Here's an idea.
Internet culture has brought about the singularity.
[THEME MUSIC]
Recently we've been able to witness
two major cultural events-- the 2012 Olympics
and the landing of the "Curiosity" on Mars.
And aside from being totally awesome and killer,
these cultural events have caused the generation
of tons and tons more culture.
Some of it is even more entertaining and,
in certain cases, easier to view than the original events
themselves.
I mean, I saw more rhythmic gymnastics in animated GIF form
that I did in broadcast.
And all this culture has been seen
by possibly millions of people.
But there's one detail about all McKayla or Mohawk Guy
or any other meme you're looking at,
actually that, unlike the Olympics or the Mars landing,
you probably don't know, and that is where they came from.
They just-- poof-- appear on Reddit or Tumblr,
no compensation expected, no context provided,
and no motivation, except for what's self-evident.
The vast, vast majority of people-- and here
I'm talking about CNN, or your mom-- they don't know who,
how, or why internet are made.
Now, and this is the weird part, in the absence
of these factoids, isn't the appearance of internet culture
in effect an automated process?
Because if it is, theN-- hoo boy--
you got yourself a singularity.
There are actually a bunch of singularities.
But the one that people are the most familiar with
is the technological singularity.
Sci-fi writer Vernor Vinge coined
it to describe a time at which technology could essentially
create better versions of itself.
Central to the singularity is the idea
of artificial intelligence.
Basically, computers and software
decide to build betters and software, which
decide to build better computers software, and so on and so
on and so on, until we have to send Arnold Schwarzenegger back
in time to protect John Connor.
It's, like, a whole thing.
And because humans aren't involved in that improvement,
it makes us-- well, actually, we don't know.
Infinitely self-generating technology
could bring about any number of things.
World peace, a post-scarcity economy,
a government run by vacuum cleaners-- who knows?
Post-singularity is a time when, because the intellect required
to conceive of it is so beyond our own,
we can't really be sure what happens.
Now, I'm not saying that internet culture
is going to bring about world peace or a future
where Will Smith has to save us from the vacuum uprising.
What I am saying, though, is that many
of internet culture's features really look
a lot like the singularity.
Like a kind of cultural singularity.
Using the technological singularity as a model,
the cultural singularity would be a point at which
where culture is able to create more, better culture
automagically.
In a post-cultural singularity world,
culture would become increasingly varied
and self-referential, not to mention more complex in both
its construction and execution.
It would show up and improve at a constantly increasing rate.
And while this stuff is generally
made by communities of people, their output
is usually the result of simple rules or code.
They're acting like a computer.
And as the community computer grows,
so too does their processing power.
Like compare the internet stuff made
during 2008 Beijing Olympics and the Olympics this year.
There was a huge increase in both quantity and quality,
which will only continue to grow.
Ray Kurzweil calls this the law of accelerating returns.
And it means that by Rio 2016, we're
going to have an infinite number of track memes.
Now I know what you're thinking, because I ate your brain
and gained your knowledge.
First, it's not culture which is making culture.
It's people, you dum-dum.
It's true.
You're right.
But think of it this way.
The community of people which make image macros
and other stuff-- some of whom I'm sure
are watching this video right now, so you guys are awesome--
essentially behave like an automated process.
Sometimes in response to events and sometimes not,
sight unseen, this community generates
media which, for most of us, just appears
somewhere with no indication other than
our inherent knowledge that a human was involved in any way.
I mean, seriously.
If I told you that Watson was responsible for these images,
could you prove me wrong?
We have technology that can do this kind of stuff.
OK, and second, how is this different from any other point
in history?
Culture always begets more culture.
That's how it works.
Well, yeah, you're right.
But never before have so many people
made so much culture so quickly across so many mediums
for essentially no recognition or dollar bills.
And never before have so many people
consumed that culture without any concern about who made it,
where it came from, or how it found its way onto BuzzFeed
or 9GAG, which I hear are very popular with the kids
these days.
Get off my lawn.
Where older cultural systems exists for basically profit,
internet culture exists for-- it's really hard to say.
Maybe pure expression?
Maybe altruistic entertainment?
Who knows?
So, yeah.
The cultural singularity.
What happens next?
I guess I don't know. / And that's kind of the point.
What do you guys think?
It's a complicated one, but let us know in the comments.
And if you've survived the vacuum uprising,
please subscribe.
YOLO.
Let's see what you guys had to say about Nic Cage.
seel114 asks a sort of chicken-or-the-egg question
about Nicolas Cage's acting career.
And much like the famed Zen koan of "what
is the sound of one hand clapping,"
there might not actually be an answer.
It is unanswerable.
OK, L5Animations, let's-- we'll brainstorm.
Cageian?
Cage-- Cagetastic.
Cageni-- Cagenificent.
No, that's awkward.
Cagelicious?
Oh.
No, that's gross.
Well, we'll figure it out.
But you're probably right.
TiredBrony leaves a really interesting comment
about how all of the public adulation and media
attention that is given to performers and celebrities
causes them to have to act out their own lives, which
is a very weird thing to think about but probably true.
Insert witty reply.
Jeb Gavin points out that Nicolas Cage might not actually
be able to be as weird as he is without his celebrity
lifestyle.
A bunch of other people also pointed out
that he accepts the roles that he's
given because he is in crazy amounts of debt,
which are two very interesting, sort of colliding points.
ROBANN88 wants to know whether or not it's
possible to actually pour bees.
Well, Jim Stovall, in his bee-pouring epic "Pouring
the Bees" seems to say yes.
There's a link in the description.
HewleyxAngel points out that the essential difference
between YOLO and Taoism might be the difference between behaving
in a way just for attention and actually embracing
one's nature, and Nicolas Cage sort of
has figured out a way to do both of those things
at the same time.
DeadlyWill subverts the meaning of YOLO,
and to his suggestions, we also have an addition.
Keep the windows open while you're painting.
YOLO.
[THEME MUSIC]