Aug. 28, 2015, 2:39 p.m.

neural nyetworks

wonder systems

So I've been on a bit of a neural network kick; char-rnn was a fascinating tool to play with for generating small scifi, and just recently there's been some reproductions of painter's styles this way (although that paper has few enough examples that I'm a little dubious of their technique's robustness).



And all this NN stuff is a bit schizoanalytic; I wonder about a continuous Adam Curtis bot, constantly fed news reports and excreting brightly-colored Arial subtitles, fast-moving images, an ironic soundtrack. Like a nightmare of the 80s, continuous colorful propaganda with just enough local sense to trap the eye. Quite the opposite of Curtis' forceful singular visions...

Hmm, maybe neural networks (as a generic collection of simple systems pulled to an optima) extend cybernetic societies. Although Cybersyn intentionally limited its input, so maybe NNs are an exaggeration, combined with Big Data (née Big Brother) and advertising to create a monstrous libertarian planned economy, Uber drivers the new Soviet strikers (forbidden to strike because how could the state not be operating in their interest?) and 10x programmers the new Stakhanovites.

I guess you have to give a hand to the accelerationists.

-Ned

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