FAQ stands for “frequently asked questions,” an acronym originated by Eugene Miya at NASA for the SPACE mailing list. Back in the day, FAQ could be a list of “right” answers.Today dumb bots can use a FAQ list to spew out prefab responses to angry customers screaming, “Get me a human!” But the FAQ concept has also evolved to accommodate crowdsourcing and smart systems that collaborate with humans, collecting diverse responses and stories on any topic, even drawing analogies across topics.
FACTS vs. FAQS
FACTS are so-called “right answers” – the “correct narrative” endorsed by those in power.
FAQS are more than “collective intelligence.” They’re how social networks evolve and learn from the crowd by asking questions.
punk is anti-zombie – all the ways our uniqueness doesn’t jibe with the status quo: startup leaders who think for themselves; DIY innovators, who don’t sell out, zone out, stall out, or wait for permission.
FAQpunk is a genre defiant, though broadly a sci fi sub-genre (art, media, music, writing). Whereas cyberpunk has been labeled dystopian, and solar punk has been labeled utopian, FAQpunk resists boxing into a category.
A FAQpunk ecosystem grows and evolves, enriching its content and value as more users contribute, getting off the bandwagon, refusing to be bamboozled, mesmerized or manipulated.
Propaganda
If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, . . . we’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.
Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Thinking for Oneself
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last,
and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
Mary Oliver, The Summer Day
Zann Gill, speaking at UC Berkeley on the Centenary of the Noosphere, describes how collaborative intelligence can be “an antidote to X”, where X represents many domains in which centralized control is exploiting the global commons and disabling distributed autonomy and innovation. One of those domains is FOOD production.
FAQpunk raises questions. The PSYOPS film below leaves you wondering. . . .
Dudesy’s A.I. of George Carlin is too shit-obsessed, too long, too uneven. But that’s just bad human judgment. Some of its “facts” are blatantly wrong: humans have been on Earth for a few hundred thousand years, not 6 million.
George Carlin’s heirs are suing over the release of “George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead,” which uses generative AI to mimic the late comedian’s voice and style. The legal action is among the first taken by the estate of a deceased celebrity for unlicensed use of their work and likeness. (What about prompting?) Two key points:
- This is a misrepresentation of the quality we associate with George Carlin; the point of the suit is well taken.
- BUT. . . there are a few good clips in this overlong, badly designed project. Those clips (below) show how cartoons and comedy, sci fi and A.I., can raise questions that humans hesitate to ask “in person.” A.I. hallucinations can force us to improve our critical thinking skills, make us check multiple sources rather than believing the first fake news “fact” we hear.
This Carlin A.I. raises some serious questions that should be on the table:
1) If we want to get along, why are there so many mass shootings in the U.S.? [3:30 – 4:45]
2) Do elections give us real choice and real democracy? [15:11 – 16:25]
3) What’s the advantage of a two party system? [21:45 – 22:15]
4) Who wants us addicted to an online metaverse? [19:46 – 20:08]
5) What would change if the U.S. military budget were spent less on killing people, more on helping people? [58:33 – 59:51]
