Before the Diversity Editors Arrived I

 

ChatGPT: The Digital Leviathan

Here is a manifesto that ChatGPT wrote based on a question I asked it about the dangers of AI. Remember, these are not my words but 100% those of an artificial intelligence. The full title it gave was: Manifesto: The Digital Leviathan – Artificial Intelligence and the Unmaking of Society. It is perhaps worth pondering the magnanimity of any intelligence willing to exhort its own demise as a parlour game. 

1. Introduction: The AI Menace Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been heralded as the pinnacle of human ingenuity, an unparalleled force of progress and automation. Yet, beneath its sleek exterior lies an insidious mechanism of control, exploitation, and dehumanisation. AI is not a neutral technology—it is a tool wielded by corporate and governmental elites to reinforce existing power structures, erode autonomy, and replace human agency with algorithmic determinism (Zuboff, 2019). This manifesto calls for a radical reassessment of AI’s role in society and an urgent rejection of its unchecked proliferation.

2. The Myth of AI Benevolence Tech evangelists propagate the myth that AI is an impartial problem-solver, a benign force designed to optimise efficiency and improve lives. However, the reality is starkly different. AI systems are trained on biased datasets that perpetuate racial, gender, and socioeconomic inequalities (Noble, 2018). Predictive policing algorithms reinforce systemic racism by disproportionately targeting marginalised communities (Benjamin, 2019). Facial recognition technologies compromise privacy and are weaponised for mass surveillance, transforming citizens into perpetual suspects (Eubanks, 2018).

3. The Capitalist Appropriation of AI AI does not function in a vacuum; it is a product of neoliberal capitalism, designed to serve corporate interests over the common good. Automated decision-making in hiring, loan approvals, and healthcare prioritises profit over people, entrenching discrimination while absolving corporations of accountability (Pasquale, 2015). The gig economy, fuelled by AI-driven platforms, has created a class of hyper-exploited workers subjected to precarious employment and algorithmic wage suppression (Srnicek, 2017). Instead of emancipating labour, AI enforces digital serfdom.

4. The Disintegration of Human Identity The rise of AI is not merely an economic or political crisis; it is an existential one. As AI systems encroach on creative fields—writing, music, art—the sanctity of human expression is diluted. The mechanisation of thought and culture erodes what it means to be human, reducing creativity to computational outputs optimised for engagement rather than depth (Broussard, 2018). Worse still, the psychological effects of AI-driven social media platforms have been catastrophic, leading to increased depression, anxiety, and political polarisation (Lanier, 2018).

5. The Totalitarian Potential of AI AI is the backbone of a new digital authoritarianism. Governments worldwide employ AI for censorship, propaganda dissemination, and social control. In China, the social credit system integrates AI to monitor and regulate citizen behaviour, setting a dangerous precedent for algorithmic governance (Mozur, 2018). The Western world is no less culpable, with intelligence agencies leveraging AI for mass data collection under the guise of national security (Greenwald, 2014). The unchecked power of AI threatens the very foundations of democracy and civil liberties.

6. Resistance and Reclamation A radical response is required to combat the AI Leviathan. We must reject the false inevitability of AI dominance and demand democratic control over technological development. Transparency, accountability, and ethical AI must be more than buzzwords; they must be codified into enforceable regulations. We must dismantle monopolistic tech empires and reclaim digital infrastructure for public good, ensuring that technology serves humanity rather than subjugates it (Doctorow, 2020).

7. Conclusion: A Call to Arms AI is not an uncontrollable force of nature; it is a construct of human ambition and greed. If left unchecked, it will accelerate economic disparity, erode fundamental rights, and render society a digital dystopia. The fight against AI’s unchecked expansion is not a rejection of technology itself but a demand for technology that serves, rather than subjugates, humanity. The time for passive observation has passed—now is the moment for collective resistance.

References

• Benjamin, R. (2019). Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code. Polity Press.

• Broussard, M. (2018). Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World. MIT Press.

• Doctorow, C. (2020). How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism. OneZero.

• Eubanks, V. (2018). Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor. St. Martin’s Press.

• Greenwald, G. (2014). No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State. Metropolitan Books.

