Last February, I publicly questioned the existence of Jianwei Xun, an author who published a best-selling, critically acclaimed book titled Hypnocracy: Trump, Musk and the New Architecture of Reality. On his website and on academia.org — the original version of his profile can now be found only on Internet Archive — he claimed to be a Hong Kong-born media philosopher, a Research Fellow at the Institute for Critical Digital Studies in Berlin who had studied political philosophy and media at Dublin University.
Your wonderfully cogent essay has been as impactful for me as my first reading of Being and Nothingness, my first venture into ontology. Except your expository style is far more lucid. You sure have me thinking. Thank you
Thank you, David. My expository style leaves much to be desired ;) I am writing in a foreign language, which means i am constantly struggling with the English syntax. But if the journey weren't as difficult and i didn't face so many hurdles, I probably wouldn't remember it.
"I don’t know which textbook he had in mind, but in order to understand the economic and social dynamics that drive the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution, I am going to consult the copy of Marx’s Capital that sits on my shelf. Admittedly, it needs some dusting."
Check out 'Funky Business" with a tagline of 'Talent makes capital dance' by Jonas Ridderstrāle and Kjell Nordstros, 2000.
Of course, this book was written 25 years ago, at pretty much the beginning of the age you write so insightfully and scarily, about but what it does do, is illustrate the seductive nature of tech as capitalism has made it.
Hah! Did you get any 'official' response from Singen aside from all the angry letters? Sim City eh. Baudrillard's 'Xerox and Infinity' dealt with the actual, ephemeral nature of the medium, though back then, it was phosphor dots not liquid crystal or leds but the medium encourages a kind of 'dream state', an unreality, words, meanings, evaporate, they blur. So, for example, people no longer read, they scan, eyes lighting on words and images that reinforce pre-concieved ideas, so the entire process becomes self-referential, the brain is trapped in a closed loop. Overload! Overload! All meaning is lost! So now, what's real? What is 'real' anyway? The Matrix Rules, OK!
The Department of Culture & Tourism of Singen had sponsored the group exhibition https://erlebe.singen.de/kunst-kultur/kunst-im-oeffentlichen-raum/kunstprojekt-hier-da-und-dort#/article but had no idea of what i would do with the money. I received several cease-and-desist letters many months after the closing of the exhibition and the organizers told me in unequivocal terms that they would not pay for my legal fees if i refused to delete the websites.
How ironic! And they say that the Germans have no sense of humour. So they commission you to produce a work of art (I assume) but don't like your creation. I don't get it. They give you money but don't ask for a brief, a description? So there's no connection between you, the artist and the city of Singen. How bizarre. Have you deleted the websites?
I was selected by the curator of the group exhibition, the department and several sponsors funded it. No one asked me what i would do with the money ;) I was already living in Hong Kong at the time, so i didn't attend the opening. The only physical part of my project consisted of postcards of non-existing Singens, mixed with ordinary ones in various outlets such as bars, newsagents, stationary shops...The websites were taken offline several months later.
"If AI is to assist humans rather than deceive them, then we need a mandatory AI identification system"
... maybe they already thought about the solution, only the other way around.. bio-digital ID for HUMANS, for any digital interaction.. including internet access.. maybe even detectable from electronic apparata one does not actively decide to connect to (es. AI cameras, WIFIs, etc.. )
(the matter is so absurd that every thinkable "solution" leads to even greater dystopia.. some things should simply not exist.. not all that can be done should be done.. power without wisdom puts humanity in the sorcerer's apprentice position..)
another consideration that came to my mind... maybe one may speak of "INFLATION" for the "data capital", as for its progressive loss of value/quality ?
and maybe even, using a natural science jargon metaphor, one may speak of weakening the "data cattle" by INBREEDING?
One defence we have is engagement with each other, of empathy rather than apathy. Your experience of receiving no credit for your detective work on the imposter is an example of how this relationship breaks down. The generosity of earlier generations that gave rise to a vibrant culture out of an expanding economy has been lost to a turf war.
