Unlocked | K Allado-McDowell on Neural Media (NM76) 2024
Mar 2, 2025
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K Allado-McDowell is a writer, speaker, musician, and the mind behind books like "Pharmako-AI," as well as the founder of Google's Artists + Machine Intelligence. In this discussion, K explores the evolution of media in the age of AI, focusing on the rise of 'neural media' and its impact on individuality. They dive into ethical considerations in animal communication, and the philosophical implications of AI's role in creativity and truth, proposing new frameworks for understanding our relationship with technology. A thought-provoking conversation!
Neural media introduces a new understanding of identity formation, reshaping how individuals interact with and perceive AI-generated content.
The transition from traditional media to neural media emphasizes interactivity and collaborative meaning-making among users, AI, and content.
The concept of 'symbiontocracy' highlights the need for new governance frameworks that consider the interconnectedness of human and non-human agents in the media landscape.
Deep dives
The Evolution of Media Taxonomy
The discussion presents a new taxonomy of media, categorizing it into four distinct types: broadcast, immersive, network, and neural media. Broadcast media emerged in the 1920s, creating a mass audience experience through a singular signal that shapes collective subjectivity. Immersive media offers a more personalized experience, allowing individuals to navigate and construct meaning within a curated set of images. The recent addition of neural media acknowledges AI's role in shaping identity and subjectivity in a high-dimensional space, expanding the conversation around media theory and its implications on human consciousness.
Impact of Neural Media on Subjectivity
Neural media significantly alters how individuals construct their identities, moving away from traditional understanding shaped by broadcast and immersive media. The structure of neural media facilitates high-dimensional representations of identity, where users interact with AI-generated content, resulting in new layers of subjectivity. This interaction creates a unique kind of hallucinatory relationship, where generative outputs influence perception and understanding of reality. Thus, neural media not only represents a technological shift but also dives into deeper existential questions about how identities are formed and perceived in a digitized world.
Content Production Versus AI-Generated High Dimensional Spaces
The conversation highlights a fundamental shift in content production from traditional legacy media to neural media, which is characterized by the generation of high-dimensional spaces rather than concrete content. In contrast to established media entities that produce curated information, neural media leverages AI algorithms to produce outputs that may often feel empty or devoid of meaning. This distinction prompts a reevaluation of creativity, ownership, and the very nature of media, as generative systems prioritize circularity and responsiveness over traditional narratives. It poses significant questions regarding the future value and authenticity of generated content in an increasingly automated landscape.
The Ecosystem of Meaning in a Neural Age
The development of neural media constructs a complex ecosystem of meaning that relies on interactivity and collaboration among users, content, and AI systems. This environment reflects a shift from conventional frameworks of communication towards a more dynamic and participatory model, where collective subjectivity emerges from shared interactions. The role of affective engagement within this ecosystem creates a landscape where individuals contribute to and remix meanings, negotiating their relationships with both digital and human counterparts. By understanding this interconnectedness, a more nuanced appreciation of conflict and collaboration in meaning-making processes arises.
Future of Governance in a Neural Media Framework
As neural media evolves, it raises critical considerations regarding governance and the structures that mediate our interactions with information and one another. The concept of 'symbiontocracy' emerges, envisioning a governance model that accounts for both human and non-human agents, mirroring ecological systems of interdependence. This potential for new governance models invites discussions about the responsibilities of institutions, technology companies, and individuals in curating and validating truths in a complex landscape. Emphasizing resilience and awareness could lead to innovations in how society engages with knowledge, media, and each other amid rapidly changing dynamics.
Unlocked (first released to subscribers 19 March 2024) --> https://newmodels.io
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How does media actually work in 2024, which is to say in a time of omnipresent AI? And what kind of subject is this era of media producing? On this ep, we speak with K Allado-McDowell—the author, with GPT-3, of Pharmako-AI, Amor Cringe, and Air Age Blueprint, and founder of the Artists + Machine Intelligence program at Google AI—about how media is evolving. Specifically, we ask about rise of “neural media,” which K has theorized as developing out of network media in the mid-2010s amid increasing human-AI interaction. Hearing K describe neural media's mechanics, it seems inevitable that our ideas of individuality and identity formation, even what it means to communicate as a human (among other living beings) are about to be majorly recalibrated.
For more:
@kalladomcdowell (IG & X)
“Designing Neural Media” (2023), Gropius Bau Journal
https://www.berlinerfestspiele.de/en/gropius-bau/programm/journal/2023/k-allado-mcdowell-designing-neural-media
"Am I slop? Am I Agentic? Am I Earth" (2025), The Long Now
https://longnow.org/ideas/identity-neural-media-ai/
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