Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'
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Re: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'
#2I thought this was the reason authors often use pen names. Creating an entirely anonymous identity isn't easy but it is nice to screw up safely.
Re: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'
#3An interesting point is made way at the end:
> And in fact AI could come up with the next big idea, an idea like communism or Nazism or capitalism… and what troubles me about that is that it is very difficult for humans to keep control of that situation.
This to me is the best "are AI at human-level intellect yet" benchmark I've heard to date. Once AI can create a novel socio-political framework and convince humans to adapt it en-masse [0], I think we can safely say AI has far surpassed human intellect. (99.9999...% of humans can't accomplish such a task)
0: leaving myself some wiggle room with the definition of "masse"
Re: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'
#4Self-censoring is part of the frontal cortex's normal function.
I only hear this word 'self-censorship' brought up as a boogeyman. If people have an axe to grind against some part of mainstream culture, why not just say it out loud instead of priming their readers with FUD? (fear, uncertainty, doubt).
Re: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'
#5It's really sad that in the age of unrestricted access to information public discourse is self-restricting to avoid wrong-think and dissenting opinions.
If you look at the history of intellectual progress, much of it was exactly due to unpopular opinions.
Now by having one you're risking your entire career and sometimes more. This is truly the dark age of the information era.
Re: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'
#6An interesting point is made way at the end: > And in fact AI could come up with the next big idea, an idea like communism or Nazism or capitalism… and what troubles me about that is that it is very difficult for humans to keep control of that situation. This to me is the best "are AI at human-level intellect yet" benchmark I've heard to date. Once AI can create a novel socio-political framework and convince humans t…
The Culture series by Ian M Banks has an interesting take on this, if this kind of sci-fi interests you!
Re: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'
#7The high number of upvotes and low number of comments here says something, I think...
Re: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'
#8I thought this was the reason authors often use pen names. Creating an entirely anonymous identity isn't easy but it is nice to screw up safely.
It's pretty easy, actually. You make a website with whoisguard enabled, you sign your writing with a fake name, and you decline interview requests. Bonus points if you pretend to be a different gender, like JK Rowling did.
Often times the allure of being a pseudonymous person actually makes your work even more attractive.
Re: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'
#9I find it almost funny how the media/culture/etc. seems determined to build a group of people that will react negatively to so-called "cancel culture." They seem to think that people will gladly follow the ever-growing list of arbitrary rules indefinitely.
If I were a betting man, I'd predict a resurgence in punk attitudes in about 2025 or 2030. At some point, the dam will break and people will stop caring. I already get a sense that the 13-19 generation is a bit tired of it.
Re: Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear'
#10Isn't that what pen-names are for? They can use a new pen-name if they want to write on a topic that might not be received well and only reveal themselves after it's well received. Has something changed so that this isn't as viable of a strategy anymore?