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Laurie Anderson on making an AI chatbot of Lou Reed

theguardian.com

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Re: Laurie Anderson on making an AI chatbot of Lou Reed

#51

Post by hyperdimension »

InSteady wrote: post #46
hyperdimension wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I'm curious about is Perfect Day . I want to say I read him denying it being about heroin, but it just sounds too close to the feeling to me. Maybe I just see in it what I want to see; I'm not sure.

I'll admit that I haven't read any official biographies or anything, but I have picked up from several authentic (seeming) sources over the years that Lou was just not all that into heroin after some early experimentation. He was a massive alcoholic, and liked to inject speed for much of his career, but was never very big on downers. He wrote Perfect Day as a solo artist, so this would have been long after his experi…

> I think the association is so strong due to it playing through the iconic overdose scene in Trainspotting

See now that is interesting because I've never seen that movie, but I guess it's not just me who can see the connection after all.

I agree with you though, it definitely fits into Lou's general theme, so it could just be a coincidence after all.

Re: Laurie Anderson on making an AI chatbot of Lou Reed

#52

Post by tormeh »

HuShifang wrote: post #44
unrevelant wrote: post #31

A friend of mine called this back in 2019. Even wrote a short story about it; https://www.ectoplus.com/shorts/replacement/ - apparently I was the only person among the beta readers that figured it as a horror piece. It'll be a damned seductive business model. Reach out to people in their moment of greatest grief, offer a customized service with a subscription attached, and they never have to let go. Receive photos, v…

I think one further bit of horror is, it has the potential to erode your memory of the lost person, piece by piece regressing your recollection of them to the mean (so to speak) of the model's training set. At some point, will the bereaved -- to use the example given here -- just passively accept that the lost loved one actually was the sort of person to write about quilting, even when they never did in life?

That's the worst. This already happens in real life with dementia. Not sure why we would want to recreate it with computers...

Re: Laurie Anderson on making an AI chatbot of Lou Reed

#53

Post by freejazz »

InSteady wrote: post #45
freejazz wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have. Yet its a popular and beautiful song called... Heroin. You'd be foolish if you think Lou wasn't aware that it got plenty of people into it and did have an ultimate effect of glamorizing it in some individuals' eyes. "I'm waiting for the man" is another.

By this interpretation, do we then have to take any subject that rock and roll touches as glamorization? The sound of Heroin is dirty and gritty, the lyrics ugly and honest. The few positive notes in the song "It's my life, and it's my wife," "And I feel just like Jesus' son," "And now I'm better off than dead" are hardly glamorous. They just underscore the theme of the song: allure of self-annihilation in order to e…

Did I say Lou glamorized it? No.

Re: Laurie Anderson on making an AI chatbot of Lou Reed

#55

Post by InSteady »

freejazz wrote: post #53
InSteady wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By this interpretation, do we then have to take any subject that rock and roll touches as glamorization? The sound of Heroin is dirty and gritty, the lyrics ugly and honest. The few positive notes in the song "It's my life, and it's my wife," "And I feel just like Jesus' son," "And now I'm better off than dead" are hardly glamorous. They just underscore the theme of the song: allure of self-annihilation in order to e…

Did I say Lou glamorized it? No.

That wasn't the point of my latest comment. Oh well.

And let's not be obtuse and ignore the fact that you replied to GP's claim that Lou did not intend to glamourize addiction with "Heroin was his most famous song. What the hell are you talking about already?" You haven't outright stated much of anything of substance, but your argumentative tone has invited discussion anyway so here we are.

Re: Laurie Anderson on making an AI chatbot of Lou Reed

#56

Post by freejazz »

InSteady wrote: post #55
freejazz wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did I say Lou glamorized it? No.

That wasn't the point of my latest comment. Oh well. And let's not be obtuse and ignore the fact that you replied to GP's claim that Lou did not intend to glamourize addiction with "Heroin was his most famous song. What the hell are you talking about already?" You haven't outright stated much of anything of substance, but your argumentative tone has invited discussion anyway so here we are.

It's literally what you wrote...

>"That doesn't mean the artists themselves have glamorized the subject.. "

>And let's not be obtuse and ignore the fact that you replied to GP's claim that Lou did not intend to glamourize addiction with "Heroin was his most famous song. What the hell are you talking about already?" You haven't outright stated much of anything of substance, but your argumentative tone has invited discussion anyway so here we are.

OP's claim? Did you just jump in on that one post? Did I quote something that led you to this conclusion?

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