Robot Review of Books - #9 & #10

GH
Gary Hall
Fri, Sep 27, 2024 11:50 AM

Just to let you know about two recent contributions to the Robot Review
of Books:

https://www.robotreviewofbooks.org/

RRB #9 looks at Pirate Enlightenment by David Graeber. A thrilling
examination of pirate utopianism, Graeber’s experiment in historical
writing shows how many of the political ideas we associate with the
Enlightenment had their origins outside of the Western Tradition.

RRB #10 focuses on Literary Theory for Robots by Dennis Yi Tenen. A
software engineer-turned-literature professor, Tenen examines the
automation of writing, tracing its ‘hidden’ history to provide a
powerful explanation of how contemporary AI has come into being. Is
Tenen able to actually assume the implications of his theory for the
institutional conditions of his own practice, though?


Robot Review of Books:

https://www.robotreviewofbooks.org/
https://archive.org/details/no-1-rrb-introduction-v-2

Like the London Review of Books ... but with even more robots!

The Robot Review of Books is an AI ‘magazine’ consisting of short
computational media essays that are typically structured as book reviews.

 Free: No subscriptions, no paywalls.

 Non-Surveillance Capitalist: Viewer privacy is respected with no
collection, storage or sale of personal data.

 Quiet: No hype, no appeals for likes, shares or follows.

The RRB has a bibliodiverse editorial policy that takes in works from
alternative, independent and open access publishers, not just legacy
print presses, in an attempt to avoid repeating the same old
pre-programmed ideas and patterns of behaviour. This policy extends from
material published by ‘professional’ entities in authoritative formats,
such as books and journal articles, through that made available more
informally using blogs, websites and newsletters, to experiments with
collaborative publishing platforms, so-called internet piracy and
beyond. Both established knowledges and those that are perhaps
considered a little strange when measured against the dominant criteria
of the Euro-Western university are part of this bibliodiversity. Texts
authored substantially by AI, for example.

--
Gary Hall
Professor of Media
Director of the Centre for Postdigital Cultures, Coventry University:
https://postdigitalcultures.org/about/

Director of Open Humanities Press:http://www.openhumanitiespress.org
Websitehttp://www.garyhall.info
Follow on Mastodon here: @garyhall@hcommons.social

Latest:

Book: Masked Media: What It Means to Be Human in the Age of Artificial Creative Intelligence (in press):https://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/masked-media/

Journal article: 'Culture and the University as White, Male, Liberal Humanist, Public Space', New Formations:https://journals.lwbooks.co.uk/newformations/vol-2023-issue-110/abstract-9912/ (Open access pre-print available here:https://pureportal.coventry.ac.uk/en/publications/culture-and-the-university-as-white-male-public-liberal-humanist-.)

Blog post: 'What if Marx had had ChatGPT?':http://garyhall.squarespace.com/journal/2024/8/29/what-if-marx-had-had-chatgpt-revolutionising-philosophy-just.html

Just to let you know about two recent contributions to the Robot Review of Books: https://www.robotreviewofbooks.org/ RRB #9 looks at Pirate Enlightenment by David Graeber. A thrilling examination of pirate utopianism, Graeber’s experiment in historical writing shows how many of the political ideas we associate with the Enlightenment had their origins outside of the Western Tradition. RRB #10 focuses on Literary Theory for Robots by Dennis Yi Tenen. A software engineer-turned-literature professor, Tenen examines the automation of writing, tracing its ‘hidden’ history to provide a powerful explanation of how contemporary AI has come into being. Is Tenen able to actually assume the implications of his theory for the institutional conditions of his own practice, though? --- Robot Review of Books: https://www.robotreviewofbooks.org/ <https://archive.org/details/no-1-rrb-introduction-v-2> Like the London Review of Books ... but with even more robots! The Robot Review of Books is an AI ‘magazine’ consisting of short computational media essays that are typically structured as book reviews.  Free: No subscriptions, no paywalls.  Non-Surveillance Capitalist: Viewer privacy is respected with no collection, storage or sale of personal data.  Quiet: No hype, no appeals for likes, shares or follows. The RRB has a bibliodiverse editorial policy that takes in works from alternative, independent and open access publishers, not just legacy print presses, in an attempt to avoid repeating the same old pre-programmed ideas and patterns of behaviour. This policy extends from material published by ‘professional’ entities in authoritative formats, such as books and journal articles, through that made available more informally using blogs, websites and newsletters, to experiments with collaborative publishing platforms, so-called internet piracy and beyond. Both established knowledges and those that are perhaps considered a little strange when measured against the dominant criteria of the Euro-Western university are part of this bibliodiversity. Texts authored substantially by AI, for example. -- Gary Hall Professor of Media Director of the Centre for Postdigital Cultures, Coventry University: https://postdigitalcultures.org/about/ Director of Open Humanities Press:http://www.openhumanitiespress.org Websitehttp://www.garyhall.info Follow on Mastodon here: @garyhall@hcommons.social Latest: Book: Masked Media: What It Means to Be Human in the Age of Artificial Creative Intelligence (in press):https://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/masked-media/ Journal article: 'Culture and the University as White, Male, Liberal Humanist, Public Space', New Formations:https://journals.lwbooks.co.uk/newformations/vol-2023-issue-110/abstract-9912/ (Open access pre-print available here:https://pureportal.coventry.ac.uk/en/publications/culture-and-the-university-as-white-male-public-liberal-humanist-.) Blog post: 'What if Marx had had ChatGPT?':http://garyhall.squarespace.com/journal/2024/8/29/what-if-marx-had-had-chatgpt-revolutionising-philosophy-just.html