Funding Friday: Ai's Poems

I hit the play button and heard her voice say “My poems are harsh, but they are meant to show the truth, which a lot of people are afraid to face.”

That sold me. I made a significant contribution to this project to bring Ai’s Killing Floor back into print.

Maybe you will join me.

#crowdfunding

Comments (Archived):

  1. Vendita Auto

    Zapta Zapta ….wow that hit spot, red meat for a rapperstarted singing “shelter from the storm”

  2. jason wright

    truth…. and trust. that’s an atomic unit, that too many entrepreneurs try to split, and that too many others are afraid to face.in other news…https://en.wikipedia.org/wi…- 23.5% of Americans (1 in 4) are classified as living in a ‘food desert’. what is that, about 75 million people with limited access to fresh fruit and vegetables…in the wealthiest of nations? something is broken (if it was actually ever previously functioning, which is probably wasn’t if we are being truthful).how do we trust in a person or a group or a system if truth is not an immutable value?

    1. Richard

      Food desserts are a myth. I remember looking at a NPR piece on this.The obesity issues in the US are real. The food desserts do not, however, seem to be a principal component.

      1. jason wright

        i think there’s a strong correlation between obesity and… ‘desserts’ ;-)- burp.

  3. kenberger

    wait– this is NOT about A.I. code that writes poems?? (or compose music, etc).Guaranteed that’s what most readers here were expecting.

    1. jason wright

      the poem could be a Turing test. i doubt that a computer would pass, now or in the future.

      1. Vendita Auto

        Down stream I doubt that mortals would know

        1. jason wright

          honestly, if computers penetrate that ‘layer’ of the human conscious/ sub/ un from where such modes of expression come then we are redundant.

          1. Vendita Auto

            That is why it is crucial for mortals to process informationat speed {poss direct 2 cortex} simply part of evolving

    2. LE

      It would be interesting to know how this project got Fred’s attention.I would guess (and it’s only a guess) that:B) If it was referred to him, the name of Ai made it more likely he would back it.-or-B) If it wasn’t referred to him (meaning he just saw it on a list along with other projects) it would be more likely that he would decide to dig deeper, see what it was all about, and back it.For the reason you are stating. [1] Not a new concept similar and a variation of many things including ‘click bait’ and my own ‘secondary meaning’. [2][1] In that case the person’s name of AI was a proxy similar to a referral as we were discussing the other day about getting a VC’s attention.[2] Secondary meaning (my definition) is when something has a greater meaning than the base average meaning to most people. For example the college that Fred’s children attended would have secondary meaning to Fred. Someone whose mother worked at Macy’s after graduating college would have secondary meaning to Gotham Gal.

  4. awaldstein

    This is the type of project Kickstarter is natural for.I was not aware of this body of work so big thanks!My poetry consumption has increased lately and feel the better for it.w.c.williams lately.

    1. Tom Labus

      It is difficultto get the news from poemsyet men die miserably every dayfor lackof what is found there.”― William Carlos Williams, Asphodel, That Greeny Flower and Other

      1. awaldstein

        so good.my dad was a product of the silk mill labor immigrants from europe and raised by the jewish community of paterson, nj, eventually spending his life teaching economic struggling kids in his original high school there.he introduced me to wcw and of course allen ginsburg, both products of that area.i was fortunate to have these literary influences early and such a remarkable parent.

  5. Grace Schroeder

    When I go to DC – I visit this poetry. I can never escape it.Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.– Abraham LincolnNov. 19, 1863