My contention is that the competition, sexism, ego and racism seen in the "pro-China" space, as another example, reflects the bourgeois mindset of those dominating the space.
This failure of relationship and solidarity, where atomised branding and career take precedence, leaves a vacuum that will be filled by the AI monster of your warning essay. And even the progressive wing of social media is REALLY atomised. Shockingly so.
Pushing facts around has become the controlling force driving social media. Imagination is marginalised. The socialist sensibility is lost.
This article is a tour de force. You exposed the cheats but with far more grace than I would, and then packed a wicked punch. You are one of the few who can blend sophisticated theory and investigative depth.
Very interesting article, which raises aspects not always highlighted in the debate on AI. The issue of the energy-intensive aspect of AI is not mentioned - but perhaps it was not necessary, given the focus of the article - so much so that large data centers are now built near nuclear power plants...
I am interested in understanding another aspect instead. Today, as we know, the competition on this ground is fundamentally between the USA and China. I wonder, are these 'degenerative' uses that you talk about in the article equally widespread in the Sinophone ecosphere? Is there - or not - a policy on the part of the CCP on these issues, or does unawareness and/or underestimation prevail there too (at least for now)?
There are so many aspects i could have highlighted, but they fell outside the scope of my article. And i didn't intend to write a book ;) I focused on the impact of AI-generated content on the media, and on producers and consumers of information.
Over forty years ago, I was put down by 'Marxist' academics for describing the new world of computer-mediated data as information capital. How can data be capital they cried? Yet repackaging the same content, over and over in different forms, with each iteration generating value was described to me by the head of a very large publishing corporation I was doing work for, as 'a license to print money'! So I suppose the arrival of 'AI' simply closes the circle started by the arrival of the computer. But I find the creation of 'Jianwei Xun', on one level, hilarious, 'all that's solid melts into data', to paraphrase and I wonder who the hell it is? Clearly, once again, 'the captains of industry' havent't thought it through, all they see is the moolah, short-term gain again.
An excellent and long overdue essay and how prescient was Walter Benjamin eh!
If only people read Marx instead of self-professed Marxists….Yes, Walter Benjamin, and his friend Bertolt Brecht, are evergreen. Benjamin is still widely read, Brecht not so much. Which is a pity.
Well they read him alright but without comprehending. Instead, they bend him to fit their own presumptions. Benjamin and Brecht are not forgotten, at least by some of us, especially Brecht, as the 1930s returns, hopefully to remind us that we've been here before. I try to warn in my latest essay, 'The past returns to haunt us..' but is anyone listening?
Thank you, Anna. I haven't read Rebecca Kuang's book, but I have come across my fair share of impostors. Do you remember Brian Kern/Kong Tsun-gan? He lived in a flat opposite mine and i contributed to expose his deception and subversive activities in one of my articles about the attempted colour revolution in Hong Kong.
He was a stinker. Good on you for exposing him. There are so many of these characters in all walks of life acting like the world is one big video game where ethics, empathy and humanity have no place.
I recommend Kuang's Yellowface novel as it's a brilliantly funny dissection of the privileged white mindset that thinks it can replace Chinese people. (I used to campaign against and write about Yellowface in theatre culture.) That person in your opening paragraphs is a good example of the phenomenon.
Enjoying your powerful writing and sharp political judgement.
Although I feel a bit sick in the stomach after reading this, it wont stop me as a non scholar amateur philosopher from spending weeks and weeks on an article about Kantian philosophy and publishing it on Substack.
Your wonderfully cogent essay has been as impactful for me as my first reading of Being and Nothingness, my first venture into ontology. Except your expository style is far more lucid. You sure have me thinking. Thank you
Thank you, David. My expository style leaves much to be desired ;) I am writing in a foreign language, which means i am constantly struggling with the English syntax. But if the journey weren't as difficult and i didn't face so many hurdles, I probably wouldn't remember it.
