no digital masters, no digital gods
the issue is not ‘access to data’ (note that the Latin meaning of “data” is "that which is given”) but rather ‘access to each other through data’. The concept that ‘data’ exists in a big pile somewhere and we have to scrabble to ‘get access’ to it is a capitalist mind-game. Back in 1993 there were two schools of thought about the Internet: “We own the content so we’re in charge” (asserted by the movie studios and content owners), and “It’s pipes with meters, stupid”, asserted by the geek crowd.
before we sharpen our weapons tools [for conviviality], let's take a beat. we live in data and information-drenched times. we are nearly drowning in it, especially where we remain unaware of it.
we need to sing "no masters, no gods" loudly. we need to reclaim the stupidity of our machines/tools and the data they collect and produce. we need to bring back the social components of engineering and digitality, just as we need to bring back the social components of the park and the bar.
i like felsenstein's declaration of artificial stupidity while acknowledging the utility of the technology when/where used appropriately.
ai is not exactly a tool for conviviality (yet), considering illich's definition (ai has quickly moved into its second watershed moment, a radical monopoly of dispossession); however, that does not mean it can't be used convivially. perhaps we will see a third watershed moment as smaller digital communities reclaim the tool?
ai can be a convivial tool, but not in the hands of capitalists. to reclaim could mean decentralisation, localisation, and small model tools ... but whichever way we have it, we will need to steal it back. it's pipes and meters, compute and inference, stupid!