Hi folks. This is to let everyone know that Giza community member Rui Grazina’s book, The Digital Dehumanization of Modernism is now available at Lulu, and it also up in our own bookstore. Click under “About” on the website main page, then click “Books” and scroll down to “Recommended” books, and you should find his book. Happy Reading!
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Thank you so much, Joseph! I do hope people will like to read it!
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Will know by November 3 when my copy arrives, congratulations.
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Rui, I think your book might pair well with a book I’m currently working on which is based on Shel Silverstein’s work…
Tenatively titled: Where the sidewalk SHOULD have ended… 
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Thanks a lot, Bill! I do hope you like it!
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Moh, I’ll be looking forward to that. Now, I just want a little breather, I’ve been at this non-stop since July… Hope it was worth it!
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Congrats on finishing your book! Hope it sells well and you become famous. Along those lines … after the Good Doctor has given it a read maybe you could talk him into an interview on your many brilliant thoughts.
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parabens senhor rui !
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Congratulations Rui! A great achievement.
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The Doc really enjoyed And appreciated Rui’s book. In the last vid-chat Joseph mentioned that he read it in one sitting and made many positive comments. Also, as it often happens, Doc tied it in with many of the submissions.
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i will add that here is the blurb:
This small and limited essay attempts to be a humble reflection on the current state of our culture, particularly in what regards the arts and architecture. The overwhelming dissemination and use of what is designated as Artificial Intelligence is, in some ways, I argue, not the beginning of a new process, but rather the culmination of another. One that started quite a long time ago. Architecture and the arts have reached a state of disarray, as they have become the vehicles for exercises of absurdity, lack of honesty and, ultimately, total disrespect for themselves and for humanity. Tradition and meaning have been replaced by a sort of narcissistic nihilism. On the overall, I argue that modernism established a number of objectives, from a political and ideological standpoint, that enabled, at certain key levels, an “anti-human” momentum and a deliberate questioning of Beauty. This established a number of intellectual contrivances, in order to promote a double tactic of a generalized fight against tradition, and concomitantly, a questioning of human values. I think that from a quite high standpoint, we might find very important and relevant connections between modernism itself, and the introduction of Artificial Intelligence, that we observe currently. In some ways, from a strategic and ideological standpoint, I do believe that the latter is, in some ways, the development of the former. The process of societal change, I argue, has now been not only normalized, but taken to unprecedented heights, through the widespread adoption of Artificial Intelligence, and by its overwhelming evolution both in scope and in depth. While modernism could still be experienced through specific mediums – architecture, painting, or music – and thus, object of critique within such cultural contexts, Artificial Intelligence operates in a fundamentally distinct way. Its influence is more diffuse, yet, far more pervasive, subtly reshaping thought and perception, through the interaction with its users. In this sense, AI constitutes a deeply perverse architecture. One that does not encourage education, the flourishing of diverse perspectives, or genuine inquiry, but instead, reinforces the ideological frameworks of its designers. It functions, essentially, as a digital feudal system – placing the general population in the position of passive recipients, while the architects of the system act as modern-day feudal lords.
And I will add that it sounds like a worthy standalone book but also one that reminds me of some of what Dr. F. was saying in his work which i recently finished ‘Microcosm and Medium’
in regards to a treatise against Modernism.
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Thank you so much, Chris!
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Hey Machaire, thanks!
Thanks, Scarmoge. That would be nice - an interview. - if I can possibly be interesting enough for a conversation with Joseph!
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