Earlier in the day, Nick Dyer-Witheford and his colleagues from the University of Western Ontario had argued that Artificial Intelligence confronts the labor theory of value and makes it difficult to stick to the old paradigms. His colleague from Sweden, Atle Mikkola Kjosen, went all the way into a bleak view that so-called perfect machines could really supplant most living labor. Nick emphasized that while it’s true that artificial intelligence and cybernetics has confounded the labor theory of value (as he argued persuasively in his book Cyber-proletariat), he concluded that we are at a crossroads. In one direction is the artificial intelligence that capital wants to impose on us. The other direction is towards a technology shaped and controlled by workers and the society in which it is embedded. In this sense, his argument is not just about artificial intelligence, but really a call to arms for a new politics of technics more broadly, one that builds on the social movements that have rejected nuclear power, western medicine’s hegemony, chemically-soaked agriculture, etc.
I argued in Nowtopia that it is precisely these movements that represent a contestation over the direction of the “General Intellect.” The shape of science and technology has been dominated by the needs of capital and accumulation for more than a century, but the appropriation of scientific knowledge and technical skills by more and more so-called “average folks” makes technological directions much more susceptible to social struggle, to genuine conflicts over possible futures. The coming march on April 22 in defense of “science” presents an interesting opportunity to go beyond the banal defense of empirical data and an unchallenged scientific method to argue for an active, creative role for technical and scientific workers in choosing new paths to shape the invisible infrastructure of our lives. I’m not advocating that these specialists should have unchecked power either, but that their capacity for inventing new ways use science and technologies on behalf of human and planetary well-being should not be overlooked. I hope for a more robust discussion of these possibilities going forward, and the work Nick and his colleagues presented at the conference seem to be a vital part of that inquiry.
Manhattan from the new as yet-unfinished Brooklyn Bridge Park.
We even took in a Broadway play called “Sweat” which turned out to be a timely contributor to current events. It’s set in Reading, Pennsylvania among a multi-racial blue-collar community that at the outset in 2000 are still working union jobs at a local plant. Over the course of the play, featuring a stellar ensemble of nine actors, workplace friendships fracture when the factory owners demand 50% wage reductions and move half their equipment to Mexico in the middle of the night to take advantage of NAFTA incentives. Racial tensions crash into immigration scapegoating, while the newly promoted line supervisor is forced to lock-out her former best friends. A savage beating of the local bar’s busboy lands two protagonists in jail; eight years later we meet them in the other part of the play when they are being closely scrutinized by their probation officer and they recount the accidental and painful meeting they had with each other. The tension between formerly close friends is never resolved, and the play ends with a plea to take care of each other, without falling into a trite happy ending.
Live theater is very different than other forms, and I walked out afterwards feeling like the show had been too narrow. But after a couple of days, finding that various scenes and exchanges were replaying in my head, I decided “Sweat” deserved its Pulitzer Prize, and I hope it has a good long run in repertory houses across the rust belt where it really belongs!
We also visited a bunch of museums, culminating in a quick visit to the NY MOMA where we were totally impressed by their new exhibition called “Unfinished Conversations.” It was full of new art, super interesting, on point, and brilliantly executed. Other stops earlier were at the Whitney by the Highline, the Frick (great Rembrandts and a current show of J.W.M. Turner’s paintings of historic and imaginary ports of the past), and I ducked into the Interference Archive show in Brooklyn too.
View south from the roof of the new Whitney.
View down from the Whitney roof of the Highline park.
Enjoying Rembrandts and JWM Turner at the Frick Collection.
At St. John’s Church the yard is full of t-shirts commemorating victims of gun violence.
Came upon this moving monument… the African Burial Ground, established after hundreds of remains were discovered when building a nearby federal building.
The water pouring into the holes at the bottom of the squares once occupied by the twin towers… the only noncommercialized aspect of this crass monument!
Next to the Liz Christy Garden in Manhattan on Houston.
Now I’m in Mexico City where the 6th annual World Bike Forum begins tomorrow night. I’m excited to see friends from Brazil, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, and of course here in Mexico. I’ll be speaking on Friday morning at 11:30.
We visited Nate Miller at his amazing pad in Williamsburg with this great roof!
Gotta walk across the Brooklyn Bridge!
at NY MOMA, Emma Goldman’s “Mother Earth” appeared as fresh art!
Times Square is just weird.