First, life is what you make it. Regardless of the fact that the United States has entered unchartered territory, life is still somehow amazing. Why? Because I have the capacity for happiness. That's not to say that bad things won't happen, I mean, that's Murphy's Law. But, what I mean to say is that regardless of all the bad things that are happening in the world, or possibly even in our lives and in our loved ones' lives, we should all learn to have the capacity for happiness, and realize, and see/acknowledge, that regardless of how much or how little we have, we all have a lot to be grateful for, in one way or another. Even if you don't believe in God.
Case in point, I'm not necessarily in the best position right now. I'm currently unemployed, after working as a retail grocery cashier for the last ten years straight. This is a mega-change for me, as I'm used to working nonstop 5-6 days per week. And now? Nothing. No weekly paycheck, no cute girl coworkers to talk to or hangout with, no affirmation from customers [mostly beautiful women] telling me I'm doing a good job, no steady schedule of any kind. The biggest problem is that I lost a good form of structure in my life. I miss it and am trying to get back into the job market as soon as I can.
So, the response to this has been to create a new sort of order to my life. In whatever way I can. For me, this has meant turning more inwards towards books, music, AI, exercise, and cultivating a good clean headspace for me to be in as much as I can. I've found that a lot of my friends/associates from the retail grocery world are much more miserable than I am. Not only that, but they have a lot of health problems like drugs/alcohol, behavioral issues, they don't have money, and the ones that do, they tend to not enjoy their lives because of various reasons like: relationship troubles and lack of purpose working within retail grocery. On top of that, most of them whine and complain like there's no tomorrow. So what's the issue, doc? They simply lack the capacity for happiness. That's right!
Second, music. I'm finding that music has more often than not, has become more of a background experience for most listeners. Like how all these years I've been going to the bar for music, almost all of the music never mattered, because the audience just uses it as background to drink beer to. This has been true for a long time now, but I think it will become even more so in the coming months and years.
Why? Because of the advent and widespread usage and acceptance of AI by intellectuals, techies, nerds, artists, musicians, writers, and even the GOP itself, we're finding that AI content is not only accepted, but people are more and more willing to use it for, well, pretty much anything and everything. This includes using AI content for music generation and video generation. And once that content becomes more commonplace and accepted, I think real, live, musicians will be in trouble because people will say, "If I can get an AI orchestra to play Mozart, why would I need to pay a real orchestra?" It sounds a little off but I think it's already happening. Case in point, music production software that increasingly replaces live musicians, although that's been happening for a long time now.
Third, going back to AI. Right now we live in a world where the Tech Bros are winning at everything and anything. Contrary to popular opinion, while I think AI is a gamechanger and a must use tool for creatives of any kind, I also acknowledge that AI is another weapon in the tech oligarch toolbelt, that can be potentially used to intentionally AND unintentionally harm people who don't use it and understand it. So yes, all this AI stuff is mind-blowing and amazing and it will make you more creative and techy and more computer savvy, but what about all the people who are opposed to it, either they don't like it or they just don't want to use it or acknowledge it?
Well, unfortunate to say, those people will simply get left behind. People that don't acknowledge, use, or stay informed on AI will find that other people around them will eventually start using it more and more, adding it to their daily routines, and they will catch up to where the Culture is on AI. Right now I think most people are still asleep at the wheel when it comes to AI, as I also believe most people are asleep at the wheel in terms of politics. It's especially important to keep in mind that right now, in some aspects, AI and politics are interlinked, as some liberal thinkers believe that it's because of AI's algorithms that Trump was able to recapture the White House. That's right folks. Beware the Ides of March.
Lastly, politics. So you see all these things are interlinked [Bladerunner 2049, Ryan Gosling: Interlinked]. The Tech Bros were at the White House inauguration. That's because technology has always been a tool in electing public officials, probably starting with the printing press back in Europe over hundreds of years ago. But now, with the power of AI algorithms, we're finding that controlling the flow and access of various forms of media, in fact, controlling ALL of the flow and access of media, has been very easy for the Republican and Democrats to do, utilizing the new emerging technologies like AI algorithms created by these Tech Bros like Open AI's Sam Altman, who was at the inauguration at the White House when Trump was re-elected.
It would be nice if people who were using AI were all nice well-to-do dandy intellectual techie guys who want to make the world a better place. But increasingly, more and more, I'm finding that its usually always the opposite, especially when you tune into the media and the news daily and are really reading and paying attention to what's going on. In a truly fucked up way, I think, increasingly, people who use AI look down upon people who are unfamiliar with it and/or don't know about it or don't use it, they're being looked down upon, as like cavemen, as country hicks, or lesser than, simply because they aren't in tune with what's going on with the emerging tech and how it's being utilized to help destroy our late period capitalistic society.
But for the most part people are asleep at the wheel. We still believe in the Rule of Law. We believe that as long as we go to work, listen to our bosses, do a good job, come home to our families and take care of our wives and kids, that everything's going to be alright, as long we got cash, a car, a home, a wife, and our 2.5 kids and a dog. Well, what if we're asleep at the wheel and we're Caesar and we're about to get stabbed? "And you too, Brutus?"
Good news for people who love bad news. Watch this space.
[image AI generated]
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