#mediaecology — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #mediaecology, aggregated by home.social.
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"AI models have one undeniable virtue: the increase in speed and efficiency with which they can carry out tasks that were once the province of human beings. Language models can produce functional text for a wide range of contexts, while image generation models are giving us the capability to render into existence whatever image or video takes our fancy. This is widely taken as clear evidence of the benefits of AI. For Mumford, this type of thinking is precisely the problem. The myth of the machine is dehumanizing because it subordinates human values to machine values: speed and efficiency.
The most striking evidence of the myth’s cultural pervasiveness is that many avid accelerationists do not deny that AI could mean the end of humanity. They merely differ from the doomers in believing that this risk is necessary—even desirable—to achieve the spectacular increases in efficiency and productivity promised by AGI. Mumford foresaw this extreme endpoint. “The myth of the machine,” he wrote, “the basic religion of our present culture, has so captured the modern mind that no human sacrifice seems too great provided it is offered up to the insolent Marduks and Molochs of science and technology.”
Those branded as skeptics or doomers also still accept the premises of the myth of the machine. The stated aim of many organizations concerned with avoiding the worst AI outcomes is that we should “realize the benefits while mitigating the risks” of the technology. Mumford would argue the first half of this statement concedes too much, accepting the basic premise of the myth of the machine while presenting the task as removing the obstacles to realize its benefits. Many skeptics also share a basic misanthropic premise of machine superiority, focusing as they do on the biased, irrational, and flawed nature of human beings that needs machinic augmentation."
https://www.compactmag.com/article/ai-and-the-myth-of-the-machine/
#AI #Neoluddism #AIBoosters #AIHype #AIDoomers #GenerativeAI #Mumford #STS #MediaEcology
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"AI models have one undeniable virtue: the increase in speed and efficiency with which they can carry out tasks that were once the province of human beings. Language models can produce functional text for a wide range of contexts, while image generation models are giving us the capability to render into existence whatever image or video takes our fancy. This is widely taken as clear evidence of the benefits of AI. For Mumford, this type of thinking is precisely the problem. The myth of the machine is dehumanizing because it subordinates human values to machine values: speed and efficiency.
The most striking evidence of the myth’s cultural pervasiveness is that many avid accelerationists do not deny that AI could mean the end of humanity. They merely differ from the doomers in believing that this risk is necessary—even desirable—to achieve the spectacular increases in efficiency and productivity promised by AGI. Mumford foresaw this extreme endpoint. “The myth of the machine,” he wrote, “the basic religion of our present culture, has so captured the modern mind that no human sacrifice seems too great provided it is offered up to the insolent Marduks and Molochs of science and technology.”
Those branded as skeptics or doomers also still accept the premises of the myth of the machine. The stated aim of many organizations concerned with avoiding the worst AI outcomes is that we should “realize the benefits while mitigating the risks” of the technology. Mumford would argue the first half of this statement concedes too much, accepting the basic premise of the myth of the machine while presenting the task as removing the obstacles to realize its benefits. Many skeptics also share a basic misanthropic premise of machine superiority, focusing as they do on the biased, irrational, and flawed nature of human beings that needs machinic augmentation."
https://www.compactmag.com/article/ai-and-the-myth-of-the-machine/
#AI #Neoluddism #AIBoosters #AIHype #AIDoomers #GenerativeAI #Mumford #STS #MediaEcology
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"AI models have one undeniable virtue: the increase in speed and efficiency with which they can carry out tasks that were once the province of human beings. Language models can produce functional text for a wide range of contexts, while image generation models are giving us the capability to render into existence whatever image or video takes our fancy. This is widely taken as clear evidence of the benefits of AI. For Mumford, this type of thinking is precisely the problem. The myth of the machine is dehumanizing because it subordinates human values to machine values: speed and efficiency.
The most striking evidence of the myth’s cultural pervasiveness is that many avid accelerationists do not deny that AI could mean the end of humanity. They merely differ from the doomers in believing that this risk is necessary—even desirable—to achieve the spectacular increases in efficiency and productivity promised by AGI. Mumford foresaw this extreme endpoint. “The myth of the machine,” he wrote, “the basic religion of our present culture, has so captured the modern mind that no human sacrifice seems too great provided it is offered up to the insolent Marduks and Molochs of science and technology.”
