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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


Could the title be perhaps the inspiration for the "Self Models of Loving Grace" presentation by Joscha Bach in last year's CCC?

https://media.ccc.de/v/38c3-self-models-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…’”

björk : bachelorette https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNJv-Ebi67I


> björk : bachelorette

I love this song since my teens and never dig into the meaning of it. Its a musical masterpiece even without understanding the text (which I didnt)


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:

https://www.darioamodei.com/essay/machines-of-loving-grace

And it's also the title of an Adam Curtis documentary:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Watched_Over_by_Machines_o...

It's a good line.


It was certainly the inspiration for the Adam Curtis mini-series of the same name.

This presentation sounds interesting. Thanks for the link.


I was introduced to Richard Brautigan by a chance encounter with The Tokyo-Montana Express from the used book shelf, highly recommend it as well.




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