Doing My Luddite Bit To Save The World

Was that title jarring, at all? What feeling did the word 'Luddite' evoke?

The original Luddites were professional weavers protesting about job security in the face of automation brought into their industry by management. They weren't merely ignorant people afraid of a bright and better future.

How I got here was to read an article in the Guardian on a subject that could potentially affect every one of us within a few years - probably not all of it for the better. Tom Lamont's interviews with a variety of thinkers and protestors and writers who are sceptical about the rapid development of AI is one of those pieces that crystallises my unease and misgivings and deserves a wide hearing. It's not that I think thousands and millions are going to read what I write, but it looks urgent enough that I have to do at least something.

Have we as a culture or world got to the stage of embracing new gadgets and electronic services with uncritical acceptance? Is it possible anymore to say 'No, actually I would rather not use this device. I'd rather not allow this corporation to harvest my data," or whatever. Yes, there are thankfully still options to do that, but is the general sweep of life now geared to accelerating us towards a greater and greater assimilation with the internet and the 'cloud'?

Here are a few soundbites:

Quoting Molly Crabapple, an artist in New York: "There's no...(expletive) cloud, there's other people's computers. There are vast datacentres that are sucking up water and electricity and rare-earth metals...we ask ourselves, 'Why are we burning up our planet? Making our lives [worse]? Getting rid of every last bit of our autonomy and privacy just to make a few guys rich?' Then maybe start[ed] doing something about this legislatively."

The writer Riley Quinn, on his popular 'wry and teasing' podcast Trashfuture, says we should watch out for anyone who present tech as :

   "...synonymous with being forward-thinking and agile and efficient. It's typically code for 'We're gonna find a way around labour regulations'"

Anyhow, if you've got this far, hopefully you'll be able to go away and read the whole article yourself. All I'm trying to say is, "Where are the brakes on this caboose?" as we hurtle downhill into a foggy cloud decorated with tinsel and sparkle.

 

Moving Pictures

I ground to a halt on the sequel to 'Building Mars' about a year ago, running low in inspiration, and switched to another form of storytelling: video.

I've been working on short video stories using a computer game called 'Space Engineers', which enables me to build spacecraft and set up scenes with astronaut-type characters, set them in motion, then capture the action to a mp4 video file.

Merrick Tor has a narrow escape flying across Verdanta

Here's a link to the latest in a story called 'Verdanta'. It began as a short and simple video for my son's birthday, featuring someone flying a plane over an alien planet. 

But then I began thinking, 'Where did he come from? Where is he going? Why? Who is he?' and a story began to grow. It's based on something I was doing in Space Engineers a few years ago - trying to set up a scenario that other people could play, but it became too complex and I gave up on it.

You meet some odd people out in the asteroid belt

For a little background on the world of Verdanta, join this Discord group and read the 'Verdanta' channel.

For some light relief there's also a series of short pieces called 'The Joker' following the antics of a character named Joe Grimaldi who can't help but clown around. Find the playlist here.

Joe pleads for his life - his crewmates have had enough of his practical jokes!