notes 01
For months now, I've had a vague idea of something I've wanted to turn into a long-form bit of writing. I've made sparse sketches in my phone's notes app, my browser's bookmarks folder of research is overwhelming, and the dedicated folder on my desktop has similarly grown terrifyingly dense. Creating this blog ended up being the inciting factor to finally convince me to just write.1 It is gratifying to see my thoughts coalesce; however, I feel even further from the end now that I've begun. I knew this would be a burdensome number of threads to connect yet...
So here is a tried-and-true blog post in the meantime.
It is Wednesday—the second worst day of the week—however it seems daylight savings has infected my brain and suddenly early mornings are not so bad (it is once it hits 4pm and the sky turns black that I lose all vigor).
✩ DOGA
The first full-length release from Argentinian folktronica musician Juana Molina in eight years. Thank god. Molina remains a quintessential album artist. DOGA is a cohesive landscape, refreshing within the algorithmic streaming ecosystem.
Favorite tracks: uno es arbol; caravanas; va rara; rina sol
✩ Ms. Rachel Honors Children in Gaza With Embroidered Artwork on Her Glamour Women of the Year Gown
Truly a beautiful dress. Not to give the Condé Nast owned Glamour more credit than they deserve, it is nonetheless nice to see mainstream publications affirming Ms. Rachel's activism. Free Palestine من النهر إلى البحر
✩ Google Removed 749 Million Anna’s Archive URLs from its Search Results
In which I learn the shadow library Anna's Archive is a staunch fighter in the open use of copyrighted material for AI language learning under the guise of American exceptionalism. From the Anna's Archive blog:
If the West wants to stay ahead in the race of LLMs, and ultimately, AGI, it needs to reconsider its position on copyright, and soon. Whether you agree with us or not on our moral case, this is now becoming a case of economics, and even of national security. All power blocs are building artificial super-scientists, super-hackers, and super-militaries. Freedom of information is becoming a matter of survival for these countries..."
It is comically jingoistic rhetoric to weaponize Chinese technology as an imminent threat to national security, particularly for the cause of protecting an illegal book sharing ring. And I am someone who is both pro-piracy and hyperaware of the increasingly dire need to archive everything!2 But there's something so reminiscent of midcentury Space Race propaganda in such an argument. I have complex and uncertain feelings myself on how to negotiate being pro-piracy while remaining diligent against AI, but this is something to meditate on further before I can even remotely elucidate aloud.
✩ I've otherwise spent a lot of my online time today organizing all my newsletter subscriptions and bookmarks meanwhile reading none of them! Tomorrow.
Apologies to my most recent situationship who spent a great deal of time proselytizing for me to create a Substack. It's not you, it's me!↩
Re:piracy—Consider I am a millennial who grew up on dial-up AOL, an internet where piracy was functionally synonymous with being online. Remember when Lars Ulrich of Metallica sued Napster over piracy concerns and became universally hated for it? It's interesting to see how the discourse on the morality of piracy has ebbed and flowed over time.↩