Thank you for letting us in, George, and know that we continue to read with care and support. Let’s continue to push for thought and empathy, not because they will surely prevail, but for their own sake regardless.
Thanks for the reality check, George. So many interesting things, including McCarthy ("the subconscious and, in particular, how it comes out in language". Whoa). I've been also taking comfort in past artistry, and to be honest there's a lot for me to find still, specially in the 70s (after all when I woke up to the sound of music - pun! - in around 1982, The Beatles were long gone, so always a bit late). That mix of art and the artist history is what attracts me. While also, I try to get the quids & bucks and convert them to our awful pesos and maybe buy some gadget to perform along my old turntable. That crossover I like. I use ChatGPT for writing code and it's VERY useful but ALSO it fails a lot; I wonder if people really uses it or just fawns over it. Pst, influencers. And about the war, the crisis, "the stabilization of a stalemate". The "normalization" of the terrible, because you have to keep on living (my friends in Canada telling me how you live with 100% Inflation? I go "Whatcha gonna do?" As Soprano said :D ). Yeah you keep on truckin'. When we had a war sorta near us (can't imagine such thing in the very territory!) it was also a matter of blind faith and patriotism, as if it were football. Giving away jewels to support the war. God. Thanks for fueling the little history delights and bringing me back to music even if the "fight for the legal tender" tends to wear me off. Stay safe up there and stay in touch, for all the communication paraphernalia today we're still distant even when physically near. Knowing the individuals is what really tells the truth, countries, politics are crude. Without the interaction "We would zigzag our way through the boredom and pain"... you know the rest :)
I suppose that ChatGPT, just like GoogleTranslate and everything else based on neural network training, typically excels at the most routine tasks and fails at anything that even marginally transcends them. I totally wouldn't mind implementing it in, say, an Elder Scrolls game to create different scenarios for the player. But write your essays for you - what's the point? If we allow essays to be written by ChatGPT, it's probably better to do away with essays altogether.
Exactly the magnificence (and the deep failures too!) of the human being is what piques my (our) interest. It's alright for the AI to do a lot of the repetitive tasks for us (although ChatGPT is amusingly bad at maths), and that's my programmer approach. Bits here and there, remind me how to do this or that. Then curate. Getting the bot to write you a whole app and you blindly deploy it, it's unreal in 90% of the cases (at least in AI's current status). Now for the more artistic stuff is even worse yeah, important writings (probably okay for marketing that's robotic in any case :D ) even images where it's now more used it seems (generating a logo or prototyping data makes sense though). It'll improve I guess as far as there's a business, but for a good reason Google and others had it on hold. Worst case it'll end up another silly abandoned modern toy like my once awe-inspiring Alexa :D
Just wanted to say that what you're doing is tremendous, especially considering the circumstances. Keep going as long as you feel it's meaningful to you and, of course, as long as it's safe.
Your texts are amongst the very few things that I consider worth reading on the internet nowadays. A lot of times I go back to the Old Site, too.
It's always fresh and interesting and one can tell there's serious effort behind it, not just talent.
Haven't posted since before a-z blog sadly ended and have read many of your reviews during the last 20+ years. Like all other tyrants in the past, VP will eventually die in utter disgrace or get kicked out/fired. Hang in there + keep writing! P.S. Correct uk bands in order starting with best = rolling stones, who (mainly with Keith), beatles and kinks.
Hello George! I just wanted to thank you for these sorts of posts of yours because you are one of the few people I know of who can talk about these sorts of things with this kind of combination of clarity and objectivity with heart. Almost everything you write feels like a breath of fresh air, and even if I disagree sometimes, I can always see where you are coming from and it always gives me stuff to think about. Anyways, about all four points:
1. It has been very difficult to watch this whole event unfold George, and I am so sorry for you and everybody in Ukraine and Russia who have suffered so immensely from this conflict. I know you aren't a religious man George, but you guys have been in my prayers every night. The most I can say is how much admiration for still keeping on with your work and your blog. There is no way I, in your position, would have the strength to go on with a blog or be able to focus enough on work, and I think it is quite incredible that you've managed the strength to do so. All I say is that I hope you all are staying safe and careful in these days, and I hope that it does not drag on for a long time like you say it could.
