New book by SF-based writer Dave Eggers hits the shelves: Contrapposto

Anyone who’s enjoyed the book scene of SF knows Eggers from his treasure trove of true-to-life novels and his nonprofit 826 Valencia —- helping underserved youth become writers. Painstakingly written over decades, Contrapposto gets its release —- likely with minimal AI leverage as Eggers wistfully explains to a newspaper about the challenges of being an artist (The Guardian).

As everyone becomes proficient using AI, does society become cooked when life no longer imitates art? Machines increasingly fabricate life for humans as they never imagined. I continue to feature books here — a majority written prior to the avalanche of AI tools. Without ‘real’ books or journalism serving a society starving for authentic content, what happens when no one writes anything (or codes anything for that matter)? YouTube and TikTok have become the bearer of news — rarely filtered by experts —- and designed for overconsumption.

Not everyone is going to become a rocket scientist or an accessory to tools that expand STEM and the largesse of global capitalism. I featured Cary McClelland, another SF based author who portended the crisis from the culture change in the pre-AI era prior to 2020. Now the transformation is nearly complete with the winners harnessing AI —- not only overtaking SF, but an entire world. Many of them have moved to Texas and Florida to escape California regulations of their craft. Eggers has been a chronicler of this change over two decades and his latest book should be interesting since he managed to write it without AI. The future does not look bright if human cognition gets completely outsourced. The fellow man who doesn’t really care about you (as McClelland wrote a decade ago), is now a robot. 🤖 [this was written w/o AI assistance]

Silicon City