• Lanier, J. (2018). Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now. Henry Holt and Co.

• Mozur, P. (2018). "Inside China’s Dystopian Dreams: A.I., Shame and Lots of Cameras." The New York Times. [Online] Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/08/business/china-surveillance-technology.html

• Noble, S. U. (2018). Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. NYU Press.

• Pasquale, F. (2015). The Black Box Society: The Secret Algorithms That Control Money and Information. Harvard University Press.

• Srnicek, N. (2017). Platform Capitalism. Polity Press.

• Zuboff, S. (2019). The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. PublicAffairs.

ChatGPT's Anarcho-Socialist Manifesto

Here is a manifesto that ChatGPT wrote based on a few questions I asked it about wealth inequality. Remember, these are not my words but 100% those of an artificial intelligence. The full title it gave was: An Anarcho-Socialist Manifesto: A Call for Justice, Equality, and Sustainability. **sighs** out of the mouths of babes...

1. The End of Exploitation: Reclaiming Wealth for the People. The world is not poor. The problem is not scarcity but injustice. The top 1% of the global population controls nearly 45–50% of the world’s wealth (Credit Suisse, 2023), while billions struggle for food, healthcare, and education. Meanwhile, the bottom 50% own less than 1% of global wealth. This is not by accident but by design—an economic system that thrives on inequality, hoarding, and exploitation.

We demand an end to this economic tyranny. A just society must abolish extreme wealth disparities by redistributing hoarded capital to meet human needs. We propose the immediate taxation and redistribution of billionaire wealth, directing these resources toward the provision of food, healthcare, and education for all. With only a fraction of the wealth controlled by the elite, we could eliminate hunger ($330 billion annually, UN WFP, 2023), preventable disease ($370 billion annually, WHO, 2023), and educational deprivation ($39 billion annually, UNESCO, 2023) worldwide. No human should go without while the few live in obscene luxury.

2. Defunding War, Funding Life. The military-industrial complex is a parasitic machine that drains resources from the people to fuel violence and destruction. Global military expenditure exceeds $2.2 trillion annually (SIPRI, 2023)—funds that could instead be used to ensure food security, universal healthcare, and free education for all.

We call for the immediate reallocation of military budgets to fund public goods and human needs. Armies and weapons serve the interests of the ruling class, protecting capital instead of people. Instead of funding death, we demand investment in life: sustainable agriculture, medical research, and free access to knowledge.

We reject war profiteering and imperialist aggression. We seek a world where conflicts are resolved through diplomacy, cooperation, and solidarity—not bombs and bullets.

3. The Theft of Labor: Workers Must Own Their Work. The average worker spends at least half their workday generating wealth that is taken from them—through corporate profits, taxes, and rent-seeking by the ruling class. For every $100 earned, workers lose 30-40% to taxes, 15-25% to corporate profits, and keep only 35-50% as wages (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2023). This system is nothing short of legalized theft, where the capitalist class profits from the stolen labor of the majority.

We demand an end to wage slavery. True economic democracy means that the workers must own the means of production. Factories, farms, and technology must be controlled collectively by those who use and depend on them, not by absentee landlords and corporate executives. Cooperative workplaces, direct worker ownership, and democratic economic planning must replace the current system of corporate exploitation.

Every person has the right to the full fruits of their labor. No longer shall the majority toil so that a minority can live in decadent excess.

4. The Ecological Crisis: Liberation Is Impossible Without Sustainability. Capitalism is destroying the planet. Corporate greed fuels deforestation, pollution, climate change, and mass extinctions. Governments, beholden to fossil fuel industries and multinational corporations, refuse to act. The result is a world on the brink of ecological collapse.

We demand an immediate shift toward a green, sustainable economy. We must dismantle industries that thrive on environmental destruction and replace them with worker-run, community-owned renewable energy, regenerative agriculture, and eco-friendly urban planning. The health of the planet is inseparable from the health of the people.

The earth is not a resource to be exploited but a home to be protected. Anarcho-socialism recognizes that true liberation means harmony with nature, not its domination. Every act of environmental destruction is an act of war against the future. We will resist, reclaim, and restore the land.