2. Well, I've already talked with you a bit about this topic already, so I won't ramble on for a long time. All I know is that I am profoundly sick and tired of the "artificial patriotism" that is going on, something that I've seen even in my own friends and family. It's been difficult and stressful to watch for me especially. One thing I would say as a response is that I don't think it is a "prediction" that human art may be relegated to that: it's already happened. I mean from what I've seen, much of what people consume today frankly is not "art" and much of it is at the hand of soulless corporate manufacturing, and AI will only make their ability to ship out bullshit will only get stronger from here. I mean the fact that you are literally the ONLY critic I know of that didn't fall at least a little bit for the poptimism wave kind of tells you that the concept of human art being fully treasured is already ending. Thankfully, I feel that AI CANNOT replace human art, like you, because an AI cannot have the human lifestyle and cognition to be able to create art that has any meaning to a person, so I feel Otis Redding or the Beatles will still continue to have value to many people. I feel there will always been enough people who will crave something that screams of the human condition, and because of that, good human art will never die, or at least that's how I think about it.
3. I am quite happy that you are going to keep the main project alive (of course, I feel you should quit if it stops bringing any sort of benefit to you, but you already know that). Your Great Moments On Video series was awesome and it really got me into watching more videos of my favorite artists performing, but you've already written a lot of fine reviews for that series that I think taking a break is a good idea if it is now something that is exhausting you. Though, if you may allow me a suggestion, I think you should have a place on the website where you post some of these essays, like your 20th anniversary essay, these concert video reviews, etc. Even if you feel the video reviews are "lighter" pieces overall, I think they should be saved and compiled someplace to not get lost. I will overjoyed especially to see a series on 1000 great pre-war singles because sometimes trying to navigate that world of music can take some hard work (you've been a very helpful guide for that).
4. I am ashamed to say I did not know who Cormac McCarthy is, but he seemed like a very good person and a great talent based on your description, and I am sorry to hear of his passing. I'll be sure to watch the video you posted though, it sounds interesting.
Anyways that was a long response, but I guess this response was my way of appreciating your work. Stay safe and well George, and I look forward to anything you write going forward.
Thanks! So good to see people on the same wave as myself.
Might I add that I would actually have no problems with AI art replacing human art as long as this were TRUE AI art - meaning the AI in question would be somebody like Data from Star Trek. What we've been given so far, however, relates to such true AI in the same way a papier mache model relates to its prototype. They keep promising improvements, but it's a dead end street - like promising to beat the speed of light by tripling the volume of fuel in the tank.
Thank you for this article. I was wondering what your thoughts were on current events there. Love your writing. Roll over Tolstoy.
I loaded the grandkids up, just before the covid era, and visited Santa Fe for some damn culture instead of Disney world for a change. We enjoyed the town immensely.
Yes, I'm sure bands like Eloy could very well profit from ChatGPT to write better lyrics. This is a pretty good test, actually - if ChatGPT writes better lyrics than you do, perhaps you should start thinking about finding a different line of work.
In all seriousness "bands like Eloy" hmm there are exactly no "bands like Eloy". No one will deny that Eloy, how to say that, are for real. And yet AI writes better lyrics than Eloy. So AI in this particular area does create real art. How would you object to this?
Uh-uh. The idea of "art" necessarily implies "artistic intention". As bad as Eloy's lyrics or music can be, the members of Eloy are humans and they imbue their work with artistic intention. AI, on the contrary, employs search-and-combine algorithms that have no artistic intention. "AI art" can be mistaken for art by the outside experiencer if the formal resemblances make them erroneously sense artistic intention - but objectively, they would be wrong.
Art, same as science, is simply a way for humans to pull objects from future into present. AI simply does it more effectively in certain areas. But objects in future are devoid of distinguishable features (because in future there's no space and time and there's gigantic gravitational force). So it's all the same which exact objects will be pulled out as the final result shall be the present fully filled by the objects from the future communicating at the speed of light ( which AI already does) thus staying in present forever. There might be similar themes found in Eloy songs
You're confusing the future with the world of ideas. If I write Art about little pink elephants drinking nectar from twelve-feet tall sunflowers, I am not pulling them out of the future, where they may or may not exist, but out of the world of ideas, where they objectively exist because they are thinkable by me. Nothing, however, is thinkable by AI. Okay, maybe nothing is thinkable by Eloy, either, but that is not the point.
