Readers of my previous rants will notice a parallel between my discomfort with so-called"Artificial Intelligence" and the race to erase personality and be most Meta. In each case,there's a presumption that something like a distinct kin to individual human intelligence iseither about to appear any minute, or has already appeared. The problem with thatpresumption is that people are all too willing to lower standards in order to make thepurported newcomer appear smart. Just as people are willing to bend over backwards andmake themselves stupid in order to make an AI interface appear smart (as happens whensomeone can interact with the notorious Microsoft paper clip,) so are they willing tobecome uncritical and dim in order to make Meta-aggregator sites appear to be coherent.

In the real world it is easy to not direct films. I have attempted to retire from directingfilms in the alternative universe that is the Wikipedia a number of times, but somebodyalways overrules me. Every time my Wikipedia entry is corrected, within a day I'm turnedinto a film director again. I can think of no more suitable punishment than making thesedetermined Wikipedia goblins actually watch my one small old movie.

The question of new business models for content creators on the Internet is a profoundand difficult topic in itself, but it must at least be pointed out that writing professionallyand well takes time and that most authors need to be paid to take that time. In this regard,blogging is not writing. For example, it's easy to be loved as a blogger. All you have todo is play to the crowd. Or you can flame the crowd to get attention. Nothing is wrongwith either of those activities. What I think of as real writing, however, writing meant tolast, is something else. It involves articulating a perspective that is not just reactive toyesterday's moves in a conversation.