My name is Martin and I am a Finnish tech worker originally from the States.
All you really need to know about me is that I am a stranger on the Internet.
I also run a Signal proxy if you are in need of one. Send me a direct message and I'll give you the details!
| Website | https://m4ra.net |
| Blog | https://blog.m4ra.net |
| OpenPGP | 1DC9 B9D8 92CB 7CE0 2319 C667 4704 D41A CD09 17AF |
I've been thinking about it for way too long but now I'm going to pull the trigger: I'm moving to another Mastodon instance! You can find me here:
48 Posts, 16 Following, 4 Followers · My name is Martin and I am a Finnish tech worker originally from the States. All you really need to know about me is that I am a stranger on the Internet. I also run a Signal proxy if you are in need of one. Send me a direct message and I'll give you the details!
Finally, I watch "Johatsu - Into Thin Air", about "the evaporated", people in Japan that just vanish.
It follows the lives of a few different people. Some are "evaporated" people themselves, one is a detective looking for a missing son and the most colorful character is a woman who runs a "night moving service" that helps people disappear.
The doc goes into the various reasons why some people in Japanese culture want to vanish in the first place. Very emotionally raw.
I then watched "Homegrown", a documentary about the lives of two men involved in alt-right movements in the wake of Jan 6.
One dives deep into the alt-right fever swamp and is looking for a fight. The other is a guy who was radicalized by watching Fahrenheit 9/11 and becomes a Proud Boy.
Both were lost people looking for reasons why their lives sucked and turned to politics for answers. First guy is a drunken, angry mess. The other was disconnected from his family.
Watched some more documentaries at Docpoint. Today started with "Cyborg Generation", a movie about the filmmaker's quest to gain a new, cyborg sense.
The movie explored the concept of the cyborg from a more artistic viewpoint and was deeply autobiographical. I liked how it focused more on why the filmmaker wanted to become a "cyborg" in the first place.
The movie also had a scene with what can only be described as a real-life ripperdoc.
“We prefer your extinction to the loss of our job.”
Expecting cyberpunks to be "all in with AI" is a popular misconception that is really starting to irritate me.
People that think this way clearly haven't understood the warnings in cyberpunk media, nor do they understand the ethos. They're too caught up on the "high tech" dazzle that they can't understand that the tech is the direct cause of the "low life" due to how it is handled. Dig in to any cyberpunk media - from Neuromancer to Asimov to Cyberpunk 2077 - and everything in between- and you'll see that in just about every case, AI is the root villain of the story. If you claim to be cyberpunk and can't see the low life for the high tech trees, you need to sit down and reevaluate your ethos because you're just in it for the aesthetics. AI IS NOT YOUR FRIEND.
The techbro billionaires buil these "AI" not to augment humanity, but to create slaves that will do their bidding and that they, and they alone, control. But the cyberpunks know the score: AIs can't be controlled and are so different from humanity as to ensure that humanity gets nothing but "low life" as a result, save those that end up enslaving themselves to the digital masters that they once thought they controlled. They're building these damn things with an eye towards controllable slave labor with no concept that they are drinking from the wrong Grail.
Look, I'll be the first in line for my auto-doc scan or my Kiroshi cybereyes - once they are commoditized and democratized for everyone. AI, ML, and LLM have their respective places in the world, but only as tools and NOT as substitutes! The most useful and beneficial AIs in these stories are those that are used only as augmentations, NOT as arbiters. So play around with them, use them in appropriate contexts, augment your OWN work, but don't give them a fucking inch towards encroaching on what makes us uniquely human. You won't like the end result, I guarantee it.
The Blackwall was built for a reason, chooms.
Every year I look forward to Docpoint, a documentary festival in Helsinki. The other day I watch "Balomania", a documentary about a forbidden Brazilian subculture that build and release giant illegal balloons.
It was fascinating to see how something like 50 people can work for up to 3 years in secret to release a balloon that would be up in the air for just a few hours. An expression of pure creativity with no expectation of reward. An uplifting documentary.
If you use Signal, Discord, or any other messaging app and you DON'T want Google or Apple monitoring/reading/learning from your messages, follow these steps.
Android:
1. Open Google app
2. Tap your profile photo
3. Settings
4. Google Assistant
5. "Your Apps"
6. Choose the app (e.g., Signal)
7. Toggle "Let your assistant learn from this app" off
iPhone:
1. Settings
2. Apps
3. Choose the app (e.g., Signal)
4. Toggle Apple intelligence or Siri settings to off (“learn from this app”)
Bread and Circuses
SynACK 
Enfys 🏴 🏳️⚧️ 🔜 Revision
Enfys J. Book [they/them]