Please, define "thinkable" though. Is this a property common to humanity and AI which AI lacks in quantity if compared to humanity? If yes, how can we define it 'cause we're limited as we're humans?
I tried this with a Styx song: "Lords of the Ring", which I consider an example of bad lyric writing and I simply couldn't get ChatGPT to the point of improving upon that song.
Well, in this case you can actually find some similarities in the creative process. Both Styx and ChatGPT were actively searching for as many cliches as they could find. ChatGPT found more (duh), but Styx took a little better care of the syntax (although they occasionally struggle with syntax too - that "they sing", for instance, really doesn't go anywhere).
"while the average person outside of Russian borders might at least be somewhat more humane,"
I am not so sure, given
1) the average behaviour of the Dutch from 1940-45 (more went sightseeing Leningrad and other Eastern Europe places than joining the Resistance) and
2) the total indifference towards the Mediterranian dramas.
"the only method to keep one’s sanity in such a situation is to just keep on trucking."
I am in the luxuruous position that I'm old enough (I am from 1963) to not care much anymore. My beloved CDs won't disappear that quickly and YouTube actually has enriched my musical luggage. Thanks to it I have eg dicovered enjoyable stuff like Nikolaj Tsjerepnin's La princesse lointaine. AI won't affect that in the rest of my life.
Thanks for the update George, times have been seeming more and more dire recently. I wish you the best.
About the AI thing — I really doubt AI will fully replace human art, as I think most people value “authenticity” in art (even if said authenticity is not really authentic). Maybe I’m just optimistic, but I don’t think the development of AI is going to be too disastrous for music. (Also, I think you maybe underrate the amount of good music being made these days)
I honestly wouldn't mind if human art became a hobby of the minority as long as said minority (or, rather, "sad minority") would still not be deprived of access to it. Unfortunately, big businesses too often tend to decide what we need and what we do not need for us, based on majority preferences.
I mean, goddamn Apple did retire the Ipod Classic which was probably the best thing they ever made. Now I'm almost afraid to breathe on my old model, as there's no way in hell it could ever be replaced in Russia... :))
Excellent piece, George, very welcome after all this time of slugging it out with the non-stop reviews. And probably not very easy for you, with the increasing mayhem around you there in Moscow. That aside, good for you for bringing up Cormac McCarthy, and his interest in the subsconscious reminds me that in effect, as you say, we are probably subconsciously hoping for some kind of assimilation with AI. A lot of people will welcome it, and a lot more will simply go with the flow because they are tired of having to think for themselves and would be happy to have another, hey surely more intelligent, influencer to log on to every day. The smartphone was the first step towards this union, the announced Apple Vision Pro will predictably accelerate the process. It's written: our best candidate for Global Seer, Yuval Harari, has already predicted it and the eventual unrecognizable human race only a few generations from now. As a good friend keeps advising me, "fasten you seat belt, it's going to be a bumpy ride!" In this dicey context, your reviews of 1960's musical memorabilia from the very margins of war is a godsend.
It's not going to be that easy for them to completely take over, because, fortunately, the difference here is not between the different generations (as the adherents of the "OK boomer" ideology would conveniently have you believe) but simply between the thinkers and non-thinkers. A lot of the bright young students that I teach understand the issues at stake very well and will (probably) not let themselves be brainwashed. But, just as it is for myself, the price to pay for this is depression.
It's very understandably that you've gotten a bit prickly and don't appreciate my weird and silly sense of humour at the moment (I love music so much that I can't take it seriously). So I had decided not to comment anymore. This is (for me) a happy exception. Because I admire your courage. I don't think I would have posted an analysis like this were I in your position.
Western news sources (I haven't checked Indian, Arabic or Chinese ones; might be interesting) are biased towards and root for the underdog. So they don't mention what's not happening. Actually at the front thus far almost nothing has happened this year. Eg Ukraine by no means controls the air. All in all this seems like becoming a war of attrition and given the circumstances it this might take a long time.
