Before there was AI slop there was auto-tuned slop.

And it ultimately flopped. The market became saturated with a product that people associated with flat, tinny, overly-electronic music. People scrambled to get away from it, and we got a mini-folk revival with lots of acoustics and more traditional instrumentals as a result.

In the same way, we’re seeing a scramble to get away from AI music saturation. I don’t think it’ll ever go away (any more than auto-tune did). But it creates a demand for something distinctively not-AI as a result.

Unfortunately, they do not. They just yell at you for sleeping at your desk and threaten to take away your bathroom privileges.

One of the primary appeals of early streaming platforms (first via MySpace and then later through services like Napster and Pandora) was the opportunity to explore outside your normie musical tastes. For folks who weren’t living in some major metroplex with an active indie music scene, this was a reliable way to find new music and get outside whatever your parents had on repeat in the car on the way to school.

The modern scene has exploited a desire for “newness” in the abstract and stuffed everyone’s feeds with AI slop. But there is still a demand for media broadcasts outside the ClearChannel “Top 3 Pop Songs on a Loop” and Oldie “Mandatory Metallica” stations that go beyond what you have already listened to.

How do you fill your local collection if you aren’t listening to stuff outside your local collection?

40 is the new bankrupt

Looks at me brother. I am already in my mid-40s.

Let me know when the Babylon Bee acquires InfoWars AND Tim Heidecker in the same week.

Hey now! Under capitalism, your value as a person is tied to how aggressively you exploit others.

First they’ll collapse slowly, then all at once.

People have been predicting in imminent collapse of various tech firms for what feels like decades

Taxing: Wicked, Theiving, Irrational, Unconstitutional

Rent-Seeking: Beautific, Generous, Sane, Magna Carta-esque

AI generated code will just substitute bullshit if it can’t get you the right answer

The Queen she likes 'em red

If she saw white instead

She’d raise a fuss

And each of us

Would quickly lose his head

Goodness!

Since this is the part we dread

We’re painting the roses red

I’m always down for another Slay The Spire run.

X-Com is the shit. I loved the original and I really loved the reboot.

It truly is crazy to see the South Korean government go through these spasms of corporate consolidation, fascist media turns, and repeated threats of military dictatorship, while liberals scream “Whataboutism!” whenever it makes news.

Did you know the last six South Korean presidents have been prosecuted either during or immediately following their terms in office? And that we’re supposed to believe this is a sign of a healthy and functioning democracy?

“What if we organized as members of the general public and directly opposed the corrupt actions of state officials?”

“Shut up, Tankie.”

I saw the last season. I’m pretty sure she’d be into it.

Sure.

One’s a centrally planned economy seeking to minimize social upheaval.

The other is a fully-privatized plutocracy seeking to back-door chattel slavery and feudal aristocracy.

But because of the absolute brain-rot that is western media, folks in the US/EU still can’t tell the difference.

The craziest thing about this decision is that they didn’t engage in it sooner.

Given the economic success of Singapore, Hong Kong, Panama, and Israel, it’s sort of crazy to control a global economic choke point and not milk it for all its worth.

It’s like if your model is so good then what are you complaining about.

The model guarantees that Western financial interests always come out on top. When Chinese industrial interests stop playing the game of profit-maximization and start flooding the market with low-margin high-value commodities, they’re engaging in 19th century industrial expansion rather than 21st century financial rent-seeking.

I’m not a “China is secretly doing a Super Capitalism” guy, but I can definitely see why the Super Capitalists are alternately very nervous and very pissed. If Chinese firms were doing Super Capitalism, this would be a great way to gobble up a bunch of market share and force western businesses into a lower-value supporting role.