For someone who has cursed and blasphemed his way through Sartre and Althusser, I will take your expository style any day of the week.
Ahah, I hear you ;)
You write:
"I don’t know which textbook he had in mind, but in order to understand the economic and social dynamics that drive the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution, I am going to consult the copy of Marx’s Capital that sits on my shelf. Admittedly, it needs some dusting."
Check out 'Funky Business" with a tagline of 'Talent makes capital dance' by Jonas Ridderstrāle and Kjell Nordstros, 2000.
I wrote a review of it in 2000, here: https://investigatingimperialism.wordpress.com/2000/08/19/7-capital-makes-talent-dance-by-william-bowles/
Of course, this book was written 25 years ago, at pretty much the beginning of the age you write so insightfully and scarily, about but what it does do, is illustrate the seductive nature of tech as capitalism has made it.
Thank you, William! Very topical. It’s interesting that we were already cutting through this bullshit 25 yeas ago. In 2000 I realized a project that for lack of a better term I called an act of semiological guerrilla. https://lauraruggeri.blogspot.com/2008/06/2000-singen-welches-hier-da-und-dort.html
Hah! Did you get any 'official' response from Singen aside from all the angry letters? Sim City eh. Baudrillard's 'Xerox and Infinity' dealt with the actual, ephemeral nature of the medium, though back then, it was phosphor dots not liquid crystal or leds but the medium encourages a kind of 'dream state', an unreality, words, meanings, evaporate, they blur. So, for example, people no longer read, they scan, eyes lighting on words and images that reinforce pre-concieved ideas, so the entire process becomes self-referential, the brain is trapped in a closed loop. Overload! Overload! All meaning is lost! So now, what's real? What is 'real' anyway? The Matrix Rules, OK!
The Department of Culture & Tourism of Singen had sponsored the group exhibition https://erlebe.singen.de/kunst-kultur/kunst-im-oeffentlichen-raum/kunstprojekt-hier-da-und-dort#/article but had no idea of what i would do with the money. I received several cease-and-desist letters many months after the closing of the exhibition and the organizers told me in unequivocal terms that they would not pay for my legal fees if i refused to delete the websites.
How ironic! And they say that the Germans have no sense of humour. So they commission you to produce a work of art (I assume) but don't like your creation. I don't get it. They give you money but don't ask for a brief, a description? So there's no connection between you, the artist and the city of Singen. How bizarre. Have you deleted the websites?
I was selected by the curator of the group exhibition, the department and several sponsors funded it. No one asked me what i would do with the money ;) I was already living in Hong Kong at the time, so i didn't attend the opening. The only physical part of my project consisted of postcards of non-existing Singens, mixed with ordinary ones in various outlets such as bars, newsagents, stationary shops...The websites were taken offline several months later.
Thanks for this excellent piece, translated in French here : https://zanzibar.substack.com/p/le-fantome-derriere-la-machine-lintelligence
"If AI is to assist humans rather than deceive them, then we need a mandatory AI identification system"
... maybe they already thought about the solution, only the other way around.. bio-digital ID for HUMANS, for any digital interaction.. including internet access.. maybe even detectable from electronic apparata one does not actively decide to connect to (es. AI cameras, WIFIs, etc.. )
(the matter is so absurd that every thinkable "solution" leads to even greater dystopia.. some things should simply not exist.. not all that can be done should be done.. power without wisdom puts humanity in the sorcerer's apprentice position..)
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another consideration that came to my mind... maybe one may speak of "INFLATION" for the "data capital", as for its progressive loss of value/quality ?
and maybe even, using a natural science jargon metaphor, one may speak of weakening the "data cattle" by INBREEDING?
Yes, if current totalitarian trends are any indication, that scenario looks more likely. That's why the time to fight back is now.
One defence we have is engagement with each other, of empathy rather than apathy. Your experience of receiving no credit for your detective work on the imposter is an example of how this relationship breaks down. The generosity of earlier generations that gave rise to a vibrant culture out of an expanding economy has been lost to a turf war.