In his excellent The End Ian Kershaw analyzed why another war continued so long. Despite the many differences I think the similarities important. The elite, politically, military and/or economically, is for various reasons not in the position to end it; the soldiers even less so, let alone the common people. Sure, the Russian army didn't fight the mutiny - but it didn't join it either. So I think it a lot less significant on the long term than most commenters in the western media.
I don't see another 1855 coming (compare June 30, 1941, when there was a chance), so I'm afraid we'll have to wait for 1953. After that, who knows? I repeat my long term hope, expressed the previous time. It has happened before.
Thank you. It was not so much about humor as it was about constant references to a certain guitar player in Deep Purple that really began getting on my nerves after a while. You are quite welcome to post your thoughts in general, as is everybody else on here.
"Courage" is not the kind of word I could apply to myself; I'm too addicted to my work, my teaching, and my writing to go out there and do anything truly courageous. (If I had the slightest suspicion that the FSB were monitoring whatever I write in this blog, I wouldn't have made the post - officially, you are committing a capital crime in Russia if you mention the word "war" anywhere on social media, instead of "special military operation" as it is supposed to be called. But justice is meted out here on a highly opportunistic basis).
Thank you for letting us in, George, and know that we continue to read with care and support. Let’s continue to push for thought and empathy, not because they will surely prevail, but for their own sake regardless.
Thanks for the reality check, George. So many interesting things, including McCarthy ("the subconscious and, in particular, how it comes out in language". Whoa). I've been also taking comfort in past artistry, and to be honest there's a lot for me to find still, specially in the 70s (after all when I woke up to the sound of music - pun! - in around 1982, The Beatles were long gone, so always a bit late). That mix of art and the artist history is what attracts me. While also, I try to get the quids & bucks and convert them to our awful pesos and maybe buy some gadget to perform along my old turntable. That crossover I like. I use ChatGPT for writing code and it's VERY useful but ALSO it fails a lot; I wonder if people really uses it or just fawns over it. Pst, influencers. And about the war, the crisis, "the stabilization of a stalemate". The "normalization" of the terrible, because you have to keep on living (my friends in Canada telling me how you live with 100% Inflation? I go "Whatcha gonna do?" As Soprano said :D ). Yeah you keep on truckin'. When we had a war sorta near us (can't imagine such thing in the very territory!) it was also a matter of blind faith and patriotism, as if it were football. Giving away jewels to support the war. God. Thanks for fueling the little history delights and bringing me back to music even if the "fight for the legal tender" tends to wear me off. Stay safe up there and stay in touch, for all the communication paraphernalia today we're still distant even when physically near. Knowing the individuals is what really tells the truth, countries, politics are crude. Without the interaction "We would zigzag our way through the boredom and pain"... you know the rest :)
I suppose that ChatGPT, just like GoogleTranslate and everything else based on neural network training, typically excels at the most routine tasks and fails at anything that even marginally transcends them. I totally wouldn't mind implementing it in, say, an Elder Scrolls game to create different scenarios for the player. But write your essays for you - what's the point? If we allow essays to be written by ChatGPT, it's probably better to do away with essays altogether.
Thanks for the support, Charly!
Exactly the magnificence (and the deep failures too!) of the human being is what piques my (our) interest. It's alright for the AI to do a lot of the repetitive tasks for us (although ChatGPT is amusingly bad at maths), and that's my programmer approach. Bits here and there, remind me how to do this or that. Then curate. Getting the bot to write you a whole app and you blindly deploy it, it's unreal in 90% of the cases (at least in AI's current status). Now for the more artistic stuff is even worse yeah, important writings (probably okay for marketing that's robotic in any case :D ) even images where it's now more used it seems (generating a logo or prototyping data makes sense though). It'll improve I guess as far as there's a business, but for a good reason Google and others had it on hold. Worst case it'll end up another silly abandoned modern toy like my once awe-inspiring Alexa :D
Hello George,
Thank you for the update.
Just wanted to say that what you're doing is tremendous, especially considering the circumstances. Keep going as long as you feel it's meaningful to you and, of course, as long as it's safe.
Your texts are amongst the very few things that I consider worth reading on the internet nowadays. A lot of times I go back to the Old Site, too.
