For some time now, people have been arguing about artificial intelligence, synthetic media, cloned voices, and all the rest of the new technological landscape that has suddenly appeared around us. Most of the conversation tends to drift immediately into fear, paranoia, suspicion, or warnings about deception. That’s understandable. Every major communications technology in history has produced a similar reaction. Continue reading
The story of The Clear Light Five begins, naturally, in the places where all dangerous harmonies begin: hallways, rooftops, alley echoes, and cheap coffee after midnight.
Nobody can quite agree where they first came from. Some people say Newark. Others insist South Philly. A few old-timers swear they first heard them drifting out of a parked Cadillac near a boardwalk somewhere along the Jersey coast in the summer of 1961. Continue reading
Back in the old days, before digital swallowed the world whole, images and sound had weight.
Not metaphorical weight. Actual weight.
good morning, bob. I was watching an interesting video about french etiquette. they tell me your memory has improved greatly. Continue reading
Every new technology arrives with the same shadow trailing behind it: the question of danger. AI is no exception, and lately the tone of that question has taken on a certain drama, as though something unprecedented has slipped into the world. But when you step back from the noise, the picture looks more familiar than strange. Continue reading
Verse 1
Bing, Bing a ding ding,
baba baba doo-doo.
lama rama ding-dong,
machee catchee hoo-hoo.
Enough about the war. What do you think you know about Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong? There’s a connection here to a more current kind of signal. A song like “I Don’t Think We Won the War” doesn’t hide its message—it puts it right on the table. But that doesn’t mean it’s fully received. Just like Armstrong’s deeper musical language was overlooked beneath the surface of his image, a direct statement can be heard and still not really land. In both cases, the signal goes out clearly, but the response depends on whether the listener is ready to hear what’s actually being said. Continue reading
[Intro – Spoken / Calm]
All systems nominal.
Mission proceeding as planned.
No deviations to report. Continue reading
I just got tired of politicians making up bastardly nasty mythology about words, especially words that are “ordering code” in restaurants, cafes and especially diners, where orders are shouted out and the order slip is stuck onto a nail or clipped onto an overhead board. The simple fact is that politicians are born liars. So what does “Burn the British” mean?