Re: <nettime> nettime-l Digest, Vol 21, Issue 15

[Louis Rawlins via nettime-l <nettime-l@lists.nettime.org>]

Interesting. Thanks for the share, Frederic.

Felix, I'm sorry you had to learn about Carhenge in this way. I feel like
it's not the best art America has to offer. ;)

Brian, totally with you on "not-yet-fused" but I'd say it's the power of
what people are being convinced of that matters. Propaganda. Agit-prop.
We're deep in that phase now.

Today I found flyers across the districts I was walking in San Francisco
that announce weekly Saturday protests at the Tesla dealership (12:00 PM -
2:00 PM on Saturdays). Red-white-and-blue flag. All sortsa patriotic
ambiguity.

There is also section of freeway that connects one the "poorer" districts
that tech workers call their neighborhood and the more "affluent" design
district. This newer, re-habilitated area hasn't been fully sterilized to
look like a technology campus yet. The freeway underpass has recently been
shelter for many people in tents and dire conditions. They living under
freeways because it's federal land, which makes it more difficult for
people to be moved, since it's not City and County of San Francisco
jurisdiction. Yet, it has been done. Before, during and after
administration change at the federal and local level, the street have been
"cleaned" and the unhoused folks I now see as I walk along the underpass
glare at me shakily as I walk by. They have to keep their stuff moving in
carts and rolling suitcases. Always ready to go. The cliche phrase from
late nights at the bar: "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay
here." Keep on moving, keep on moving.

Regarding administrative and process changes, the folks that I've spoken to
in local and federal government (not many, but enough to get a vibe) seem
agitated more than anything. Ready to bounce. Ready to, essentially, walk
away from holding back the floodwaters of change. That's scary. It doesn't
matter whether something about a religion is fully-formed, the
technofeudal/neofeudal mindset is infectious enough to spread rapidly.
Religion or not, Severance and shows like it at the map to the mindset.

On the bright side, if you can call it that, I did encounter a slap/sticker
on a blue, painted i-beam holding up the freeway. The sticker was in a
cheery Amazon orange with white die-cut letters. In stacked letters, it
read:
'''
 f2k
a16z
'''

It is unsettling and awesome to me all at the same time that the kinda
folks (skaters, perhaps?) that would be printing stickers in resistance
would know anything of Andreessen Horowitz.

During the speech that Frederic shared, I kept thinking the "Marc" that JD
Vance was referring to was Marc Benioff, since Salesforce and that man were
closer to companies I've been a part of. But, no. I am certain by context
of the American Dynamism Summit, that it's our friend and source of
redacted poetry here on nettime, Marc Andreessen. (Again! He made Netscape
/ Mosaic?!? What is it about my age that keeps me from understanding how he
accumulated to much influence? What am I missing?)

Last year, one supposes:

*American Dynamism Summit 2024*
https://a16z.com/american-dynamism-summit/


Hope ya'll are well. Music helps me keep my shit together (sometimes).

*Move On Up* by Curtis Mayfield (1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN3KsbnQZxU


Peace,  Louis

------------------------------
louisrawlins.com
248-808-8908


On Sat, Mar 22, 2025 at 2:47 PM <nettime-l-request@lists.nettime.org> wrote:

[many items were snipped]


> wonder if it's a real one. If there's a Christian Nationalist imaginary in
> which AI is equivalent to God... well, that would be a contemporary
> American formula for totalitarianism, imho.
>
> On Sat, Mar 22, 2025 at 2:03?PM Fr?d?ric Neyrat <fneyrat@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > dear Brian and dear Felix,
> >
> > one answer is there:
> >
> https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-the-vice-president-the-american-dynamism-summit
> >
> > "populism" + "techno-optimism" = JDV, the Mediator
> >
> > F
>
>
[more things were snipped]


> You're right, Brian, I responded too quickly.
>
> Perhaps there's a step before ?AI is God? that we need to keep a close eye
> on: it's ?anti-AI is the devil.? This equivalence should get a lot of
> traction in those in power, be they populist, techno-accelerationist,
> or/and Christians.
>
> F
>

[some other bits were snipped]


> >>> > They won't replace us with AI because ???? ???'? ???? ??
> >>> > ??????? ?? ?? ???. They want our work to end. DOGE is
> >>> > firing us as fast as possible, and that is the whole plan.
> >>> >
> >>> > Listen: maybe I'm wrong and this is just the worst software
> deployment
> >>> > of my career, not actually a conspiracy against democracy.
> >>> >
> >>> > Maybe these guys just don't see they are frittering away all product
> >>> and
> >>> > service design knowledge in the agency. And don't even know that they
> >>> > lack this knowledge.
> >>> >
> >>> > Honestly: From the 2013 failure of healthcare.gov to today, the
> >>> > government *almost* learned how to build software. We were close.
> Then
> >>> a
> >>> > bunch of white men in suits swooped in to snatch defeat from the jaws
> >>> of
> >>> > victory.
>

[that final part was snipped]


> ------------------------------
>
> End of nettime-l Digest, Vol 21, Issue 15
> *****************************************
>
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