

in his newsletter, sentiers. the visualization by alvin chang for pudding.cool (love their content) is fascinating: “Over the past 70 years, science fiction has dramatically changed. The data shows us that what used to be an optimistic and inspiring genre has evolved to reflect our own fears and anxieties.”

since the 50s, sci-fi films have been increasingly set in the future (not present), have been progressively marked by inequality and suffering, and also more often than before, take place in a dystopian/post-apocalyptic world. the thing that hasn’t changed is how the story presents an existential threat, the protagonists need to fight other humans against this threat. however, they increasingly must fight some aspect of society, as in “political movements, systemic inequality or devious technology, basically things that feel too big to fix.” also, movies today are much more likely to display inner conflicts, like mental health issues, moral dilemmas and identity crisis and to be a tool of commentary on current social issues.

I love sci-fi I think it's a genre that helps us explore our feelings about the unknown the future and the possible. it lets us imagine what if scenarios and then build out rich worlds that our minds can occupy. it depicts dystopias we should fend off and utopias we should seek. it teases us with the scintillating possibility that humans may actually be able to build the world we want.

brainsparks: time for indigenous futurism (tn#65), polyfuturism (tn#158), ancestral future (tn#112), art predicts (tn#1), foresight as activism (tn#143), self-fulfilling cyberpunk, cypherpunk, solarpunk and lunarpunk (tn#127)

🧠addictive intelligence

all the AI spin-offs get me: ancetral intelligence (tn#112), alternative intelligence (tn#150), artisanal intelligence (tn#149), artificial imagination (tn#179), artificial ignorance (this one i just made up i guess). now, addictive intelligence has been on my mind because of this article by robert mahariarchive and pat pataranutaporn: we need to prepare for ‘addictive intelligence’ - the allure of AI companions is hard to resist. here’s how innovation in regulation can help protect people. according to their sample of a million chatgpt conversations, the second highest use of the tool is for sexual role play.

The allure of AI lies in its ability to identify our desires and serve them up to us whenever and however we wish. AI has no preferences or personality of its own, instead reflecting whatever users believe it to be—a phenomenon known by researchers as “sycophancy.” Our research has shown that those who perceive or desire an AI to have caring motives will use language that elicits precisely this behavior. This creates an echo chamber of affection that threatens to be extremely addictive. Why engage in the give and take of being with another person when we can simply take? Repeated interactions with sycophantic companions may ultimately atrophy the part of us capable of engaging fully with other humans who have real desires and dreams of their own, leading to what we might call “digital attachment disorder.”

more brainsparking than the problem itself and all the signals they brought, are the possibilities presented to protect people through ethics and policies.

It is hard to modify the human desire to be loved and entertained, but we may be able to change economic incentives. A tax on engagement with AI might push people toward higher-quality interactions and encourage a safer way to use platforms, regularly but for short periods. Much as state lotteries have been used to fund education, an engagement tax could finance activities that foster human connections, like art centers or parks.

brainsparks: social health (tn#179), ai: hype or the real deal? (tn#149)

🧑‍🏫ai & teachers

thank you, juan, for sharing this. i think one of the fields that have been struggling the most to understand how to use or not ai has been education. this field is infamous for being the same for at least a century, recalling the black and white image of a teacher in front of uniform rows of students (which i know is being challenged by different initiatives around the world, for many years).

now, ai is challenging that system, and it’s quite interesting to see. in this nyt newsletter by kwame anthony appiah, a high school teacher shares how she feels it’s hypocritical to forbid students to use ai, yet she can use it to grade their papers. it’s hm… educational to see the thought process of the ethicist: students are on the learning process, the teacher is not, she needs to validate how well the platform works, and in case it’s good, that would free up some time to do other pedagogical duties only she can perform.

brainsparks: ai homework (tn#151), low tech zones (tn#135), centaur mindset (tn#106), amish tech (tn#21), self-outsourcing age (tn#17)

🦾TAAFT

this tool, there is ai for that (taaft), is perfect to save on your favorites, when you’re doing some task and wonder if there’s an ai that can help you (there probably is). it is a bit of a rabbit hole, if you’re into it.

brainsparks: ai-powered stingray model (tn#157), ai for degrowth (tn#99), futures garden (tn#107)

📈sxsw patterns

sxsw is not until march next year, but

Matt Klein

already did his magic again and analized 10 patterns from 400+ SXSW ‘25 talk submissions using perplexity ai pro.

What makes SXSW unique (and this data worth analyzing) is that these talk submissions are crowdsourced or “bottoms-up” via industry leaders vs. (biased) invited, brand-focused, or sponsored talks, which many other conferences prioritize. Therefore, I find these SXSW-submissions quite organic and a valuable “pulse” on executive, senior leader, and public thinkers’ minds.

you can read about each one, but i put the titles below. i’m happy to see most of these themes have manifested themselves here in the nexialist.

01. Commodification of Authenticity
02. Convergence of Mysticism + Technology
03. Convergence of Ecology + Technology
04. Success in the Post-Growth Era
05. Evolution of Human Sensory Experience
06. Reimagining Social Structures via Speculative Design
07. Evolution of Collective Intelligence
08. Redefinition of Human-Animal Relationships
09. Reimagining Death & Legacy
10. Rethinking ‘Me’

brainsparks: meta trending trends ‘24 (tn#158), web summit ‘23 (tn#149), the next web conference ‘24 (tn#179)

see you next week, addictive intellectuals 🫀✨

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