{"id":5127,"date":"2026-03-08T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/?p=5127"},"modified":"2026-03-07T21:29:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T05:29:21","slug":"two-weeks-in-the-life-march-8-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/?p=5127","title":{"rendered":"Two Weeks in the Life: March 8, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hello, friends and enemies. I have to resist the urge to begin most posts with something like “wow, shit is NUTS, right?” because shit is <\/em>nuts and is only getting nuttier and, indeed, the nuttiness never seems to stop. Instead I will say that I think we are all feeling similarly mad right now. It sucks, but it’s not just you (or me, for that matter)! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Current Events<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I’ve been completely riled up about the technology known as “artificial intelligence” (in most cases, a glorified auto-complete machine called a large language model [LLM]). Lately, the very mention of AI sends me into a rage, which has been a problem since my corporate overlords have been heavily promoting their AI “tools” (why the hell would I need AI to summarize an email for me when it takes one minute to read? What even are jobs now?) After some reflection, I realized that one of the reasons it makes me so mad is that I have devoted a lot of my time and free will in this life to the pursuit of knowledge. I have a whole-ass masters degree in library and information science<\/em>. You know, the degree where you take entire classes on how to find information. I have studied searching at a graduate level and now people are telling me to just ask the chronically mendacious plagiarism machine? Open AI has trained its model to “reward guessing over acknowledging uncertainty<\/a>” like some kind of mid-level executive raised from the depths of consultant hell, yet we’re supposed to entrust it with thinking through complex ideas for us? Why would I, an expert in finding information and evaluating its credibility, ask a knowingly bad computer program to do it for me? Why is everyone so invested in this?<\/p>\n\n\n

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It’s just ads<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

It seems like the whole concept of the internet has been ruined. It’s not exclusively the fault of AI, but that may have been the last straw. The web has been hollowed out by advertisements and social media over the last decade. People my age remember the internet being fun and full of websites. Now there are “five websites, each consisting of screenshots of text from the other four.” As of October 2025, AI-generated content made up about “half of all new articles<\/a> on the internet” based on a “random sample of 65,000 English-language articles.” We’re also seeing increasing amounts of AI text on Wikipedia<\/a>, one of the few reliable places left on the internet thanks to concentrated human effort (yes, that includes my efforts and I am biased). However, Wikipedia has also made deals with major tech companies<\/a> to “pay for high-volume API access to Wikipedia content, which these companies use to train AI models like Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT.” What happens when the AI model keeps eating its own slop? Will the internet be worth anything to us anymore? Will being able to ask the plagiarism machine to write your emails have been worth it?<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"screenshot<\/a>
from twitter’s criteron collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

There’s a short story by Isaac Asimov I keep thinking about. It’s called “The Feeling of Power<\/a>” and it opens with: “Jehan Shuman was used to dealing with the men in authority on a long-embattled Earth. He was only a civilian but he originated programming patterns that resulted in self-directing war computers of the highest sort.” As on-the-nose as that sounds for a critique of today’s news (this story was written in 1958), that’s not what I remember it for. The story centers on the lowly technician Ladislas Aub who has learned how to do arithmetic by hand. No one else knows how to do math, relying instead on computers to do it for them. In fact, everyone is incredulous that a person can just do math<\/em>, which is something only computers can do. I thought this was very silly when I first read it as a teenager. Using a calculator won’t make us forget how to do basic math! Yet, as hyperbolic as that is, it feels like people are literally forgetting how to do things like look up information or write an email without help from the plagiarism machine. Who benefits from us willingly abdicating our ability to think through simple tasks?<\/p>\n\n\n

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the feeling of powerlessness<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Aside from the choices people are making to stop using their brains, I’m mad at how, much like in Asimov’s story, AI is being used to wage war. On March 3, The Guardian<\/em> reported that<\/a> “Anthropic\u2019s AI model, Claude, was reportedly used by the US military in the barrage of strikes as the technology ‘shortens the kill chain’ \u2013 meaning the process of target identification through to legal approval and strike launch.” This technology resulted in the U.S. and Israel launching “almost 900 strikes on Iranian targets in the first 12 hours alone.” Nine-hundred bombs in twelve hours! We are using a technology that kills people faster because the people deploying the bombs aren’t individually selecting targets. The United States thinks so little of people in the rest of the world that it won’t even spend human effort on deciding who to kill; a machine does that now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This already high level of disregard for human life has not gone far enough for this administration’s taste. Ars Technica reports that<\/a> the Department of Defense was renegotiating its contract with Anthropic to “to eliminate restrictions on how AI can be deployed and instead permit ‘all lawful use’ of the technology.” This refers to<\/a> “one, mass surveillance of American citizens, and two, lethal autonomous weapons with no human oversight.” This is obviously terrible for many reasons, but the response to this news has resulted in a bizarre liberal mania in which Antrhopic’s Claude is now the “woke” AI model to use, becoming the most downloaded free application in the Apple app store. Claude “dethron[ed] OpenAI’s ChatGPT<\/a> just one day after the Pentagon tapped OpenAI to supply AI to classified military networks.” I can’t believe I even have to say this but: there is no such thing as a “woke” AI. Every AI model is built on so much stolen data that asking for artist consent would “‘basically kill’ the AI industry.” Before this dustup, the Pentagon used the Claude AI in capturing Venezuelan president Nicol\u00e1s Maduro. There is nothing woke, progressive, leftist, liberal, social justice warrior, or girlboss feminism about kidnapping of the leader of a sovereign nation without provocation.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Parody<\/a>
Yes, I’m using this again. Generated with https:\/\/youwouldntsteala.website\/editor.html<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