Those branded as skeptics or doomers also still accept the premises of the myth of the machine. The stated aim of many organizations concerned with avoiding the worst AI outcomes is that we should “realize the benefits while mitigating the risks” of the technology. Mumford would argue the first half of this statement concedes too much, accepting the basic premise of the myth of the machine while presenting the task as removing the obstacles to realize its benefits. Many skeptics also share a basic misanthropic premise of machine superiority, focusing as they do on the biased, irrational, and flawed nature of human beings that needs machinic augmentation."
https://www.compactmag.com/article/ai-and-the-myth-of-the-machine/
#AI #Neoluddism #AIBoosters #AIHype #AIDoomers #GenerativeAI #Mumford #STS #MediaEcology
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"AI models have one undeniable virtue: the increase in speed and efficiency with which they can carry out tasks that were once the province of human beings. Language models can produce functional text for a wide range of contexts, while image generation models are giving us the capability to render into existence whatever image or video takes our fancy. This is widely taken as clear evidence of the benefits of AI. For Mumford, this type of thinking is precisely the problem. The myth of the machine is dehumanizing because it subordinates human values to machine values: speed and efficiency.
The most striking evidence of the myth’s cultural pervasiveness is that many avid accelerationists do not deny that AI could mean the end of humanity. They merely differ from the doomers in believing that this risk is necessary—even desirable—to achieve the spectacular increases in efficiency and productivity promised by AGI. Mumford foresaw this extreme endpoint. “The myth of the machine,” he wrote, “the basic religion of our present culture, has so captured the modern mind that no human sacrifice seems too great provided it is offered up to the insolent Marduks and Molochs of science and technology.”
Those branded as skeptics or doomers also still accept the premises of the myth of the machine. The stated aim of many organizations concerned with avoiding the worst AI outcomes is that we should “realize the benefits while mitigating the risks” of the technology. Mumford would argue the first half of this statement concedes too much, accepting the basic premise of the myth of the machine while presenting the task as removing the obstacles to realize its benefits. Many skeptics also share a basic misanthropic premise of machine superiority, focusing as they do on the biased, irrational, and flawed nature of human beings that needs machinic augmentation."
https://www.compactmag.com/article/ai-and-the-myth-of-the-machine/
#AI #Neoluddism #AIBoosters #AIHype #AIDoomers #GenerativeAI #Mumford #STS #MediaEcology
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"AI models have one undeniable virtue: the increase in speed and efficiency with which they can carry out tasks that were once the province of human beings. Language models can produce functional text for a wide range of contexts, while image generation models are giving us the capability to render into existence whatever image or video takes our fancy. This is widely taken as clear evidence of the benefits of AI. For Mumford, this type of thinking is precisely the problem. The myth of the machine is dehumanizing because it subordinates human values to machine values: speed and efficiency.
The most striking evidence of the myth’s cultural pervasiveness is that many avid accelerationists do not deny that AI could mean the end of humanity. They merely differ from the doomers in believing that this risk is necessary—even desirable—to achieve the spectacular increases in efficiency and productivity promised by AGI. Mumford foresaw this extreme endpoint. “The myth of the machine,” he wrote, “the basic religion of our present culture, has so captured the modern mind that no human sacrifice seems too great provided it is offered up to the insolent Marduks and Molochs of science and technology.”
Those branded as skeptics or doomers also still accept the premises of the myth of the machine. The stated aim of many organizations concerned with avoiding the worst AI outcomes is that we should “realize the benefits while mitigating the risks” of the technology. Mumford would argue the first half of this statement concedes too much, accepting the basic premise of the myth of the machine while presenting the task as removing the obstacles to realize its benefits. Many skeptics also share a basic misanthropic premise of machine superiority, focusing as they do on the biased, irrational, and flawed nature of human beings that needs machinic augmentation."
https://www.compactmag.com/article/ai-and-the-myth-of-the-machine/
#AI #Neoluddism #AIBoosters #AIHype #AIDoomers #GenerativeAI #Mumford #STS #MediaEcology
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Imagine closing your eyes after scrolling too long. The shapes behind your eyelids are still luminous, negative imprints of a thousand images. That residue is the new unconscious: bright, restless, algorithmic. We are not haunted by technology. We are haunted through it. #Hauntology #MediaEcology #AttentionEconomy #Hyperreality #CriticalTheory #DigitalCulture
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Imagine closing your eyes after scrolling too long. The shapes behind your eyelids are still luminous, negative imprints of a thousand images. That residue is the new unconscious: bright, restless, algorithmic. We are not haunted by technology. We are haunted through it. #Hauntology #MediaEcology #AttentionEconomy #Hyperreality #CriticalTheory #DigitalCulture
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I had an epiphany while walking with my daughter to the park this morning.
The number one reason why I would never resort to #AI / a #LLM to write something for me is that these models completely squash any individuality, the sum of all your life experiences and viewpoints. What makes you, *you*.
What I find so dangerous is the homogenization of thinking that they bring about. A pastiche of vanilla thoughts, cobbled together at random.