It's always fresh and interesting and one can tell there's serious effort behind it, not just talent.
Thank you ever so much.
Mihail
Haven't posted since before a-z blog sadly ended and have read many of your reviews during the last 20+ years. Like all other tyrants in the past, VP will eventually die in utter disgrace or get kicked out/fired. Hang in there + keep writing! P.S. Correct uk bands in order starting with best = rolling stones, who (mainly with Keith), beatles and kinks.
Hello George! I just wanted to thank you for these sorts of posts of yours because you are one of the few people I know of who can talk about these sorts of things with this kind of combination of clarity and objectivity with heart. Almost everything you write feels like a breath of fresh air, and even if I disagree sometimes, I can always see where you are coming from and it always gives me stuff to think about. Anyways, about all four points:
1. It has been very difficult to watch this whole event unfold George, and I am so sorry for you and everybody in Ukraine and Russia who have suffered so immensely from this conflict. I know you aren't a religious man George, but you guys have been in my prayers every night. The most I can say is how much admiration for still keeping on with your work and your blog. There is no way I, in your position, would have the strength to go on with a blog or be able to focus enough on work, and I think it is quite incredible that you've managed the strength to do so. All I say is that I hope you all are staying safe and careful in these days, and I hope that it does not drag on for a long time like you say it could.
2. Well, I've already talked with you a bit about this topic already, so I won't ramble on for a long time. All I know is that I am profoundly sick and tired of the "artificial patriotism" that is going on, something that I've seen even in my own friends and family. It's been difficult and stressful to watch for me especially. One thing I would say as a response is that I don't think it is a "prediction" that human art may be relegated to that: it's already happened. I mean from what I've seen, much of what people consume today frankly is not "art" and much of it is at the hand of soulless corporate manufacturing, and AI will only make their ability to ship out bullshit will only get stronger from here. I mean the fact that you are literally the ONLY critic I know of that didn't fall at least a little bit for the poptimism wave kind of tells you that the concept of human art being fully treasured is already ending. Thankfully, I feel that AI CANNOT replace human art, like you, because an AI cannot have the human lifestyle and cognition to be able to create art that has any meaning to a person, so I feel Otis Redding or the Beatles will still continue to have value to many people. I feel there will always been enough people who will crave something that screams of the human condition, and because of that, good human art will never die, or at least that's how I think about it.
3. I am quite happy that you are going to keep the main project alive (of course, I feel you should quit if it stops bringing any sort of benefit to you, but you already know that). Your Great Moments On Video series was awesome and it really got me into watching more videos of my favorite artists performing, but you've already written a lot of fine reviews for that series that I think taking a break is a good idea if it is now something that is exhausting you. Though, if you may allow me a suggestion, I think you should have a place on the website where you post some of these essays, like your 20th anniversary essay, these concert video reviews, etc. Even if you feel the video reviews are "lighter" pieces overall, I think they should be saved and compiled someplace to not get lost. I will overjoyed especially to see a series on 1000 great pre-war singles because sometimes trying to navigate that world of music can take some hard work (you've been a very helpful guide for that).
4. I am ashamed to say I did not know who Cormac McCarthy is, but he seemed like a very good person and a great talent based on your description, and I am sorry to hear of his passing. I'll be sure to watch the video you posted though, it sounds interesting.
Anyways that was a long response, but I guess this response was my way of appreciating your work. Stay safe and well George, and I look forward to anything you write going forward.
Thanks! So good to see people on the same wave as myself.
Might I add that I would actually have no problems with AI art replacing human art as long as this were TRUE AI art - meaning the AI in question would be somebody like Data from Star Trek. What we've been given so far, however, relates to such true AI in the same way a papier mache model relates to its prototype. They keep promising improvements, but it's a dead end street - like promising to beat the speed of light by tripling the volume of fuel in the tank.
Thank you for this article. I was wondering what your thoughts were on current events there. Love your writing. Roll over Tolstoy.
I loaded the grandkids up, just before the covid era, and visited Santa Fe for some damn culture instead of Disney world for a change. We enjoyed the town immensely.
Stay safe.
Hmm, İ've asked ChatGPT to write me an Eloy song and he came with surprisingly good lyrics, even I would say better than some Eloy stuff.
