wildburro on Nostr: Just wow. Genius level stuff from MilitantEmpath ...

Just wow. Genius level stuff from MilitantEmpath (npub1edt…v5hs)

quoting
nevent1q…qt4m

I think the real takeaway from AI art should be its affect on how we love each other.

What once took deep emotional attunement is now achievable through internet clawing AI. Our standards must shift with these new material conditions. Stagnation spells doom.

During the Russian Civil War, Alexandra Kollanti observed the lack of emotional depth and commitment revolutionaries gave their romantic partners. It wasnt because Russians all had an avoidant attachment style. It was because the material conditions of the revolution deflected energy away from feelings that normally accompanied love. Being unable to sleep or feeling pangs of doubt as one yearns for their lover is a loss of energy the revolution could not afford.

However, once the war ended and the Soviet Union was established, Soviet situationships fell out of favor. People wanted something deeper. Something longer lasting now that the material conditions allowed for it.

If we look at our current material conditions it makes sense that in this epoch, love and understanding are experienced as one. Conditions like the tremendous abundance of products & services and the economic logic that intermediates our relationships has devalued our material instantiations of love.

You dont need to make your lover a mixtape when every song is available to stream at the click of a button. Buying movie or concert tickets as a gift has lost value since you can stream it from the living room. These are still obviously acts of love but the social value of these acts has diminished. There's always a convenient alternative and its important love is removed from convenience.

There's no need to rely on these material confirmations anymore. In fact, many Americans think it is virtuous to be materially self sufficient. Techno-capitalism nutures isolated individuals, making other people obsolete in the grand design of what we used to think compliments a full life.

Under this system, the only thing that is safe from planned obsolescence is our immaterial recognition of each other. How I understand you can never be bought or possessed or reproduced.

This means now more than ever what our community or lovers do is not as important as how they respond to you specifically. The standard for what it means to be understood has increased. The digital age makes it materially possible to know more about others than ever before. You can know someone you've never met simply by stalking their social media; their likes, places they've been, the things they follow.

In the past, making the perfect mixtape for a partner required you to be present with them and attentive to what they say and how they behave. It required complex inferences you'd have to make about their general disposition. Now if you want to make a mixtape for a lover, you dont have to pay attention to them at all. You can lookup their Spotify Playlist or checkout their music highlights on Insta.
An act once requiring deep emotional attunement can now be achieved with mere data collection. Now that data is freely given; our deep thoughts go online, photos of our favorite things, our search histories sold to brokers. Corporations literally know if you are pregnant or have cancer before your doctor or family does. ChatGPT can give relationship advice tailored to your exact situation.

This is one of the reasons I like Nostr so much. My real name is tied nowhere to this account.

Still... it doesn't mean much to know things about others anymore. Knowing lots of facts might've constituted understanding a few decades ago. But now it is not sufficient. Otherwise, AI chat bots would seem to "understand" and "love" us. The standard for love must rise above ordinary factoids. Thus, to be loved is to be understood deeply and intuitively.

For example, I am not always the most honest person. It stems from mommy trauma and an insecurity in simply being myself or being honest about my feelings.
When I am dishonest, an acquaintance might take the lie at face value and make sweeping generalizations about my character. But someone who loves me will want to interpret my behavior charitably. Generosity makes the lover's understanding more accurate.

There lies the nuance that AI can never understand or replace.