written by Velvet Ishtar.
Refik Anadol is an artist that specializes in working with data. His AI powered artworks have been exhibited at the Serpentine Gallery in London, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist. One artwork, titled Large Nature Model, is the result of a massive data collection effort that scans, measures, and catalogues aspects of the natural world such as rainforests and coral reefs. The goal is to build a data base for a digital world that comprises not just the aesthetic aspects of the natural world, but precise measurements of dynamic processes within the ecosystem such as groundwater hydration and humidity in the atmosphere. The implications of such data powering a digital world scrubs away the cartoon visions of projects like Mark Zuckerberg’s early look at a Metaverse and replace it with ever morphing replicas of a corporeal natural world that many have accepted as already lost to us.
In his book Chip War, Chris Miller outlines the current economic and geopolitical scenarios
regarding the tensions over resource extraction for the purposes of the production of
computer chips. Chips are now essential in many forms, especially as the world becomes ever more reliant on large data and machine learning. Today, the vast majority of global conflict centers around the control of land which possesses the resources to build these chips, the shipping routes connecting different bases essential to the manufacturing process, and control of the machines and the people who labour to extract and process these materials. Body, Soul, Earth, and Mind begins to be tossed into the Inferno that fuels the utopian Omelas of the Metaverse.
Francis Fukuyama’s idea of the End of History is predicated on the idea of Western Liberal
Capitalism being the endpoint for the development of civilizational forms, a supposed natural compromise between humanity’s desire for transcendence and our animal origin. The idea of the eternal war is the Liberal world’s dwarf in the mechanical Turk, similar to how theology serves the same purpose for historical materialism as posited by Walter Benjamin. To end all war is the justification presented for the waging of the eternal war itself. To end all war is to end class war, petrifying the property structure, and seizing History itself.
Where class war dies, theology begins to rear its head. The thirst to meet our Creator has
led us into the dream of building one. If this world cannot have class war, then we will deliver unto ourselves a Holy War founded on silicon and glass. In one paper, Davi Johnson points out that humans do not build culture using memes, but memes build culture using humans. Human beings act as replicators for both genetic and memetic material.
Entropy in the system continues to grow, and as participants in the system bound by the
laws of thermodynamics it is easy to fall prey to the illusion that we can only control its rate of growth, not its direction. Messianic
salvation, a turning back of the hands of time, and a spectacular conquering of the stars by means of an AI God-Slave is pure ideological fantasy. There is no second coming, there is no Messiah, Godot is dead. Maxwell’s demon participates in the system it seeks to manipulate, and the laws of Physics are not so easily cheated. Even to observe, to remember, to decide and to perceive, is to be a part of an entropic system.
With no way to escape the cycle, all of politics begins to fall towards the problem of acceleration. As the entirety of philosophical discourse begins to be absorbed into the body of the politics of speed, all that we are left with is the question of whether or not it is possible to buy ourselves a little more time in the sun, and whether or not we should. The despondent and the spectacle-hungry among us leap into the void expecting oblivion, unaware of the portal waiting to transport us into a new world. However, this new world cannot be born without first bracing for some sort of impact. As the risk of total war, climate collapse, and neofascism begin to intermingle, our primary concerns must not just be the preservation of material means of preserving life, but also immaterial means of preserving life.
The only real way forward is to step out of the realm of illusions, especially when there is something to be done. You exist in the world, there are troubles, and someone must do something about them. If the flow does not stop, you must learn to channel it. You have been given a glimpse of the source. Now you must build.
In short: canned beans and crossbows are not enough. We need good movies and sexy clowns.
Next up (at some point): how YOUR obsession for better graphics is killing the planet (yes, you specifically. I know what videogames you play in the dark, and I know what you get up to on VRChat, you fucking pervert. But hey, it’s okay, the only reason I haven’t joined you is because I’m a cheapo with no money for an Oculus).
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