Photographer, essayist and cultural gadfly Neil Scott on J.G. Ballard, René Girard, his Substack blog The Crop, and how photography grounds us in the here and now
This was a really fascinating listen, and not just because I know both of you a bit already and have very much enjoyed being in the physical presence of your enormous brains, and not just because Neil was kind enough to throw me a mention. Actually, since I'm an egomaniac, it's mostly the latter. But not *completely*, is my point.
Regarding enshittification: I'm really interested to see the reaction to all this AI slop, which already seems to be building up on social media, along the lines of "here are 20 accounts to block because they're spamming you with fake images" and the like. It's certainly not stopping the worst offenders on Facebook, but - culture is always partly a reaction to previous culture (I learned this studying Archaeology and it's been bouncing around my thoughts ever since) so when something looks like it's a mass-market trend towards [x], it'll also massively increase the attentional value of [absolutely-not-x]. Is this what's happening here? I hope so. I hope that being messily human in a non-optimised way that leans into fallibility and uncertainty and curiosity and not doing that obnoxious performative super-certainty thing that makes so many folk on social media sound like absolute jerks in the anxious scramble to have the clickiest hot take...maybe that stuff becomes The Next Big Thing, and so the cycle turns anew?
(I think about how in blogging 10 years ago there were all those articles and conferences presentations hammering on about how You Should Get Wealthy Sponsors and Advertising Is The Only Way To Monetise, and lots of people tried that stuff and found it left a nasty taste in their mouth, and a few of them went on to found Substack and its competitors. And along the way, pretty much the same thing happened with newspapers, except maybe a bit slower, with Substack being at the other end of it, ready to clean up.)
Thanks for the kind words Mike! Gosh, I hope you're right. Anything that gets us to be more authentic online, and leads to authentic offline relationships, could be gamechanging. I'd like to believe that's how this will go, and I'm not sure full Skynet is the opposite of that, but I do think AI will destroy a lot of middle class jobs before we figure out a way to distribute its profits and benefits more equally. Things are going to get worse before they get better - but that doesn't mean they won't *ever* get better.
Agreed - in the short term, as always, the ones who suffer will be the ones without the insulation of existing money and privilege, and endless outrages will result. But that will also make a lot of those people, and the people who care about them, very very pissed off. Hopefully that will be motivation to find something better and fairer? Fingers crossed.
Also: meetups in person, like the Glasgow Substackers one, are a perfect example of how to be extra human. I definitely want to start thinking in that direction for engaging my own readers, so listening to this interview was a nudge I think I needed. Thanks!
I love the GS meetups. Properly a highlight of the year for me! On the AI thing though, I do think it will devastate office work first - and those people hold a lot of economic and political power. That might do something interesting to the voting trends, but we'll need a charismatic anti-capitalist leader to rally behind. And maybe it'll be no bad thing if craftspersons, tradespeople and assorted artisans take pole position in the economy. One thing is for sure, the next 5-10 years will be "interesting" (in the 'Chinese curse' sense).
Medieval-style guilds! Maybe in a few years we Substack writers will all be trekking to York once a year to take part in Mystery Plays all about how great independent journalism is. BRING IT ON.
Here's some more "scant evidence": https://theracket.news/p/substacks-nazi-problem-isnt-going-away
“Ex Substacker” lol
… but… you're still here, commenting on my tiny blog? I'm confused
This was a really fascinating listen, and not just because I know both of you a bit already and have very much enjoyed being in the physical presence of your enormous brains, and not just because Neil was kind enough to throw me a mention. Actually, since I'm an egomaniac, it's mostly the latter. But not *completely*, is my point.
Regarding enshittification: I'm really interested to see the reaction to all this AI slop, which already seems to be building up on social media, along the lines of "here are 20 accounts to block because they're spamming you with fake images" and the like. It's certainly not stopping the worst offenders on Facebook, but - culture is always partly a reaction to previous culture (I learned this studying Archaeology and it's been bouncing around my thoughts ever since) so when something looks like it's a mass-market trend towards [x], it'll also massively increase the attentional value of [absolutely-not-x]. Is this what's happening here? I hope so. I hope that being messily human in a non-optimised way that leans into fallibility and uncertainty and curiosity and not doing that obnoxious performative super-certainty thing that makes so many folk on social media sound like absolute jerks in the anxious scramble to have the clickiest hot take...maybe that stuff becomes The Next Big Thing, and so the cycle turns anew?
(I think about how in blogging 10 years ago there were all those articles and conferences presentations hammering on about how You Should Get Wealthy Sponsors and Advertising Is The Only Way To Monetise, and lots of people tried that stuff and found it left a nasty taste in their mouth, and a few of them went on to found Substack and its competitors. And along the way, pretty much the same thing happened with newspapers, except maybe a bit slower, with Substack being at the other end of it, ready to clean up.)
So that's maybe what will happen.
Or: Skynet will kill us all.
Definitely one of these two options.
Option 2? Doesn't sound so bad. I wouldn't have to go to my day job!
Thanks for the kind words Mike! Gosh, I hope you're right. Anything that gets us to be more authentic online, and leads to authentic offline relationships, could be gamechanging. I'd like to believe that's how this will go, and I'm not sure full Skynet is the opposite of that, but I do think AI will destroy a lot of middle class jobs before we figure out a way to distribute its profits and benefits more equally. Things are going to get worse before they get better - but that doesn't mean they won't *ever* get better.
Agreed - in the short term, as always, the ones who suffer will be the ones without the insulation of existing money and privilege, and endless outrages will result. But that will also make a lot of those people, and the people who care about them, very very pissed off. Hopefully that will be motivation to find something better and fairer? Fingers crossed.
Also: meetups in person, like the Glasgow Substackers one, are a perfect example of how to be extra human. I definitely want to start thinking in that direction for engaging my own readers, so listening to this interview was a nudge I think I needed. Thanks!
I love the GS meetups. Properly a highlight of the year for me! On the AI thing though, I do think it will devastate office work first - and those people hold a lot of economic and political power. That might do something interesting to the voting trends, but we'll need a charismatic anti-capitalist leader to rally behind. And maybe it'll be no bad thing if craftspersons, tradespeople and assorted artisans take pole position in the economy. One thing is for sure, the next 5-10 years will be "interesting" (in the 'Chinese curse' sense).
Medieval-style guilds! Maybe in a few years we Substack writers will all be trekking to York once a year to take part in Mystery Plays all about how great independent journalism is. BRING IT ON.
That reminds me of the Punch and Judy shows about nuclear fission in the book Riddley Walker 😂