Thank you for writing this, it helps clear the waters regarding "AI" or machine learning that's taught using stolen art. Apparently so much AI created art has flooded the internet that the machines are learning from AI art and creating garbage, because they aren't actually "learning." Anyway. I'd be delighted to converse with an actual artificial intelligence; I got a kick out of the old ELIZA program that essentially played Freud by rephrasing your sentences and questions to hold a mock conversation. I was mildly impressed with an AI updated version, but it failed the Turing test in about three questions because it was obviously carving answers from Wikipedia and web searches. But I digress. As for the trespassing signs I recently learned that Texas is 95% privately owned and you have no freedom to roam there, except on the 5% that is public land or parks. And they consider themselves free? Maybe the rich men who own the land are free, but no one else is, and maybe that's how they like it.
Thank you Nia, it took many years to acknowledge this, and many more to write about, but now I am slowly getting there. It is a thing not talked about in my family at all because sometimes silence is the only tool of the survivor in their defence to obscure the past. But in their most vulnerable moments, I have heard them talk about their motherland and how things changed as they entered their primes.
It is really important for me to embrace this identity and not live in constant battle with it, in a way that has been implied as an essential process of assimilation. Refugees , migrants- like you said its all the same to the ones who have left a home behind almost never to return to it again. Thank you for giving me a space to speak about this in your community. 💜
“a world where leaving means to wander freely, rather than being forced to flee—whether on foot or in the worlds of our own imaginations.” This spoke so deeply to me Nia. My grandparents were refugees of a ruthless partition war and even if I am raised away from the traumas of being a survivor, I am aware of the pain and vacancy that human invented borders creates specially if you were forced to leave your country and land behind never to return to it again. I have seem both my grandmothers live with it all their lives. Thank you for this poignant piece Nia. 💜
"The deeper structures that make the harms possible." Yes! And the values and presuppositions that underlie those structures! Let's root them out! (Although I may have to wait until next weekend to take this on.)
Regarding generative AI, I have rather strong feelings that cannot be adequately expressed without employing a torrent of the most vile and violent language ever to grace the tongue of our deeply flawed species. Or to put it another way...I don't need a machine to do my thinking or my writing for me. If someone else does, perhaps it is not a machine that they need.
I loved this post, Antonia. I will revisit it over the weekend when I am less beleaguered and have a bit more energy. As always, I appreciate your perspectives and the eloquence with which you express them. But most of all, though brief, I loved hearing you describe the snowflakes falling. That made me smile.
I've been thinking and writing something about creating this week too--I love how you framed this, how we are being led to compete and live in anxiety constantly rather than trusting that friend would bring food in times of need, or send chai recipes (which I am so going to try in just a minute!). Worried about it all but reading your words and those of the many many others who feel the same is replenishing. And I am fascinated by the Luddites--how they've been coopted as a bad word, when what they were fighting for was for the work of human hands to matter. 💜
Thanks, as ever for this. You put it so perfectly.
"...even the joyful gifts of creativity are not dependent on tricking us into thinking we can only succeed in competition with one another.
I want us to unburden ourselves at the very least of restrictions around what we conceive as possible, and to contemplate a world where leaving means to wander freely, rather than being forced to flee—whether on foot or in the worlds of our own imaginations."
Freedom to write and share and walk walk walk walk....
“I think the story of whether or not one leaves a home, and how, and what level of choice is or is not involved, is the story of humanity. It is in this particular story that my writing about walking and my interest in private property intersect most profoundly”
And this applies as much to *digital* homes as well, as the idea of home is more than a physical location, more than a house or apartment, it's where you are safe and connected, where you can belong.
Thank you, Nia. Lovely essay, with a lot of punch. It’s always about hoarding, probably motivated by fear, real or imagined (even horrendous greed must come from fear somewhere), born from the concept of scarcity, real or imagined. I’m sure you’ve read Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. I’m in the middle of it, and one of her most powerful messages, to me, is that scarcity is an illusion. That if the world I can be approached with reciprocity, it leads to radically different consequences. Despite my best and constant work to unravel my own programming, this is still a vision I am having a hard time grasping. I read on. Think of what would topple if we all believed and acted on that framing.