My contention is that the competition, sexism, ego and racism seen in the "pro-China" space, as another example, reflects the bourgeois mindset of those dominating the space.
This failure of relationship and solidarity, where atomised branding and career take precedence, leaves a vacuum that will be filled by the AI monster of your warning essay. And even the progressive wing of social media is REALLY atomised. Shockingly so.
Pushing facts around has become the controlling force driving social media. Imagination is marginalised. The socialist sensibility is lost.
Sempre imperdibile, Laura. Grazie!
Roberto, grazie per l’apprezzamento :)
This article is a tour de force. You exposed the cheats but with far more grace than I would, and then packed a wicked punch. You are one of the few who can blend sophisticated theory and investigative depth.
Thank you, “reader.” I owe you one.
Very interesting article, which raises aspects not always highlighted in the debate on AI. The issue of the energy-intensive aspect of AI is not mentioned - but perhaps it was not necessary, given the focus of the article - so much so that large data centers are now built near nuclear power plants...
I am interested in understanding another aspect instead. Today, as we know, the competition on this ground is fundamentally between the USA and China. I wonder, are these 'degenerative' uses that you talk about in the article equally widespread in the Sinophone ecosphere? Is there - or not - a policy on the part of the CCP on these issues, or does unawareness and/or underestimation prevail there too (at least for now)?
There are so many aspects i could have highlighted, but they fell outside the scope of my article. And i didn't intend to write a book ;) I focused on the impact of AI-generated content on the media, and on producers and consumers of information.
Over forty years ago, I was put down by 'Marxist' academics for describing the new world of computer-mediated data as information capital. How can data be capital they cried? Yet repackaging the same content, over and over in different forms, with each iteration generating value was described to me by the head of a very large publishing corporation I was doing work for, as 'a license to print money'! So I suppose the arrival of 'AI' simply closes the circle started by the arrival of the computer. But I find the creation of 'Jianwei Xun', on one level, hilarious, 'all that's solid melts into data', to paraphrase and I wonder who the hell it is? Clearly, once again, 'the captains of industry' havent't thought it through, all they see is the moolah, short-term gain again.
An excellent and long overdue essay and how prescient was Walter Benjamin eh!
If only people read Marx instead of self-professed Marxists….Yes, Walter Benjamin, and his friend Bertolt Brecht, are evergreen. Benjamin is still widely read, Brecht not so much. Which is a pity.
Well they read him alright but without comprehending. Instead, they bend him to fit their own presumptions. Benjamin and Brecht are not forgotten, at least by some of us, especially Brecht, as the 1930s returns, hopefully to remind us that we've been here before. I try to warn in my latest essay, 'The past returns to haunt us..' but is anyone listening?
OMG, this is the plot of Yellowface by Rebecca F Kuang, a fine read that I recommend. Great essay, Laura.
Thank you, Anna. I haven't read Rebecca Kuang's book, but I have come across my fair share of impostors. Do you remember Brian Kern/Kong Tsun-gan? He lived in a flat opposite mine and i contributed to expose his deception and subversive activities in one of my articles about the attempted colour revolution in Hong Kong.
He was a stinker. Good on you for exposing him. There are so many of these characters in all walks of life acting like the world is one big video game where ethics, empathy and humanity have no place.
I recommend Kuang's Yellowface novel as it's a brilliantly funny dissection of the privileged white mindset that thinks it can replace Chinese people. (I used to campaign against and write about Yellowface in theatre culture.) That person in your opening paragraphs is a good example of the phenomenon.
Enjoying your powerful writing and sharp political judgement.
https://www.annachen.co.uk/china/yellowface/
Although I feel a bit sick in the stomach after reading this, it wont stop me as a non scholar amateur philosopher from spending weeks and weeks on an article about Kantian philosophy and publishing it on Substack.
Laura, this is genius.