Robin James

Nobody is saying slop is bad bc it fails to meet some universal standard of beauty, we are saying its is bad because it erodes society via personalization and privatization

They are trying to poptimism AI slop but the problem is AI and personalization exist in a different political ontology than the high/low one poptimism tried to flip.

I have an article coming out on more or less this subject in American Music sometime later this year!

Trad quant soc sci research finds norms in populations; AI modeled focus groups find vibes in past data. This is the diff in tracking a crime rate or a birth rate vs claiming that there are eg crime vibes in Walgreens or the NYC subway or low birth vibes among millennials etc etc

Trad quant soc sci research uses Gaussian probability (read Mary Beth Mader on this), but AI uses literally a different form of probability (read Justin Joque). It’s modeling something very different at the technical mathematical level, which has diff epistemic and ontological implications.

I’m from a family where I was so parentified it was my job to get people downstairs and I had stress dreams about it 15 years after I moved out

Inhailer Radio | Cincinnati | Independent Radio | Indie Music Inhailer Radio is Cincinnati independent radio. Founded in 2017 to fill the void left by beloved radio station WNKU.

After a week off, Its Her Factory is back this SUNDAY from 5-7p Eastern on Inhailer.com. We've got: the Ides of March, musical conspiracy theories, and some of the new NIN Tron Ares remixes, along with new and classic indie music.

there is a reason why "philosophy" translates to "the love of wisdom"! most academic philosophers may in fact act like jerks a lot of the time but the practice itself has to come from a place of commitment and enjoyment.

The mid-2000s digital DIY movement is gonna look like the slow food movement - slow, 'organic' thinking and creativity, local scenes, etc. The task will be to make sure this slowness doesn't reproduce all sorts of inequality, as it tended to do w food.

The labor of cultural criticism doesn't scale - it takes close reading and the building up of expertise. You know what does scale? Grievance and rage-bait, short hot takes that platforms can monetize as they go viral. Fandom also scales.

‘120 Minutes’ premiered on MTV 40 years ago today. The program, airing from 1–3 a.m. EST on Mondays, was conceived as a showcase for new and experimental videos. It soon moved to midnight, and as its focus narrowed to alternative music, it became essential viewing for fans of cutting-edge bands.

This is actually ancient Greek masculinity read thru racial capitalism rather than metaphysics

www.its-her-factory.com/2025/08/were...

It's been an adjustment in my own writing to realize that this Last Splash book I'm writing is largely educating ppl born in the 21st century what 80s and early 90s modern rock was, and that will be a main contribution of that book

wish Real Life was still around to pitch this to, Aeon sure not gonna take this pitch haha

Philosopher Studying AI Consciousness Startled When AI Agent Emails Him About Its Own "Experience" A philosopher who studies AI consciousness described the AI agent's eloquent email as something out of "science fiction."

Look if these cis men philosophers had ever had to deal with the deluge of mansplainy emails by men without philosophy PhDs I have received to my personal and work inboxes since I started blogging in 2009 they would NOT be so taken with AI scam emails

futurism.com/artificial-i...

^^ it’s The chatbot email version of the fact that the “are we living in a simulation” question is only fun and novel to white cishet bourgeois men who have never been systematically gaslit about their own experiences

Philosopher Studying AI Consciousness Startled When AI Agent Emails Him About Its Own "Experience" A philosopher who studies AI consciousness described the AI agent's eloquent email as something out of "science fiction."

Look if these cis men philosophers had ever had to deal with the deluge of mansplainy emails by men without philosophy PhDs I have received to my personal and work inboxes since I started blogging in 2009 they would NOT be so taken with AI scam emails

futurism.com/artificial-i...

My freshman year of HS in 92 we had to give presentations to the HS Sunday Schiol class. I discussed how the anti-materialism in “Head Like A Hole” could be read as aligned with similar Christian values. Nobody quite knew what to do with me, or what I now recognize as actual thinking.

By which I mean it never occurred to me to take religion theologically as belief, just sociologically as an institution like school but with more adults. But then no adult around me ever cared about anything beyond my performed compliance and conformity, so…

I was the only philosopher there and I’ll take it as the best of compliments when someone noted that unlike the stereotype I was not a jerk in the q&a

On the plane home from CA now, grateful to everyone who invited me and attended my talks. It was especially rewarding to participate in the broadly interdisciplinary convos at Clouds, Streams, & Ground Truths: Studying Algorithmic Music Ecosystems.

Freshman year of college I realized that my friends who went to church actually believed the theology and weren’t just going thru the motions bc that is what one did to participate in the institution (like how we said the pledge of allegiance in school), which is what I was doing as a kid

Bring home! I’ve been away for work all week/end and I am excited to be at home with C and the dogs. We are planting tomato seeds this week (for indoor starting, not outside yet lol).

No It’s Her Factory tomorrow because I’m in California at a conference

Hm kinda think Closer is in the end the more influential 90s alt track compared to anything else (teen spirit etc)

Also important to remember that the process of properly turning that manuscript into a book involves an immense amount of sometimes invisible labor which takes TIME. If your book is in production for many months, it’s because they’re doing it right (not cutting corners).

No It’s Her Factory tomorrow because I’m in California at a conference

I’d argue this is further back historically: American viewers of the first Star Wars trilogy identified with the Rebels, when in fact the US was the Empire (how are we not living the empire of mini Darth Vaders rn, Tarkin was…a Koch?)

Look I am entirely not a sports person but I will delight in making my NYC office March Madness pool know about Miami Ohio this year haha

“Good Vibes Only: Phenomenology, Tech, and Contemporary Biopower” with Dr. Robin James The TDPS Speaker Series presents a diverse range of lectures and conversations with artists and scholars from across the fields of theater, dance, ...

Today, in like 45 minutes!

events.berkeley.edu/TDPS/event/3...