Fahrenheit 451 reads like a short film, brilliant storytelling from Ray Bradbury’s stream of consciousness. It begs the question of what society would become if independent thought is controlled, discomfort is avoided at all costs, and humans no longer create but only consume. Surprisingly current in today’s algorithmic world where we are shown what to consume, and are encouraged to outsource our thinking to AI.
Back in the day when everyone I knew had a blog,the Internet seemed so much more interesting and colourful. Now everyone just has Instagram profile.
A blog is more than just a journal, it is also a platform for one to express themselves. Instagram is akin to a rental apartment, whereas a blog is a house that you own. While you could get a really nice rental apartment and decorate it to your heart’s content, there is not much more customisation that you could do to it, and it will never be yours. Whereas with a house that you own, you could tear it down, build up, decide on its style (be it minimalist or maximalist. your choice.), you can also add a balcony, a garden, or even a swimming pool. Yes, a house that you own demands that you spend time, thought and money, but the result is a house that truly expresses who you are.
I am convinced that there is no better way than blogging to express your individuality online. Mind you, this blog is very much incomplete. I plan to furnish it with various sections: a section dedicated to photos from my street photography, another section for my art project, for all the portraits I have painted, 3. a section for everything that I recommend be it food, books, or travels.
But how would you be notified whenever I post something new? Well with an RSS reader of course! You can get on the RSS train in just 3 easy steps:
Another reason why I have started blogging is because I am sick and tired of doom-scrolling on Instagram and being manipulated by the algorithm to watch Reel after Reel until my phone falls on my face.
What happened to the social part of social media? While I enjoy sharing funny Reels with my friends over DMs, it does not count as being social. I have realised that my Instagram feed is by and large content from creators and influencers who I don’t care about. The only way I get updates from my friends are via Stories which stays on for 24 hours. All this is obviously a ploy by Instagram to keep us on the app for as long as possible.
It is without a doubt Instagram is designed to extract maximum attention from its users. But I am determined to give it no more. I am inviting you with me to ditch Instagram, start blogging, and start curating your very own RSS feed with only content that you care about.
When social media stops being social and starts to extract and control its users, shouldn’t it be called “fascist media”?
In 2022, when OpenAI introduced ChatGPT to the public for the very first time, the world was hopeful that AI would usher in a utopian era of greater abundance: where AI would hasten new medical discoveries, assist in generating unlimited food and energy, and free humans from all mundane tasks so that we could thrive through creativity rather than in a Sisyphean pursuit of productivity.
Fast-forward to the present, and AI is being used by corporations as a tool for further extraction: to pay workers lower wages, and to charge consumers more. In addition AI has become a tool for government surveillance to control dissent, and it is being weaponised to fight never-ending wars.
We live in a fucked up reality where humans pour in billions to dehumanise ourselves into being more machine-like and thus seek technology to augment our bodies (Neuralink being one example), or dehumanise fellow humans by regarding them as collateral damage in war. While at the same time, we spend billions humanising robots to turn them into agreeable companions to cure our existential loneliness.
Corporations are training AI to replace the very jobs humans have created so that they can create products to sell back to the same people they just fired. Marvel Studios just axed its visual development department when they realised that AI could do it for cheap. Make it make sense.
Humans are the future, not AI. I am advocating for a future that is pro-human, a future that begins with ourselves, puts our humanity first and reflects upon what makes us uniquely human. René Descartes, a 17th-century French philosopher, famously doubted his very existence and sought to prove it in every way. He concluded that because he is capable of thinking (in this case, doubting his own existence) he must exist – or at least his mind must.
The ability to think is a uniquely human attribute. Thinking allows us to gather our thoughts, reflect and make our own decisions. It is the precursor to free will. When we trust AI more than we trust ourselves, and when we give AI agents the power of attorney to act on our behalf, we are essentially giving up the very thing that makes us human. And when we deny another human being their humanity – directly or indirectly – we are in turn denying our own.
The race to becoming less human is one that we should never be rooting for, and one that we should finish last.
Celestine Tan 