Yes, I'm sure bands like Eloy could very well profit from ChatGPT to write better lyrics. This is a pretty good test, actually - if ChatGPT writes better lyrics than you do, perhaps you should start thinking about finding a different line of work.
In all seriousness "bands like Eloy" hmm there are exactly no "bands like Eloy". No one will deny that Eloy, how to say that, are for real. And yet AI writes better lyrics than Eloy. So AI in this particular area does create real art. How would you object to this?
Uh-uh. The idea of "art" necessarily implies "artistic intention". As bad as Eloy's lyrics or music can be, the members of Eloy are humans and they imbue their work with artistic intention. AI, on the contrary, employs search-and-combine algorithms that have no artistic intention. "AI art" can be mistaken for art by the outside experiencer if the formal resemblances make them erroneously sense artistic intention - but objectively, they would be wrong.
Art, same as science, is simply a way for humans to pull objects from future into present. AI simply does it more effectively in certain areas. But objects in future are devoid of distinguishable features (because in future there's no space and time and there's gigantic gravitational force). So it's all the same which exact objects will be pulled out as the final result shall be the present fully filled by the objects from the future communicating at the speed of light ( which AI already does) thus staying in present forever. There might be similar themes found in Eloy songs
You're confusing the future with the world of ideas. If I write Art about little pink elephants drinking nectar from twelve-feet tall sunflowers, I am not pulling them out of the future, where they may or may not exist, but out of the world of ideas, where they objectively exist because they are thinkable by me. Nothing, however, is thinkable by AI. Okay, maybe nothing is thinkable by Eloy, either, but that is not the point.
Please, define "thinkable" though. Is this a property common to humanity and AI which AI lacks in quantity if compared to humanity? If yes, how can we define it 'cause we're limited as we're humans?
I tried this with a Styx song: "Lords of the Ring", which I consider an example of bad lyric writing and I simply couldn't get ChatGPT to the point of improving upon that song.
This is a quote from Styx:
"And so we came from everywhere
The young and old the rich and poor
To hear the legend of the magic ring
and of the powers it could bring, they sing
All hail to the Lords of the Ring
To the magic and mystery they bring"
This is what ChatGPT made of it:
"In the year of the Lords, a message was sent
From the heavens above, its purpose intent
The world awakened by a resounding call
Unveiling tales that held us in thrall
And so we gathered, people far and wide
Young and old, united side by side
To hear the legend of the enchanted ring
Its power and wonders, a song we'll sing
All hail the Lords of the Ring
With magic and mystery, they bring
Through the echoes of their story
All hail the Lords of the Ring
With magic and mystery, they bring
May we embrace its glory"
Just atrocious.
Well, in this case you can actually find some similarities in the creative process. Both Styx and ChatGPT were actively searching for as many cliches as they could find. ChatGPT found more (duh), but Styx took a little better care of the syntax (although they occasionally struggle with syntax too - that "they sing", for instance, really doesn't go anywhere).
Even though I know Eloy as a band, I kept reading Elon. Ah the vicious influence of the networks.
This is possible but one must take care not to read the subject as ELO
Hmmm...but can we say for sure that “Midnight on the water, I saw the ocean’s daughter,” wasn’t written by an early AI?
"while the average person outside of Russian borders might at least be somewhat more humane,"
I am not so sure, given
1) the average behaviour of the Dutch from 1940-45 (more went sightseeing Leningrad and other Eastern Europe places than joining the Resistance) and
2) the total indifference towards the Mediterranian dramas.
"the only method to keep one’s sanity in such a situation is to just keep on trucking."
I am in the luxuruous position that I'm old enough (I am from 1963) to not care much anymore. My beloved CDs won't disappear that quickly and YouTube actually has enriched my musical luggage. Thanks to it I have eg dicovered enjoyable stuff like Nikolaj Tsjerepnin's La princesse lointaine. AI won't affect that in the rest of my life.
Keep tough (houd je taai), as we Dutch say.
Thanks for the update George, times have been seeming more and more dire recently. I wish you the best.