No LLM could possibly write for me... even if I used a prompt that asked it to write in my style, providing links to previous articles.
My little one is only 4 but it breaks my heart that she's growing up in a world where these tools are totally normalized. How they're upending higher education and so many aspects of life.
We didn't have a choice, the introduction of these tools arrived all of a sudden, without any guardrails in place. And now they're here.
When the time comes, we'll have this talk. I find it essential.
/end of rant - sigh times a million
#NoAI #MediaEcology #DigitalLiteracy -
Looking forward to listening to/reading this... Great podcast, great interviews. Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to buy his most famous book. A pity that nowadays everyone seems to have forgotten Howard Rheingold's book on virtual communities (1993). That's a true classic.
"Today's podcast guest is Fred Turner, a Professor of Communication at Stanford and the best historian of Silicon Valley culture over the past 100 years.
His book, From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism, is my favorite book on the region’s history, focusing on how hippies and hackers came together from the 60s to the 90s. But he’s researched essentially every Silicon Valley subculture, from Buckminster Fuller to the maker movement to diversity posters at Facebook.
Fred is also one of the warmest, most enthusiastic storytellers I know—the kind of history teacher everyone wishes they had. You’ll leave this listen with a bunch of fun facts about the Whole Earth Catalog, Burning Man, and the Italian futurists; but more importantly, a deep appreciation for what humans and the humanities can offer."
https://jasmi.news/p/from-counterculture-to-cyberculture
#SiliconValley #MediaEcology #MediaStudies #Cyberculture #DigitalUtopianism #Counterculture.
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"With power concentrated in the hands of those profiting from information pollution, it can feel as though we are at a dead end. But as disorienting as today’s social-media ecosystem may be, the sources – much like those of environmental pollution – can be identified, enabling accountability. Europe’s new digital rule book, which includes recent legislation on digital services, competition, data protection, and AI, as well as the recent proposal of a “European Democracy Shield” to counter foreign information interreference, are vital first steps toward addressing the systemic effects of misinformation and the impact of Big Tech’s business models on public debate.
Still, the effectiveness of these regulations remains to be seen, and since enforcement currently stops at Europe’s borders, further action is needed. Demonetizing climate disinformation and applying the “polluter pays” principle to the digital realm could help hold tech companies and advertisers accountable for the harm they inflict on the climate information ecosystem.
Protecting freedom of expression means defending both the right to speak freely and the right to receive accurate, undistorted information. If we fail to confront information pollution head-on, we risk not just stalling climate progress but reversing it altogether.
That said, good information doesn’t rise to the top on its own. Those working to combat climate change and resist speculative technofixes like geoengineering can no longer rely solely on reaching wider audiences or refining their message."
#ClimateChange #GlobalWarming #Disinformation #SocialMedia #Misinformation #MediaEcology #ConspiracyTheories
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"Pensar que la fuga de Twitter/X es la gran migración de la era digital es un espejismo fruto de las altas temperaturas y un inflacionado optimismo de la voluntad. Este no es el primero ni será el último desplazamiento de una plataforma a otra. La evolución del ecosistema mediático está atravesada por constantes migraciones entre dispositivos (del walkman al iPod), formatos (del WAV al MP3), medios (del cine a la televisión) y plataformas (de Twitter/X a… ¿Mastodon? ¿Threads? ¿Bluesky?). Tratándose de un ecosistema complejo, lo peor que podemos hacer es reducir estos desplazamientos a movimientos lineales de A > B o pensar que se producen por una causa única. La mirada evolutiva nos debería servir para comprender mejor estas dinámicas de la esfera mediática que, cada tanto, nos obligan a tomar decisiones."
#SocialMedia #OnlineMedia #Twitter #DigitalCulture #MediaEcology
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A healthy media ecology requires active citizen participation as creators & consumers of organic media. We have both the right & responsibility to cultivate diverse, sustainable media environments. #MediaEcology
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🧵 Media aren't just conduits for content - they are environments that shape our culture, thinking & behaviour. We need ecological intelligence to understand our impact on nature, and we need media literacy to grasp how media shapes our world. #MediaEcology
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#SocialMedia #MediaEcology #Misinformation #Disinformation #Propaganda #ContentModeration #Censorship: "Social media owners, politicians and governments are the biggest threats to a trustworthy online news environment, according to an expert group studying misinformation whose work is modelled on the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE) said owners of social media platforms topped a survey of concerns, followed by domestic and foreign governments and politicians.
The IPIE’s co-founder Philip Howard, a professor of internet studies at the University of Oxford, said the report showed the global information environment was at a “critical juncture”.