AI is a surveillance machine. That is how it “knows” how to pick targets for the military. It is, of course, being deployed against us here in the United States too. The Department of Homeland Security is using applications developed by Palantir to “process data<\/a>.” While DHS and Palantir have been working together for over a decade, “[i]n April, the Homeland Security Department awarded Palantir a nearly $30 million contract to build a system backed by artificial intelligence that would help find and track individuals for deportation<\/a>.” ICE is also is using Clearview AI’s facial recognition software (which, for the record, received early funding from Peter Thiel<\/a>, the man behind Palantir), which ICE agents have been using in Minnesota to identify protestors<\/a> without their consent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Facial recognition is also about to be weaponized to ruin the internet for us once and for all (as if turning everything into advertisements wasn’t enough). Countries around the world have started implementing age verification laws online, beginning with Australia prohibiting anyone under 16 from accessing social media. The problem is that verifying whether a 15-year-old is attempting to use social media requires that every user<\/em> submits to age verification. This often means submitting a photo of one’s face or a picture of an ID. This is bad for everyone: “This system not only allows big tech companies to harvest even more deeply personal data on children, but it creates massive cybersecurity risks<\/a>. Data harvested by identity verification systems does not stay private.” While the United States is considering bills on this subject, America’s favorite governor who stands for nothing at all, Gavin Newsom, recently decided to get a jump on this particular strain of surveillance and signed a bill that will require operating system providers (i.e., Windows, MacOS, Linux) “to collect age information from users at account setup<\/a> and transmit that data to app developers via a real-time API, with the law taking effect on January 1, 2027.” This would mean that anyone using a computer has to provide their ID, which will go to some database, before they can even use that computer. In the UK, the Wikimedia Foundation sued<\/a> to challenge the way the government determined which sites had to follow the strictest rules, a category that included Wikipedia. Unfortunately, Wikimedia lost, which means that internet users in the UK have to submit to age verification even to use Wikipedia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Age verification will kill the internet. This is so dire that over 400 computer scientists have signed an open letter<\/a> urging governments not to pursue these laws, writing “this influence could be used to censor information and prevent users from accessing services.” I must assume that a big part of this backlash to the free and open internet is because people are getting too aware of the fact that everyone else in the world is people, just like them. That is to say, the propaganda isn’t working like it used to<\/a>. We have to cut Americans off from the internet before their views of the Israeli government become even less favorable<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is still hope. Every time you think for yourself or skip the option to use your face to verify something, you are helping avoid the worst version of the future. One reason Anthropic may have turned down the Pentagon on the updated contract is that they simply don’t have the technical capability to do it (neither does OpenAI but they don’t care). Every search, every query, every use of AI trains the machine. The number one thing you can do is simply reject it. As Ann Helen Petersen exhorts us in Culture Study, don’t let the machines do the living<\/a>. I know existence is highly discouraging right now, but the solution to exhaustion and outrage isn’t to outsource to the computer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most anti-fascist actions you can do right now is to use your own brain! You are always<\/em> allowed to just not fucking do it! You do not have to use any form of AI, even if some people are being very loud about it. Many people with a lot of money have a vested interest in all of us just forgetting how to do things we have been doing just fine for years. Do not underestimate the power of “no” in these times. Thinking for yourself is always the biggest threat to authoritarianism. Don’t give that power away for free. <\/p>\n\n\n

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\"meme<\/a>
just walk out!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Books and Other Words<\/h2>\n\n\n
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\"book<\/a>
Miranda in Milan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Miranda in Milan<\/a> by Katharine Duckett is basically a work of fan fiction\u2014and I mean that affectionately\u2014of Shakespeare’s The Tempest<\/em>. The story begins where The Tempest <\/em>ends, with Miranda and her father Prospero returning to Milan. Miranda doesn’t understand court behavior or why she’s made to wear a veil at all times. The story follows Miranda as she tries to figure out what the hell is going on and she falls for one of her maids. There is magic and intrigue, all the good stuff. I enjoyed it even though I’m not especially familiar with the source material. I would wager it’s even more fun if you really know all the characters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, on the internet:<\/p>\n\n\n\n