As I wind down my posting it is places like On the Commons that can hopefully keep me engaged on Substack. This was a beautiful essay. I am a little burned out on the AI topic and fair use but thought your writing was very relevant. Best of luck wherever your writing ends up.
This is hitting hard today, Nia, so much in line with so many other things I've been thinking about and questioning lately in my own approach, my own efforts to "walk the walk." Substack is feeling like more and more of a compromise to me and I need to cogitate on it. From one sickie to another though, I'm glad you're feeling a little better. We need you.
Nov 30, 2023·edited Dec 1, 2023Liked by Antonia Malchik
I hope you're starting to feel better. Being familiar with the provenance, I can imagine how much that turmeric chai helped!
Your posts always teach me something and make me think. As soon as I see one come in, I resist the temptation to read it immediately and instead book myself a time when I can give it my full attention.
Several things arise for me. One is that I copy most of my posts to a newsletter on Linkedln. The intent was to drive followers over here. What happened instead is that I picked up subscribers there who might never subscribe here, such as state agency directors and current and former county commissioners. They can read me and maintain plausible deniability! Win-win!
Another is that I agree completely (surprise!) with your analysis of technology and who benefits, and your diagnosis that it's just part of a bigger systemic problem which won't be solved piecemeal.
And finally that we can imagine a better world. And, I hope, bring it into being, one turmeric chai recipe at a time.
So sorry to hear you got Covid. I read this piece just after hearing an interview with a Palestinian reporter who recently fled to Turkey with his family and whose home of 20 years is gone.
Thank you for writing this, it helps clear the waters regarding "AI" or machine learning that's taught using stolen art. Apparently so much AI created art has flooded the internet that the machines are learning from AI art and creating garbage, because they aren't actually "learning." Anyway. I'd be delighted to converse with an actual artificial intelligence; I got a kick out of the old ELIZA program that essentially played Freud by rephrasing your sentences and questions to hold a mock conversation. I was mildly impressed with an AI updated version, but it failed the Turing test in about three questions because it was obviously carving answers from Wikipedia and web searches. But I digress. As for the trespassing signs I recently learned that Texas is 95% privately owned and you have no freedom to roam there, except on the 5% that is public land or parks. And they consider themselves free? Maybe the rich men who own the land are free, but no one else is, and maybe that's how they like it.
Thank you Nia, it took many years to acknowledge this, and many more to write about, but now I am slowly getting there. It is a thing not talked about in my family at all because sometimes silence is the only tool of the survivor in their defence to obscure the past. But in their most vulnerable moments, I have heard them talk about their motherland and how things changed as they entered their primes.
It is really important for me to embrace this identity and not live in constant battle with it, in a way that has been implied as an essential process of assimilation. Refugees , migrants- like you said its all the same to the ones who have left a home behind almost never to return to it again. Thank you for giving me a space to speak about this in your community. 💜
“a world where leaving means to wander freely, rather than being forced to flee—whether on foot or in the worlds of our own imaginations.” This spoke so deeply to me Nia. My grandparents were refugees of a ruthless partition war and even if I am raised away from the traumas of being a survivor, I am aware of the pain and vacancy that human invented borders creates specially if you were forced to leave your country and land behind never to return to it again. I have seem both my grandmothers live with it all their lives. Thank you for this poignant piece Nia. 💜
Want to re-read this when less tired, but for now want to shout out an upcoming talk that I think you would enjoy called No, Seriously, F*ck Engagement https://www.eventbrite.com/e/no-seriously-fck-engagement-building-a-more-human-web-tickets-751810564637 – I saw a 20min version a few weeks ago and it's goooood
"The deeper structures that make the harms possible." Yes! And the values and presuppositions that underlie those structures! Let's root them out! (Although I may have to wait until next weekend to take this on.)
