Björk and Laurie Anderson are my two favorite artists who have a feel of both nature and technology in harmony, but there's an artist who preceeds both that captures the feeling best for me: Richard Brautigan in the 60's
All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace
I like to think (and
the sooner the better!)
of a cybernetic meadow
where mammals and computers
live together in mutually
programming harmony
like pure water
touching clear sky.
I like to think
(right now, please!)
of a cybernetic forest
filled with pines and electronics
where deer stroll peacefully
past computers
as if they were flowers
with spinning blossoms.
I like to think
(it has to be!)
of a cybernetic ecology
where we are free of our labors
and joined back to nature,
returned to our mammal
brothers and sisters,
and all watched over
by machines of loving grace.
https://allpoetry.com/All-Watched-Over-By-Machines-Of-Loving-Grace
Good find. That's really interesting. I would guess the titles are related.
I want to also mention that with "Bachlorette" Björk seems to anticipate Large Language Models and wrote a cautionary tale about them:
“One day I found a big book buried deep in the ground. I opened it, but all the pages were blank. Then, to my surprise, it started writing itself: 'One day, I found a big book buried deep in the ground…’”
Yes, that's absolutely the allusion. Brautigan's line is a popular title for stuff, including a widely read post by Dario Amodei two months before the CCC talk you've linked:
No Guðmundsdóttirs were harmed in the making of the foregoing video, although I'm sure she would be charming and adorable while sustaining a minor electrical shock.
When I stumbled upon this months ago I was entirely taken in by it, as every time I see the video with the back of the TV off, I wonder how she didn't get shocked. I had a really good laugh when the video was done.
The mentioned Stonemilker video was one of the few things to really grab my attention with the Google Daydream VR when it got for free with whatever Pixel it was that came with it.
At the time, she said of the 360 VR technology that it was a challenge and "it’s still being discovered, but people don’t know what it is."
Daydream VR would be discontinued 4 years later...
Nature _is_ technology. It’s far too advanced for us to understand. And perhaps due to not-invented-here syndrome, we tend to try and recreate it (crudely).
