[Xmca-l] The vibrations of consciousness

[Annalisa Aguilar]

Hello Xmcars,

I'm not sure what the connection is but it seems there is one between consciousness and art-making with AI, and 3D printers.

This article (2018) about consciousness is from The Conversation. Perhaps you might also like to read it:
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://theconversation.com/could-consciousness-all-come-down-to-the-way-things-vibrate-103070__;!!Mih3wA!TZlto8nrkoF8DlozCb-AGO-XOQFqazTIeHOkpr51jiE65n6raRLlJgEMCUwsPhiNZIn0wA$ 

and a more recent one from last year by the same author is here:
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://theconversation.com/how-can-you-tell-if-another-person-animal-or-thing-is-conscious-try-these-3-tests-115835__;!!Mih3wA!TZlto8nrkoF8DlozCb-AGO-XOQFqazTIeHOkpr51jiE65n6raRLlJgEMCUwsPhjcpwvgAw$ 

I'm curious how Vygotsky defined consciousness? I'm not recollecting it at the moment. Maybe Andy could explain?

On a different related topic I stumbled on these articles on AI created artwork:
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://theconversation.com/when-the-line-between-machine-and-artist-becomes-blurred-103149__;!!Mih3wA!TZlto8nrkoF8DlozCb-AGO-XOQFqazTIeHOkpr51jiE65n6raRLlJgEMCUwsPhjzG5V5uQ$ 

https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/25/arts/design/ai-art-sold-christies.html__;!!Mih3wA!TZlto8nrkoF8DlozCb-AGO-XOQFqazTIeHOkpr51jiE65n6raRLlJgEMCUwsPhgx_FIiKg$ 

What happens to labor as defined by Marx when the computer or the robot end up overriding human craft and labor? Is it a development in which value shifts? or is it the equation that determines value remains the same with different exponentially-numbered inputs that provides a different salient output?

AI seems to be a kind of mirror-neuron wind up toy, if only because the inputs are required first in order to come up with simulacra outputs to then be considered art (by Christie's, no less).

This made me consider 3-D printers as well. If someone can take a car part, scan it, and re-print the part for pennies, I'd guess that auto manufacturing is about to explode from this technological change.

I'm wondering what Walter Benjamin would think about AI created portraiture (I'm thinking specifically about his wonderful essay on art here: https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/benjamin.pdf__;!!Mih3wA!TZlto8nrkoF8DlozCb-AGO-XOQFqazTIeHOkpr51jiE65n6raRLlJgEMCUwsPhi28s3Zbg$  ), but what about reproduction of the reproduction of car parts? I pause as I consider the future of manufacturing parts that used to require large iron forges, machinery, welding, engineering, etc.

If there are printing communities that spring up to print parts (and there are) and they could conceivably create a car not much above the value of the steel materials, what happens to General Motors? Will it suffer the same demise as Kodak?

I noticed that HP is coming out with industrial printers that seem to indicate the arrival of this sort of change:
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www8.hp.com/us/en/printers/3d-printers/products/multi-jet-fusion-5200.html__;!!Mih3wA!TZlto8nrkoF8DlozCb-AGO-XOQFqazTIeHOkpr51jiE65n6raRLlJgEMCUwsPhhTORRgXA$ 

There have been online communities that show how to make one's own 3-D printer. So I wonder how this innovation will become absorbed into manufacturing?

Remember the desktop publishing revolution?

This quote by Paul Valéry opens Benjamin's essay and reflects relevance to my questions:

“Our fine arts were developed, their types and uses were established, in times very different from the present, by men whose power of action upon things was insignificant in comparison with ours. But the amazing growth of our techniques, the adaptability and precision they have attained, the ideas and habits they are creating, make it a certainty that profound changes are impending in the ancient craft of the Beautiful. In all the arts there is a physical component which can no longer be considered or treated as it used to be, which cannot remain unaffected by our modern knowledge and power. For the last twenty years neither matter nor space nor time has been what it was from time immemorial. We must expect great innovations to transform the entire technique of the arts, thereby affecting artistic invention itself and perhaps even bringing about an amazing change in our very notion of art.”*

Paul Valéry, PIÈCES SUR L’ART
“Le Conquete de l’ubiquité,” Paris.

I look forward to hearing the sparkling conversations these articles might inspire.

Do tell.

Kind regards,

Annalisa


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