“One of the most pressing concerns highlighted by our survey is the influence of social media platform owners. Their control over content distribution and moderation policies significantly impacts the quality and integrity of information. The unchecked power of these entities poses a grave risk to the health of our global information environment,” he said."
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#Mumford #MediaEcology #MegaMachine: "What follows is a, rather lengthy, introduction to Mumford’s idea of “the megamachine.” It is offered here not in an attempt to counter the discussions around surveillance capitalism or the technocene or techno feudalism or TESCREAL but to hopefully add a little more historical depth to some of those concepts. Or, at the very least, to help place some of those more recent concepts into a longer trajectory of attempts to make sense of technological society. After all, ours is not the first period during which people have felt overwhelmed by the growing power of technology (and those close to technology)—and as we look at the present, and try to imagine what comes next, we should not forget the importance of looking behind us.
There is much can be said about our present technological situation. Indeed, there is much being said about our present technological situation. But as Mumford’s megamachine makes clear, we can’t say that nobody tried to warn us."
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#Mumford #MediaEcology #MegaMachine: "What follows is a, rather lengthy, introduction to Mumford’s idea of “the megamachine.” It is offered here not in an attempt to counter the discussions around surveillance capitalism or the technocene or techno feudalism or TESCREAL but to hopefully add a little more historical depth to some of those concepts. Or, at the very least, to help place some of those more recent concepts into a longer trajectory of attempts to make sense of technological society. After all, ours is not the first period during which people have felt overwhelmed by the growing power of technology (and those close to technology)—and as we look at the present, and try to imagine what comes next, we should not forget the importance of looking behind us.
There is much can be said about our present technological situation. Indeed, there is much being said about our present technological situation. But as Mumford’s megamachine makes clear, we can’t say that nobody tried to warn us."
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#Mumford #MediaEcology #MegaMachine: "What follows is a, rather lengthy, introduction to Mumford’s idea of “the megamachine.” It is offered here not in an attempt to counter the discussions around surveillance capitalism or the technocene or techno feudalism or TESCREAL but to hopefully add a little more historical depth to some of those concepts. Or, at the very least, to help place some of those more recent concepts into a longer trajectory of attempts to make sense of technological society. After all, ours is not the first period during which people have felt overwhelmed by the growing power of technology (and those close to technology)—and as we look at the present, and try to imagine what comes next, we should not forget the importance of looking behind us.
There is much can be said about our present technological situation. Indeed, there is much being said about our present technological situation. But as Mumford’s megamachine makes clear, we can’t say that nobody tried to warn us."
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#Mumford #MediaEcology #MegaMachine: "What follows is a, rather lengthy, introduction to Mumford’s idea of “the megamachine.” It is offered here not in an attempt to counter the discussions around surveillance capitalism or the technocene or techno feudalism or TESCREAL but to hopefully add a little more historical depth to some of those concepts. Or, at the very least, to help place some of those more recent concepts into a longer trajectory of attempts to make sense of technological society. After all, ours is not the first period during which people have felt overwhelmed by the growing power of technology (and those close to technology)—and as we look at the present, and try to imagine what comes next, we should not forget the importance of looking behind us.
There is much can be said about our present technological situation. Indeed, there is much being said about our present technological situation. But as Mumford’s megamachine makes clear, we can’t say that nobody tried to warn us."
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#Mumford #MediaEcology #MegaMachine: "What follows is a, rather lengthy, introduction to Mumford’s idea of “the megamachine.” It is offered here not in an attempt to counter the discussions around surveillance capitalism or the technocene or techno feudalism or TESCREAL but to hopefully add a little more historical depth to some of those concepts. Or, at the very least, to help place some of those more recent concepts into a longer trajectory of attempts to make sense of technological society. After all, ours is not the first period during which people have felt overwhelmed by the growing power of technology (and those close to technology)—and as we look at the present, and try to imagine what comes next, we should not forget the importance of looking behind us.
There is much can be said about our present technological situation. Indeed, there is much being said about our present technological situation. But as Mumford’s megamachine makes clear, we can’t say that nobody tried to warn us."
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Still this
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RT @danlatorre
Thinking a lot about @beccalew's research from 2018 and how current #mediaecology dynamics have played out for the alt-right. Wonder what this SNA graph would look like today. cc @derekberes
https://twitter.com/danlatorre/status/1493645214828933123 -
I'm an full professor at UPF-Barcelona, where I teach about #commtheories, #mediaecology and #mediaevolution. My research focuses on the evolution of the media ecosystem. I'm also working on an interfacee-centred approach to understand socio-technological change. My last book: "La guerra de las plataformas. Del papiro al metaverso" (Anagrama, 2022). My next book: "On the Evolution of Media. Understanding media change" (Routledge, 2023).