About the AI thing — I really doubt AI will fully replace human art, as I think most people value “authenticity” in art (even if said authenticity is not really authentic). Maybe I’m just optimistic, but I don’t think the development of AI is going to be too disastrous for music. (Also, I think you maybe underrate the amount of good music being made these days)
It's good to stay optimistic!
I honestly wouldn't mind if human art became a hobby of the minority as long as said minority (or, rather, "sad minority") would still not be deprived of access to it. Unfortunately, big businesses too often tend to decide what we need and what we do not need for us, based on majority preferences.
I mean, goddamn Apple did retire the Ipod Classic which was probably the best thing they ever made. Now I'm almost afraid to breathe on my old model, as there's no way in hell it could ever be replaced in Russia... :))
Apple loves making the most infuriating decisions that don’t even make too much sense in a business sense from what I can tell, real annoying.
I’m more worried about the white collar jobs it’ll inevitably replace, in an already unstable economy. But you gotta keep on chooglin, as they say
Excellent piece, George, very welcome after all this time of slugging it out with the non-stop reviews. And probably not very easy for you, with the increasing mayhem around you there in Moscow. That aside, good for you for bringing up Cormac McCarthy, and his interest in the subsconscious reminds me that in effect, as you say, we are probably subconsciously hoping for some kind of assimilation with AI. A lot of people will welcome it, and a lot more will simply go with the flow because they are tired of having to think for themselves and would be happy to have another, hey surely more intelligent, influencer to log on to every day. The smartphone was the first step towards this union, the announced Apple Vision Pro will predictably accelerate the process. It's written: our best candidate for Global Seer, Yuval Harari, has already predicted it and the eventual unrecognizable human race only a few generations from now. As a good friend keeps advising me, "fasten you seat belt, it's going to be a bumpy ride!" In this dicey context, your reviews of 1960's musical memorabilia from the very margins of war is a godsend.
It's not going to be that easy for them to completely take over, because, fortunately, the difference here is not between the different generations (as the adherents of the "OK boomer" ideology would conveniently have you believe) but simply between the thinkers and non-thinkers. A lot of the bright young students that I teach understand the issues at stake very well and will (probably) not let themselves be brainwashed. But, just as it is for myself, the price to pay for this is depression.
It's very understandably that you've gotten a bit prickly and don't appreciate my weird and silly sense of humour at the moment (I love music so much that I can't take it seriously). So I had decided not to comment anymore. This is (for me) a happy exception. Because I admire your courage. I don't think I would have posted an analysis like this were I in your position.
Western news sources (I haven't checked Indian, Arabic or Chinese ones; might be interesting) are biased towards and root for the underdog. So they don't mention what's not happening. Actually at the front thus far almost nothing has happened this year. Eg Ukraine by no means controls the air. All in all this seems like becoming a war of attrition and given the circumstances it this might take a long time.
In his excellent The End Ian Kershaw analyzed why another war continued so long. Despite the many differences I think the similarities important. The elite, politically, military and/or economically, is for various reasons not in the position to end it; the soldiers even less so, let alone the common people. Sure, the Russian army didn't fight the mutiny - but it didn't join it either. So I think it a lot less significant on the long term than most commenters in the western media.
I don't see another 1855 coming (compare June 30, 1941, when there was a chance), so I'm afraid we'll have to wait for 1953. After that, who knows? I repeat my long term hope, expressed the previous time. It has happened before.
Thank you. It was not so much about humor as it was about constant references to a certain guitar player in Deep Purple that really began getting on my nerves after a while. You are quite welcome to post your thoughts in general, as is everybody else on here.
"Courage" is not the kind of word I could apply to myself; I'm too addicted to my work, my teaching, and my writing to go out there and do anything truly courageous. (If I had the slightest suspicion that the FSB were monitoring whatever I write in this blog, I wouldn't have made the post - officially, you are committing a capital crime in Russia if you mention the word "war" anywhere on social media, instead of "special military operation" as it is supposed to be called. But justice is meted out here on a highly opportunistic basis).
"constant references"
You reproaching me for that was not what made me decide to quit commenting. It's not a big deal and it's entirely my responsibility anyway.
Posted here because I couldn't find another way to contact you.
Again, keep tough. And perhaps you could listen to Therapy's 30 Seconds from the Infernal Love album.