Jack's Artificial Anthology

 This is an intriguing counterfactual that would have significantly altered Marx's critique of capitalism in Das Kapital. To explore this, let's first briefly recap the key differences between Marx's labor theory of value and the marginalist theory of value, then consider how accepting marginalism might have changed Marx's analysis. Marx's labor theory of value posits that the value of a commodity is determined by the socially necessary labor time required to produce it. This forms the basis of his concepts of surplus value and exploitation, which are central to his critique of capitalism. The marginalist theory of value, developed later by economists like William Stanley Jevons, Carl Menger, and Léon Walras, argues that the value of a good is determined by its marginal utility to consumers, not by labor inputs. This theory explains price formation through supply and demand dynamics. If Marx had accepted the marginalist theory of value, several key aspects of Das Ka...

**Why We Need to Flood the Internet with Totally Weird AI Texts to Fight Tech Overreach** Hey everyone, let’s talk about something super important: the way AI is taking over our digital lives. We’re talking about algorithms and large language models (LLMs) that seem to know everything about us, from what we like to what we should be buying next. It sounds cool, but there’s a darker side to this tech takeover that we need to tackle head-on. Here’s the deal: if we want to keep our freedom and creativity alive, we need to shake things up. And how do we do that? By flooding the internet with the most absurd, over-the-top AI-generated texts you can imagine. It might sound wild, but trust me, it’s a brilliant move. Let me break it down for you. ### The Dark Side of AI and LLMs First, let’s dive into why AI and LLMs can be a little scary: 1. **Echo Chambers Galore:** Ever felt like you’re stuck in a digital bubble where you only see things that match your current beliefs? That’s AI for you. T...

 The success of a strategy that involves flooding the internet with absurd AI-generated texts as a form of resistance against the dominance of technique, as described through the lens of Jacques Ellul’s philosophy, would depend on several factors. While the strategy has potential to achieve certain goals, its success would be limited by the complex dynamics of the digital ecosystem and the broader societal context. Let’s examine this in more detail: ### 1. **Success in Disrupting the Flow of Information** One of the primary aims of such a strategy is to disrupt the flow of information that is increasingly governed by algorithmic sorting, prioritization, and dissemination. By introducing absurd and nonsensical content into the digital ecosystem, the bot could indeed create confusion, challenge the algorithms, and introduce a level of unpredictability. This could make it harder for platforms to maintain the smooth, efficient flow of information that is their hallmark. However, whethe...

 ### Disrupting the Technological Society: Absurdist AI as a Tool for Human Freedom **Introduction: The Reign of Technique** Jacques Ellul, a French philosopher and sociologist, is best known for his critical analyses of technology and modern society. Central to Ellul’s thought is the concept of "technique," which he defines as the totality of methods rationally arrived at and having absolute efficiency in every field of human activity. For Ellul, technique is not merely a collection of tools or technologies, but a pervasive force that dictates the structure and function of society. In this view, technique encompasses the ways in which humans organize their lives, work, and even their thinking, prioritizing efficiency, predictability, and control above all else. Ellul’s critique of technique is rooted in the belief that it poses a profound threat to human freedom. As technique becomes increasingly dominant, it subordinates all aspects of life to its own logic, reducing indivi...

 Someone might want to create a bot that generates and distributes absurdist texts for a variety of reasons, ranging from artistic expression to social commentary, or even for more nefarious purposes. Here are some possible motivations: ### 1. **Artistic and Creative Exploration**    - **Digital Art:** Some might view the creation of endless absurdist texts as a form of digital art or experimental literature. It could be seen as a way to explore the boundaries of language, creativity, and AI, producing content that challenges conventional narratives and structures.    - **Surrealist or Absurdist Literature:** The bot could be a tool for generating content in the tradition of surrealism or absurdism, genres that often embrace irrationality, randomness, and nonsense as a way to question reality and provoke thought. ### 2. **Social and Cultural Commentary**    - **Satire of Information Overload:** In an age where we're inundated with information, someone ...

 If someone built a bot that generated an endless stream of absurdist texts based on random, ridiculous prompts, and these texts were distributed widely across the internet, several consequences could arise for the development and use of AI, particularly in the domains of natural language processing (NLP) and content generation.  ### 1. **Data Contamination:**    - **Training Data Pollution:** Many AI models, particularly large language models like GPT, are trained on vast amounts of text data scraped from the internet. If a significant portion of the internet is flooded with absurdist texts, these could inadvertently become part of the training data for future AI models. This could lead to models that learn from these absurd examples, affecting their ability to generate coherent and useful text.    - **Noise and Irrelevant Content:** Absurdist texts would introduce a large amount of noise into datasets, making it harder for AI models to learn patterns of m...

We should, however, absolutely do this.