From the website of the company that’s destroying books to feed them into the ravenous AI maw.

[overholt@glammr.us]

From the website of the company that’s destroying books to feed them into the ravenous AI maw.

“A physical book is a delivery mechanism for information. Once that information has been extracted and encoded into an AI model, the delivery mechanism has served its purpose. What remains is paper, ink, and binding material. The book is not destroyed. Its value has migrated. The paper returns to the material cycle; the knowledge enters the intellectual one.” https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/internet/ai-labs-buy-scan-shred-millions-of-rare-books/news-story/0c3b45a67093ab462a587a0348538ce9

[janeishly@beige.party]

@overholt Says it all about what they think a book actually is.

[overholt@glammr.us]

As someone who has devoted his career to celebrating and preserving the artifactual, tangible value of books, this feels like a knife in the gut.

[jbenjamint@mastodon.scot]

@overholt I would tag endless scream in here but it doesn't sufficiently capture my response. Maybe an extra circle of hell might come close.

[mccrankyface@social.vivaldi.net]

@janeishly @overholt

Anyone who thinks a book is simply information doesn't really understand books.

[thomaskirchner7@rollenspiel.social]

@overholt I wish for all their favourite toys and meals (and moneys) to drop and vanish into the „intellectual cycle“, whenever they try to have them!

[librarymonster@glammr.us]

@overholt horrifying

Why does "books" feel like "people's brains" ??? I see tech bros planning on selling immortality by claiming our bodies are just "delivery mechanisms for information" & some Isaac Asimov end to humanity

[joyce@hcommons.social]

@overholt

Philistines. Uneducated, unfeeling, idiots.

[eleanorrees@mas.to]

@overholt the equation of 'information' with 'knowledge'...

[ravenbait@mastodon.scot]

@overholt These people clearly don't understand the dfference between information, knowledge and understanding. Nor do they value the emotional resonance that comes from holding a book. These people have forgotten that humans are physical creatures, and the act of interacting with something with hands and fingers - the whole-sense experience of texture, small, sound, even taste - is of itself valuable.

A pox on them.

[wilpercy@beige.party]

@overholt sophistry masking theft.

[angiebaby@mas.to]

@overholt

"A human is a delivery mechanism for productivity. Once that productivity has been extracted and converted into profits, the delivery mechanism has served it's purpose. What remains is organs, bones and viscera. The human is not destroyed. Its value has migrated. The body returns to the earth; the profits enter the CEO's financial portfolio."

[troy_frizzell@mstdn.social]

@overholt

Imagine being that dead inside.

Horrific.

[jtinmi@fouroclockfarms.club]

@overholt 🤬 ️ 🤬

[jaypdub@mstdn.social]

@overholt
It's like a super villain monologue...

[vorsos@beige.party]

@overholt

[davidtheeviloverlord@mastodon.social]

@overholt

I call bullshit.

When I read a book, I learn. Something their "A.I." cannot do.

When I reach the end of the book, what remains is magic, crafted by a human being who poured a part of their heart and soul into it. Things their "A.I." does not possess.

And I don't tear the pages from books to read them. I can reach the end of the book without ending the book.

How could my son read my Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy books if I did? I finished them about 20 years before he was born.

[sinabhfuil@mastodon.ie]

@overholt how handy that electronic files never become corrupted

[overholt@glammr.us]

@sinabhfuil I am so glad to be in charge of material mostly recorded on incredibly durable parchment and rag paper that will need little more than a safe and stable environment to remain usable for centuries. Digital records are mayflies in comparison.

[timtfj@mastodon.social]

@eleanorrees @overholt And of processing with intelligence. It galls me that they dare use the word at all.