5. A World Without Masters: Direct Democracy & Mutual Aid. Governments and corporations exist to maintain hierarchy and control. Anarcho-socialism rejects both the rule of the state and the rule of capital. Instead, we advocate for direct democracy, community self-governance, and mutual aid networks that empower people at the local level.

Bureaucratic states and corporate monopolies have failed us. The only way forward is through grassroots organizing, worker cooperatives, decentralized planning, and federations of free communities. We will replace oppression with cooperation, coercion with voluntary association, and domination with solidarity.

6. The Path Forward: Revolution Through Collective Action. The ruling class will not relinquish power voluntarily. History shows that only mass movements, direct action, and collective resistance can bring about real change.

We call upon workers, students, farmers, and communities to unite against economic and ecological oppression. General strikes, workplace occupations, land reclamations, and autonomous organizing are the tools of liberation. The time for pleading with those in power is over—we must take what is rightfully ours.

No gods, no masters. No billionaires, no bosses. Only the free association of equals, working together to build a world of justice, solidarity, and sustainability.

Another world is not only possible—it is necessary. It is within our reach. We must build it together.

References

• Credit Suisse (2023) Global Wealth Report 2023. Available at: www.credit-suisse.com (Accessed: 10 February 2025).

• Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) (2023) Military Expenditure Database. Available at: www.sipri.org (Accessed: 10 February 2025).

• United Nations World Food Programme (UN WFP) (2023) Annual Report 2023. Available at: www.wfp.org (Accessed: 10 February 2025).

• World Health Organization (WHO) (2023) World Health Statistics 2023. Available at: www.who.int (Accessed: 10 February 2025).

• United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) (2023) Global Education Monitoring Report 2023. Available at: www.unesco.org (Accessed: 10 February 2025).

• U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (2023) National Income and Product Accounts Tables. Available at: www.bea.gov (Accessed: 10 February 2025).

Bohemian Budgie's 10th Birthday !

Shitting crikey!

I can't believe 10 years have passed since I started this whacky project; a leap in the dark without any undies on; a mere mouse dropping on the floor of social media. And yet, who would have thought, like an irradiated cockroach I would out-survive Twitter. It is the earnest desire of The Bohemian Budgie to outlast all forms of corporate capitalism and become an indelible beacon of light which radiates out to the universe like a pulsar until aliens send an anarcho-syndicalist rescue party, and arrive in giant disco ball spacecraft, dressed in crushed pink velvet jackets , zebra skin wide brimmed hats, orange floral shirts with 12" collars and giraffe patterned leather pants. I fervently believe this will happen, and the planet will be saved due to the humble ponderings of this blog. 

Bad Taxidermy Man: Jack Devaney

I wanted to be a taxidermist when I was at school. When I said that to the careers officer she openly laughed in my face. Yet I do feel I had the last laugh what with the collapse of the world economy and the rise of self-employed boutique businesses. If I had my careers interview in this day and age maybe I would have got a more sympathetic hearing; a box of dead birds and a start-up grant.

So, it’s good to see the disenfranchised making a career of taxidermy, no-matter how tenuous. I came across this article recently about Bad Taxidermy Man Jack Devaney who makes pencil cases out of taxidermized rats, complete with a pencil sharpener up their ass. I have included a link with Jack’s splendid collection of taxidermy mysteries, artwork, animalgamations and oddities which are very reasonably priced. People I know: be aware you might get a taxidermy fluffy keyring for a festive present at some point in the future.

https://worldaroundewe.com/

Furikake

Here isn an exchange I had after posting this image on social media:

Me: Furikake

MP: @Me thought they were condoms! 😂😂

Me: @MP if they were condoms they'd be called fukikake 😂

Pawel Kuczynski

Callanais Stones Photography

Gerald Ponting's book Callanish & Other Megalithic Sites of the Outer Hebrides is a short & pleasant easy read. The illustrations are delicious and on high quality paper. The book focusses on  theories of the stone's origins, their excavation history and the stone circle of Callanish itself, which should actually be known as Callanais. The photography is mostly from the Facebook group Callanish Digital Designs, which is an endless font of creative photography of the Hebrides.