Yeah... if his own daughter is saying it shouldn't be done, I think that's what we call a 𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘭𝘢𝘨. A fundamental part of what makes art, art, is the mortality of its creators... it is something unique; the mind behind it only in this world for a little while, a voice and a perspective that never was before, and never will be again. Without that impermanence... what does it even 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯? George Carlin was a master of his art, and it is true that we lost him far too soon... but doesn't that just make what he 𝘥𝘪𝘥 give us all the more valuable?
I worry that, with the rise of AI-generated (and imitated) art, it may come to pass that human artists fall by the wayside as corporate interests seize on the potential for infinite content generation from an entity they don't have to pay. We'll be inundated with facsimiles of what has already been done, and the ever-shifting, evolving, chaotic stream of consciousness that is true art will be drowned out by a cacophony of artificial echoes.
------------------
...that said... how 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘤 is it that a computer doing a comedian 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 is better at comedy than conservatives? And how flimsy is religion, that even a 𝘮𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘦 can make a joke of it?
It should be taken down. I think it is illegitimate and immoral to do this. There are so many new voices; and Carlin was great, but he has sadly passed away. I do not want AI imitating real people, like in this case; and if anyone does that again, I am sorry, I am not going to lose my time on an imitation! If you want to invest in something, then invest in new voices, not AI imitations.
As a conservative and a fan of such comedic legends as Jesse Watters, Greg Gutfeld, and Matt Gaetz, I am appalled at this for many, many reasons. First, I am against intelligence in general, be it emotional, social or artificial. I just don't see how it has benefited society in any way. If God wanted us to know something, He would have put it in our thinking thing at birth. Secondly, does this so called intelligence even understand what comedy is? Where are the jokes that re-enforce my long held beliefs at the expense of others. Getting people question social norms and think about their own beliefs and prejudices is not funny. It never has been and never will be. No, just give me a joke were I can point to someone different than me and laugh, so that I can feel superior. I don't want to have to think. You know what I don't even need to laugh at the joke. So just give me, Greg Gutfeld.
What you can accomplish with technology that does not employ AI and is done with permission and participation by those who are actually a part of the project.
The voice of John Lennon...the real John Lennon...was skillfully lifted from a demo tape with poor quality. His voice is crystal clear. Like being in the room with him. George Harrison's guitar parts on the original Now And Then sessions were lifted from those recordings and added. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr added instruments and vocals. Paul even added additional lyrics, making it a true Lennon/McCartney composition. The project had the full approval of Paul, Ringo, Yoko and Olivia. All of that made it an official Beatles song. Perhaps the last one ever,
(I'm holding out hope they can go back over both "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" to "clean up" John's vocal using the same technology and re-release them).
I find the whole thing creepy. It’s the same when holograms of dead singers are projected onstage to sing their songs. It almost seems like plagiarism. We have their bodies of work available to us in various formats, we don’t need some facsimile.
As a reminder of just how prescient Carlin was, here's what he once had to say:
"Nero is playing his violin. It's all over for America. I can see an out-of-control pandemic wreaking havoc in this country and around the world."
He said this in 2008, long before COVID. And those first two sentences could apply to Trump seizing the White House. How can AI possibly hope to compete with that?
George Carlin never did or would have used the transgender community for a joke. He didn't believe in punching down. He always punched up. On Larry King once, while supporting Andrew Dice Clay's free expression, he did criticize how he went after the vulnerable in his comedy.
I studied with his daughter for a year in her Women (now Humans) on the Verge. She's wonderful.
AP reports that federal border patrol agents were prevented from responding to an alert from the Mexican side of migrants in distress- state authorities, who stood by and did nothing as a woman and two children drowned, blocked the agents from reaching the scene so that nobody else could try to save them, either.
I can't believe they went ahead and did this without consulting his family even if they weren't the owners of his estate. In this case it's already clear that his daughter does hold the legal rights to his material and likeness. I'm not sure why they'd think for a moment this was a good idea. It's almost like they knew they'd get a lot of press out of it in the time they were able to keep it up. I hate to reward them with exactly what they wanted in the first place. Another question that's not really being addressed is why there's no one else even close to being as well known for being willing to take on the hypocrisy of organized religion in the way that Carlin did? Surely there have been comedians attempting these types of jokes? Why was he able to pull it off and no one else? The entire field of popular stand-up seems to be mostly the same set of people pretty much for the past 15-20 years. There have been some extremely popular incredibly unfunny comedians. It's felt to me to be in a slump for a while, with less intelligent and fresh takes coming out. I feel like as an atheist we could use a Carlin but I don't think the world we live in is in a place that will allow it, if that makes sense. Not from where I'm living, in the Bible Belt. I saw Carlin when he played in Evansville, IN and I was more than happy to make the drive. I loved him in "Dogma" so much.
I predict record low turn out. I don't know how that will affect the outcome. Probably the candidate with the dumbest supporters will win, but that was likely anyway.
Yeah... if his own daughter is saying it shouldn't be done, I think that's what we call a 𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘭𝘢𝘨. A fundamental part of what makes art, art, is the mortality of its creators... it is something unique; the mind behind it only in this world for a little while, a voice and a perspective that never was before, and never will be again. Without that impermanence... what does it even 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯? George Carlin was a master of his art, and it is true that we lost him far too soon... but doesn't that just make what he 𝘥𝘪𝘥 give us all the more valuable?
