Digital Poetics, Machine Intelligence and the Everyday

Abstract

This paper was originally envisioned as a rather generic talk about generative text, poetics, and AI. But as I witness the difficulties faced by Twitter and Meta and ponder the very real cultural problems of North American culture, I feel like my time would be better spent discussing the problems with “development” as a paradigm for understanding digital futures and opening the door to discussing alternate futures as they may arise in an African context. Many global powers have financial and strategic interests in Africa, but their humanitarian interests should be regarded with scepticism. On the other hand, as the US, Europe, China, and Russia increasingly see themselves drawn into economic and political crises, African nations have many opportunities. In place of autonomous machines engineered in the so-called “developed” nations, African autonomy has the potential to play a significant role in the development of global culture in the 21st century.

Cet article a été initialement conçu comme un exposé plutôt générique sur le texte génératif, la poétique et l’Intelligente Artificielle. Mais alors que je suis témoin des difficultés rencontrées par Twitter et Meta et que je réfléchis aux problèmes culturels très réels de la culture nord-américaine, j’ai l’impression que mon temps serait mieux consacré à discuter des problèmes du « développement » comme paradigme pour comprendre l’avenir numérique et ouvrir la porte. Discuter des futurs alternatifs tels qu’ils peuvent surgir dans un contexte africain.….