Welcome back to the bazaar. Usually I am pleased to offer whatever eccentric miscellany strikes me at the moment, but occasionally I am inspired by a specific vein that I must mine. Today we have a thematic assortment of nodes mapping the edges of an emerging terra incognita. Of course we need to talk about Artificial Intelligence. As per usual, we’ll do it our own way, thanks very much.
In fact, the more I learn about AI technology and discuss the supposed ramifications with others, the more confident I become that projects like this, my humble collations of internet relics, grow increasingly vital by the hour. In a world teeming with binary decision trees and algorithmic sorting, make human friends and recommend things to each other.
But let’s be fair. Take a link, drop a link. The comments are open. Fill the bazaar with your choicest and weirdest futuristic finds before I pack the stall up for a while. Good to see you again, friends.
In the Headphones: LANDSRAAD, The Golden Path
Ah yes, I usually save the crate-diving for my most special of friends, but today I couldn’t resist. Technically a dungeonsynth album, LANDSRAAD pushes that intentionally retrograde genre slightly by incorporating some more modern sounds as well as a non-Dungeons-and-Dragons theme. The result is fitting for the science fiction magnum opus it is meant to evoke. Stark, haunting, and contemplative, music to mourn and exult by. Let the sweeping washes and profound growls fill you. Be reminded of the Butlerian commandments.
An Eldritch One: H.P. Lovecraft, Prophet of AGI
And of course, I have my own relationship with a famously unaligned, humanity-wiping-out, three-letter superintelligence, one that I struggle daily to align myself with.
Jon Stokes compares our potential coming silicon-based rulers to the unfathomable alien minds of Lovecraft’s brooding mythos. I couldn’t resist this one, from the references to outré internet darklings like Nick Land (venture with care, dear readers) to the tenaciously hopeful ending.