OLDaily

Qing Philosophy
On-cho Ng, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2019/04/24

It's hard not to think of Qing philosophy as a fresh wave of thinking that signaled a new way of thinking of oneself and the world. "Vitalism as an expression of Qing philosophy focused on evidence provided by the self, the body, and external things. Opposed to the mysticism of an eternal and transcendent creative power such as principle (li), heaven (tian) or the Way (dao) that represented the essence of being, vitalism was in favor of a view of life grasped from within the actualities of the individual self and the external world." Nice new article in the SEP. See also. Image: Yun Shouping.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

It’s Complicated: Mozilla’s 2019 Internet Health Report
Mark Surman, 2019/04/24

This blog post summarizes Mozilla's 2019 Internet Health Report (82 page PDF - note that the report contains many links, but they don't seem to be working in the PDF version, so you'll have to navigate the maze-like HTML presentation to follow them). The report is a "compilation of research and stories (that) explains what’s key to a healthier internet." It's written magazine-style and appears to be as polemic as it does research. It does eventually reach some conclusions, but even these are infused with advocacy. For example, "It seems that if we leave it up to the nine big companies that dominate the field of AI alone, we raise the spectre of a corporate controlled world of surveillance and conformity." Now I happen to agree with this sentiment - but I would not present it as part of an 'Internet Health Report'. I agree less with some of the other policy positions advocated. I'm glad Mozilla takes a stand, but I wish it had been more evidence-based and less rhetorical.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Relentless Doppelganger
Dadabots Official, YouTube, 2019/04/24

This is a live YouTube stream of endless death metal performed by an artificial intelligence. True, it's not very good death metal, but still, it makes a point. here's another example of AI-generated music: the Bot Prownies, who produce an almost-acceptable brand of punk. If you prefer guitar metal, Coditany of Timeness might be more to your taste. Not quite as successful is Evolution 22 by Deep the Beatles. For something a little softer (and quite good) try On the Edge, by AIVA. AIVA also does a nice classical tune or movie score. Need royalty-free music for your videos? Try JukeDeck (a little too house for my tastes). Taryn Southern, meanwhile, uses an AI to compose the music, then adds her own lyrics and vocals - her song Break Free is quite nice. This post could go on for a very long time - the main message is, first, that the era of AI-generated music is here, and second, for those people who said artificial neural networks cannot be creative: you were wrong.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]