When the dog hears the door of the cabinet where the kibble is, his ears perk up. He knows. At the sound of the bag, he arrives with a drooling mouth. More or less related stories this week. A little Sunday? It’s up to you.
It’s called conditioning. He salivates until he drips, knowing he’s going to eat. Digestion begins long before he has eaten any food. It sometimes also resembles political announcements. We come back to it.
The cries of bustards early in the morning. The trees that are leafing out. The field mice who want to enter the house. Pumpkin fields. It’s fall. We are talking here about artificial intelligence, a battery factory, and here and there a little about Bill C-18.
Speaking of fall, a while ago it was integration week at universities. We now say integration to avoid the word initiation, which has been undermined in recent years. It is to encourage entry, open a passage, create camaraderie, human relationships, a spirit of community. Like social media, but for real.
Two somewhat surprising testimonies heard in recent days: although security agencies are called upon and the directors of programs and university associations do everything possible to “supervise” new students, it happens that slip-ups occur. are possible. At the heart of all this, alcohol, we guess. Because it is at the center of the idea of freedom and progress (that and the intoxication of government announcements). Drinking disinhibits and is very happy for many. But it also happens that things get out of hand.
The day after the two events brought to my attention, more or less official emails from the organizers of the parties integration asked the participants of the day before to delete all videos and photos that could have been taken, among others: of a guy who escapes solid and gets naked, or of a young woman left in an ambulance because of an alcoholic coma.
Things happen, we tell ourselves. We’ve all over-buttered our toast. But asking the entire community to remove traces?
Perhaps this is how we create a sense of belonging? By twisting reality a little so that it enters into a dream form. Still a little on the fringes, it seems. However, we say we are more awake.
Then one Friday, a few weeks ago, a call to boycott Meta in the email box. The coffee went wrong. Seriously, did I say it out loud? The world is going crazy. We understand the history of Bill C-18 and the right to information. We also understand the issues for devotees who believe that information is a right as fundamental as water (historically, we have only been getting information for a century and a half, on a patent dating back several millennia, but hey, it’s like cars, we built the world and the economy somewhat around them).
A lack of lucidity? We have been explaining our reality by signs of piasses for several decades. There is nothing really worrying about this situation; to the strongest the pocket, and this is how a large part of History is written. This is the system we embrace. Who will it hurt to boycott Facebook or Instagram for one day in 365? Meta doesn’t care, and it won’t be reflected in the annual report sent to investors. If it goes through, it will be to pretend to be perfect, like in those initiation stories. We will make the facts say what we want.
We’ve been hearing a lot about artificial intelligence in recent months, perhaps we should start talking about superficial intelligence?
In front of the bowl of kibble, my dog is not so different from our behavior in front of social networks. They are now part of survival. Just like water. Or the idea that electric tanks and batteries will save the planet and our consciences. In the same way as gasoline at $2 per liter, in this idea of conditioned freedom, one salivates in the belief that the future will be radiant and full of promises for the road to come and because it “ticks” the air of the time.
Systemic “cancellation”, the one applied by integration students, is part of this beautiful great poem: to clear your conscience, until the discomfort fades. This generation is no different from the previous ones, despite the ambient benevolence.
The boycott of Russia did not end the war. Imagine attacking the individual freedoms of social networks and those who use them… I don’t have the heart to make my dog wait when he is salivating. Day after day, the same thing in the bowl, and he continues to ask for more, with the same reactions.
Have never used social networks since their creation. Never been on Facebook, Insta, Snap and others for a single fraction of a second. Aside from a few TikToks with my daughters (I’m smiling, here). Am still alive, and no drool flows in the face of the need to exist there. We are not talking here about a reactionary reflex, but about an observation; no matter the technology or contemporary values which on the surface seem more awakened, the more it changes, the more it remains the same.
That being said, fall isn’t any worse so far and there’s no need to make one post. Afterwards it will be winter, and then spring. It’ll take a shovel and a hat.