Hey f-slur, there's a fire in the theater!
The other day while I was bird watching, I noticed that my Merlin app (Google it) was recording the cries of a red-tailed hawk. I wanted to see it, so I followed the sound. The noise was coming from a large chestnut tree, but the only bird I could see was a blue jay bouncing around its branches. Oh you thought that was a red-tailed hawk, Merlin? Very funny, bitch, it was a blue jay mimicking its sounds. Fuck the rise of AI.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot. Blue jays are expert mimickers and often imitate larger birds of prey to scare smaller ones away from food sources. The Merlin app, which if you Googled, is connected to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and utilizes AI, among other functions, to identify sounds in real time by analyzing user uploaded recordings of bird song. Well, the blue jay fooled that mother fucker. There is something juicy in there about the limits of technology and how we can learn so much from nature.
There is a philosophical subset of people utilizing AI technology who refer to themselves as effective accelerationists (e/acc). These people are in direct contrast to AI “doomers,” who warn of the dangers of unchecked AI advancement. The effective accelerationists follow a kind of contemporary Marinettism that worships speed and dynamism over pragmatic institutionalism, plowing futurewards at all costs. They want AI to grow as fast as it can.
There is a glorification of letting the old burn away even if the new has yet to take its full shape. Let’s let the old world die and the new world struggle to be born with mama. It is frightening to watch unfold. Many advances in AI have been outpacing timelines set forth by noted researchers like Ray Kurzweil, who has successfully predicted the speed of AI’s capability for decades (he had to rerelease a book to make up for this speed. See: The Singularity is Nearer). Far Right support for accelerationism is growing, and we’re seeing, very rapidly, how excited the state is becoming by the prospect of this technology impacting war and surveillance industries. Not to mention the conservative moms on Facebook eating up AI slop like they’ve never experienced joy before.
I visited my parents in El Paso recently. We took a short trip to White Sands National Park, my first time seeing this truly incredible place, once the basin of an ancient lake, now miles of fine white sand dunes cool to the touch despite the 95F degree heat. They sold a wooden Oppenheimer Christmas ornament in the gift shop to commemorate the fact that the atom bomb was initially tested in the missile range nearby to the park. Immense natural wonder paired with the rise of manmade technological horrors strike again. At least I know there is a future where those who survive can buy an ornament somewhere to remember some horror from a time far enough away to not ruin a trip to a beautiful place. I bought a non-Oppenheimer hat to remember it.
I want to shout from the rafters that fascism is here, and the technologies it has access to can allow it to unleash horrors we have yet to see in real time. It is time to yell fire in the theater. I believe the fire is here, and even if it isn’t, it will be here soon. There is gasoline being poured in the aisles and there are people dancing with matchbooks in the wings. I am hearing of friends self-deporting while I answer emails. I am fearing for the safety and dignity of my trans friends as I have to pay for the subway. I walk past National Guard soldiers to get to my GI appointment. They are already coming for your neighbors, but maybe you’ve been on vacation.
My digestion is having a hard time acclimating to my rage. I saw my rheumatologist on MSNBC at the gym. She talked about RFK Jr. and his dangerous ideas, threats to our healthcare and safety. We’re in a pot and the water is starting to boil. The next segment was about saving for retirement. I peddled my rage out on a stationary bike, exhausting myself while staying put. The rage needs to go somewhere else, it needs to really travel. I am making a play with one of my dearest friends. The rage will go there while it can.
A friend in Gaza sent me a video of bombs outside his house. He will be 26 tomorrow, another birthday experiencing genocide. His nearly two year old son born in early 2024 plays in another clip he sent me. He needs more money to move his family south. I shared his story on my Instagram to garner support and more Zionists come out of the woodwork. I feel more than rage but there is also hope.
We can’t lose sight of hope, but we also can’t lose our rage. I hope it guides me, and I hope it guides you. I hope there is a not so distant future where our respective rages meet and all the stationary traveling we’ve been doing finally takes us somewhere together. I hope there is an ornament in a gift shop in our collective futures that commemorates our rage and a native bird species to dance on the ashes of fallen empire. Haha.
Please support my friend Mahmoud in Gaza on his birthday here.
Check out Blood Gala here (I’ll be hyping it up more soon).