Regarding generative AI, I have rather strong feelings that cannot be adequately expressed without employing a torrent of the most vile and violent language ever to grace the tongue of our deeply flawed species. Or to put it another way...I don't need a machine to do my thinking or my writing for me. If someone else does, perhaps it is not a machine that they need.
I loved this post, Antonia. I will revisit it over the weekend when I am less beleaguered and have a bit more energy. As always, I appreciate your perspectives and the eloquence with which you express them. But most of all, though brief, I loved hearing you describe the snowflakes falling. That made me smile.
Be well.
I've been thinking and writing something about creating this week too--I love how you framed this, how we are being led to compete and live in anxiety constantly rather than trusting that friend would bring food in times of need, or send chai recipes (which I am so going to try in just a minute!). Worried about it all but reading your words and those of the many many others who feel the same is replenishing. And I am fascinated by the Luddites--how they've been coopted as a bad word, when what they were fighting for was for the work of human hands to matter. 💜
Thanks, as ever for this. You put it so perfectly.
"...even the joyful gifts of creativity are not dependent on tricking us into thinking we can only succeed in competition with one another.
I want us to unburden ourselves at the very least of restrictions around what we conceive as possible, and to contemplate a world where leaving means to wander freely, rather than being forced to flee—whether on foot or in the worlds of our own imaginations."
Freedom to write and share and walk walk walk walk....
Sarah
Thank you as always, Nia, and feel better soon! Veggie pho is my go-to "chicken soup" :-)
Greg
Well, I suppose we need to get this distribution thing figured out if we're ever to form a Lord of the Rings collective!
Beautiful, thank you. Your writing always fills me with hope and inspiration 🦄
Jonathan Katz has just written a piece called More on Substack's Nazis https://theracket.news/p/more-on-substacks-nazis
“I think the story of whether or not one leaves a home, and how, and what level of choice is or is not involved, is the story of humanity. It is in this particular story that my writing about walking and my interest in private property intersect most profoundly”
And this applies as much to *digital* homes as well, as the idea of home is more than a physical location, more than a house or apartment, it's where you are safe and connected, where you can belong.
Thank you, Nia. Lovely essay, with a lot of punch. It’s always about hoarding, probably motivated by fear, real or imagined (even horrendous greed must come from fear somewhere), born from the concept of scarcity, real or imagined. I’m sure you’ve read Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. I’m in the middle of it, and one of her most powerful messages, to me, is that scarcity is an illusion. That if the world I can be approached with reciprocity, it leads to radically different consequences. Despite my best and constant work to unravel my own programming, this is still a vision I am having a hard time grasping. I read on. Think of what would topple if we all believed and acted on that framing.
As I wind down my posting it is places like On the Commons that can hopefully keep me engaged on Substack. This was a beautiful essay. I am a little burned out on the AI topic and fair use but thought your writing was very relevant. Best of luck wherever your writing ends up.
Your voice is alright Antonia , thanks for sharing, get well soon ☺️
This is hitting hard today, Nia, so much in line with so many other things I've been thinking about and questioning lately in my own approach, my own efforts to "walk the walk." Substack is feeling like more and more of a compromise to me and I need to cogitate on it. From one sickie to another though, I'm glad you're feeling a little better. We need you.
I hope you're starting to feel better. Being familiar with the provenance, I can imagine how much that turmeric chai helped!
Your posts always teach me something and make me think. As soon as I see one come in, I resist the temptation to read it immediately and instead book myself a time when I can give it my full attention.
Several things arise for me. One is that I copy most of my posts to a newsletter on Linkedln. The intent was to drive followers over here. What happened instead is that I picked up subscribers there who might never subscribe here, such as state agency directors and current and former county commissioners. They can read me and maintain plausible deniability! Win-win!
Another is that I agree completely (surprise!) with your analysis of technology and who benefits, and your diagnosis that it's just part of a bigger systemic problem which won't be solved piecemeal.
And finally that we can imagine a better world. And, I hope, bring it into being, one turmeric chai recipe at a time.
So sorry to hear you got Covid. I read this piece just after hearing an interview with a Palestinian reporter who recently fled to Turkey with his family and whose home of 20 years is gone.