Naming my new AI startup DemiUrge™
Our business model
Imagine a cave, where various persons are imprisoned since birth. They are chained so as to create a fixed gaze upon a wall, on which can be seen the shadows of various entities walking past outside the cave— people, horses, carts. This audience would be, by nature, highly engaged with these shadows, which we may call "content". So what if— among these shadows— we were to include advertisements?
@mcc Thanks! I hate it.
@Sylvhem @mcc I literally don't know whether to block or boost.
@darius @mcc how many did they sell?
@darius @mcc it would be darkly funny if this also covered commercials that simply do not end if the viewer fails to comply
@mcc PLATO: “This is extremely cursed.”
@mcc As long as I get to decide who gets chained up in this cave.
@mcc If that persons are chained, isn't it a matter of time that they starve to death?
@mcc when you can't buy the thing that's advertised, the advertisement becomes a valuable thing on its own (e.g. back in East Germany, shiny western print magazine ads were treasured almost like the real thing that was out of reach). A sort of cargo cult basically, but without ever having experienced the actual cargo, only ever seeing its "shadow on the wall".
@floooh @mcc almost like seeing me as a functioning human being is just seeing shadows someone else has cast against the wall.
@floooh @mcc this feels related to the fact that I hate contemporary advertising and avoid it at all costs, but old advertising for products you can't buy any more are somehow a delightful historical curiosity
@whimsy @floooh @mcc
Things that were harmful once and without power now often seem funny. Maybe it's catharsis, or maybe it's the old formula of tragedy plus time, but removing the commercial work from it's temporal frame neuters its potency and often lays its intents bare.
@floooh @mcc This is going into the advertising discord
@mcc Prehistoric Torment Nexus
@mcc this toot brought to you by Plato's Promotions®

@mcc AAAH AAAH AAAH YOU'VE POSTULATED SEO IN PLATO'S CAVE!!!!!!

@mcc this is easily one of the greatest toots of all time. Can only boost once though.
@mcc First, a word from our sponsor, Occam's Razors, they'll shave better.

@mistersql

HOW DO YOU KNOW IF

SOMETHING'S PHONY?

JUST RELY ON

PARSIMONY

OCCAM-SHAVE™

@mcc holy shit this is *art*
@mcc Very funny. No one under 60 will understand why.
@aiuto @mcc hey now! I'm under 60...
I think...
now I'm afraid to check.
@kevingranade @mcc You can check by looking at the manufacturing label under your left butt cheek.

@mistersql @mcc For those that don’t get the reference: https://www.legendsofamerica.com/66-burmashave/

And now I need to figure out where I knew it from …

@martini @mistersql @mcc there are Burma Shave references in Haroun and the Sea of Stories and the Infocom game “Enchanter”, if that helps
@glyph @mistersql @mcc I’m not familiar with either unfortunately, though I think I know one place now - maybe American Gods?
@martini @mistersql @mcc I would definitely recommend Haroun
@mcc GaaS (Gnosticism as a Service)
@mcc To view this cave wall, please turn off your adblocker.
@mcc The platonic ideal of enshittification
@mcc
what is this, Plato's youtube??
@mcc we need the Apple Vision Pro to cause Tetris Effect but with ADS
@mcc If we then replace one link in one of the chains with an exact replica, will they still be chained in the same cave? What about replacing one rock in the cave wall? At what point are they only in a simulation of their original cave, and not in the original Matrix?
@mcc The shadows themselves can be monetized on a simple subscription basis as well, and owing to the natural monopoly, would likely enjoy a high customer retention rate
@mcc @enobacon
short political advert:
"have we got a republic for you!"
visit us at plato.org
@mcc if you lathe of heaven this shit into existence I shall be extremely cross.
@mcc this projection is brought to you by Audible. Derive audiobook technology and GSM Standards to receive three free months of auditory entertainment from the best writers around the islands.

@mcc

What if philosophy but can get venture capital?

@CliftonR This is the promise of TESCREAL

@mcc

Treacle mines aren't real, I tell you!

And the Rock Basilisks went extinct in the late 1600s!

It's a scam!

@mcc @nev Ooh, then we could charge them more for an “ad-free” experience where we remove the shadows less often.
@mcc what's the point of advertising to people in chains? What are they going to be able to buy?
@mcc Brought to you by Verizon:
@mcc i appreciate that you're making this literal but i do think this is the business model for most LLM startups
@mcc GPT stands for gnostic pleroma transcendence.
@mcc Oh hey that's my job right there...

Where is the diagram on the left from?

@mcc

@mcc really screwed up that demiurge doesn’t mean “half-hearted desire”