I worry that, with the rise of AI-generated (and imitated) art, it may come to pass that human artists fall by the wayside as corporate interests seize on the potential for infinite content generation from an entity they don't have to pay. We'll be inundated with facsimiles of what has already been done, and the ever-shifting, evolving, chaotic stream of consciousness that is true art will be drowned out by a cacophony of artificial echoes.
------------------
...that said... how 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘤 is it that a computer doing a comedian 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 is better at comedy than conservatives? And how flimsy is religion, that even a 𝘮𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘦 can make a joke of it?
It should be taken down. I think it is illegitimate and immoral to do this. There are so many new voices; and Carlin was great, but he has sadly passed away. I do not want AI imitating real people, like in this case; and if anyone does that again, I am sorry, I am not going to lose my time on an imitation! If you want to invest in something, then invest in new voices, not AI imitations.
As a conservative and a fan of such comedic legends as Jesse Watters, Greg Gutfeld, and Matt Gaetz, I am appalled at this for many, many reasons. First, I am against intelligence in general, be it emotional, social or artificial. I just don't see how it has benefited society in any way. If God wanted us to know something, He would have put it in our thinking thing at birth. Secondly, does this so called intelligence even understand what comedy is? Where are the jokes that re-enforce my long held beliefs at the expense of others. Getting people question social norms and think about their own beliefs and prejudices is not funny. It never has been and never will be. No, just give me a joke were I can point to someone different than me and laugh, so that I can feel superior. I don't want to have to think. You know what I don't even need to laugh at the joke. So just give me, Greg Gutfeld.
Speaking of artificial intelligence, happy birthday HAL
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAL_9000
Carlin left behind an amazing legacy and an amazing body of work.
He was already as immortal as humans are likely to get. We don't need this. We don't need AI immortality.
Another day ending in Y.
https://nationalzero.com/2024/01/12/head-of-texas-republican-party-worked-for-billionaire-funder-of-group-with-ties-to-nick-fuentes-white-nationalists/
What you can accomplish with technology that does not employ AI and is done with permission and participation by those who are actually a part of the project.
https://youtu.be/AW55J2zE3N4
The voice of John Lennon...the real John Lennon...was skillfully lifted from a demo tape with poor quality. His voice is crystal clear. Like being in the room with him. George Harrison's guitar parts on the original Now And Then sessions were lifted from those recordings and added. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr added instruments and vocals. Paul even added additional lyrics, making it a true Lennon/McCartney composition. The project had the full approval of Paul, Ringo, Yoko and Olivia. All of that made it an official Beatles song. Perhaps the last one ever,
(I'm holding out hope they can go back over both "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" to "clean up" John's vocal using the same technology and re-release them).
I find the whole thing creepy. It’s the same when holograms of dead singers are projected onstage to sing their songs. It almost seems like plagiarism. We have their bodies of work available to us in various formats, we don’t need some facsimile.
As a reminder of just how prescient Carlin was, here's what he once had to say:
"Nero is playing his violin. It's all over for America. I can see an out-of-control pandemic wreaking havoc in this country and around the world."
He said this in 2008, long before COVID. And those first two sentences could apply to Trump seizing the White House. How can AI possibly hope to compete with that?
George Carlin never did or would have used the transgender community for a joke. He didn't believe in punching down. He always punched up. On Larry King once, while supporting Andrew Dice Clay's free expression, he did criticize how he went after the vulnerable in his comedy.
I studied with his daughter for a year in her Women (now Humans) on the Verge. She's wonderful.
OT- Texas, can you even 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘥 you have any humanity left? https://apnews.com/article/texas-immigration-border-drownings-deaths-cbp-dps-national-guard-tmd-baa099b2511ecea07c534a61b4212fb0
AP reports that federal border patrol agents were prevented from responding to an alert from the Mexican side of migrants in distress- state authorities, who stood by and did nothing as a woman and two children drowned, blocked the agents from reaching the scene so that nobody else could try to save them, either.
https://live.staticflickr.com/5703/22621367694_8417fd2c15_z.jpg
I can't believe they went ahead and did this without consulting his family even if they weren't the owners of his estate. In this case it's already clear that his daughter does hold the legal rights to his material and likeness. I'm not sure why they'd think for a moment this was a good idea. It's almost like they knew they'd get a lot of press out of it in the time they were able to keep it up. I hate to reward them with exactly what they wanted in the first place. Another question that's not really being addressed is why there's no one else even close to being as well known for being willing to take on the hypocrisy of organized religion in the way that Carlin did? Surely there have been comedians attempting these types of jokes? Why was he able to pull it off and no one else? The entire field of popular stand-up seems to be mostly the same set of people pretty much for the past 15-20 years. There have been some extremely popular incredibly unfunny comedians. It's felt to me to be in a slump for a while, with less intelligent and fresh takes coming out. I feel like as an atheist we could use a Carlin but I don't think the world we live in is in a place that will allow it, if that makes sense. Not from where I'm living, in the Bible Belt. I saw Carlin when he played in Evansville, IN and I was more than happy to make the drive. I loved him in "Dogma" so much.
OT: Fuckin' snow. Two blizzards this week and now it's going to get cold (highs below zero).
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/election-campaign-news-01-12-24/index.html
I predict record low turn out. I don't know how that will affect the outcome. Probably the candidate with the dumbest supporters will win, but that was likely anyway.
We have the albums/CDs, the specials and the books by the man himself. We even have all his movie/TV roles. We don't really need this.
And Carlin was always evolving as an artist right up to the time of his death. He was working on a play about America when he died.
This is no laughing matter.
Slightly OT, but: "We pray for God"-Donald Trump in a speech at his Iowa rally today (seriously, not a joke).