Synthetic Performers

So the actor’s strike ended with a settlement which provides compensation from Producers who use AI generated images that approximate those of individual “real” Actors. What this means is (I think) a Producer can not use a phony face that looks like my face unless they pay me off. Okay, that’s good. But what’s left in the air is a Producer who makes up a person out of thin air. The cigar chompers agree to discuss “in good faith” potential compensation (if any) for depriving real actors of a chance to compete with these plastic fantastic beings

So what does this mean for the real human-being Actors?

It means they gave up the farm.

They fucked themselves.

“Synthetic” performers, unlike the real thing, require no negotiations, no contract, no fees, no perks, no care and feeding of any kind. Not even sleep! Many producers across film and television — certainly those that are budget constrained (which means essentially all of them) — will be tempted to take that AI plunge. And once they do, all bets are off. The Wrap

Who actually cooks up a Plastic Fantastic Being?

This guy:

Trevor McFedries^[1][2] (born November 27, 1985), (formerly known as Yung Skeeter) is a musician who worked as a DJ, producer, and director for acts including Ke$ha, Azealia Banks, Katy Perry, Chris Brown, Steve Aoki, and others.^[3] He toured alongside Katy Perry on her 2011 California Dreams Tour.^[4] McFedries has also performed at music festivals Lollapalooza and Coachella, served as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Bad Robot, and was an early employee at Spotify.^[4] He is the co-founder and CEO of technology startup Brud and the creator of virtual pop star Lil Miquela. He currently sits on the boards of the Southern California Institute of Architecture “SCI-Arc” and Rhizome, the Digital Artwork arm of The New Museum.^[5][6]

Wikipedia

This kid (I think he’s 39 which is a kid to a geezer like me) this kid went from a D.J and back up musician and producer for some big name acts listed above…to morph, seemingly overnight, into a kind of Wizard Of Oz/ Doctor Frankenstein combo that’s gonna rule the world.

The entertainment world today…maybe the whole world eventually.

He invented this woman lil Miquela.

This is a Plastic Fantastic Being!

How fucking dead end cool is this?

But is Trevor McFedries making money off her? Heck yeah! He’s got her super modeling and doing adds for Calvin Kline. Who gets paid? She don’t. You could pay her with play money. But speaking of play money, here’s a peck to beat a bushel: Trevor is making money (who knows how much) maybe big time money, I don’t know, money he might not need to account for all the way…

What he does, He generates wealth through DAOs.

Now if you’re a dumb shit old man like me, you’re asking, what the fuck is a DAO? I know what a DOA is cuz my old man was dead on arrival after a real bad bar fight back in 1969…R.I.P. Bobby Lee. No, a DAO is something else altogether:

A decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), sometimes called a decentralized autonomous corporation (DAC),^[a][1] is an organization managed in whole or in part by decentralized computer program, with voting and finances handled through a blockchain.^[2][3][4] In general terms, DAOs are member-owned communities without centralized leadership.^[5][6] The precise legal status of this type of business organization is unclear.

wikipedia

Finances of a DAO are handled through a blockchain.

That’s what Crypto Currency uses. Blockchains. Nice!

Nobody really needs to know who’s handling the money.

Because there is no way to change a block, the only trust needed is at the point where a user or program enters data. This aspect reduces the need for trusted third parties, which are usually auditors or other humans that add costs and make mistakes.

Investopedia

Let me see if I can figure this out.

So you get a bunch of people together and nobody knows who owns what except we’re all in this together and maybe we can trust those that make shit happen because they’re definitely not sitting on their asses. They’re making shit happen. One of them’s the CEO. Anyway, who cares! It’s a beautiful thing when you can create wealth out of thin air just like you create these Fantastic Plastic Beings.

It’s so beautiful my mind is warping over how beautiful it is.

On October 4, 2021 “Brud Inc” was acquired by Dapper Labs for an undisclosed amount.^[33] The acquisition sees Trevor become the CEO of “Dapper Collectives” a new org that will be “Mainstreaming DAOs.” The first DAO that Dapper Collectives will bring to life is “Brud DAO” the decentralization of Brud Inc. that will allow for the community of fans and creators to own the project and guide it alongside the Brud team. In the acquisition McFedries stated “Really, what we’re going to be doing is building tools for DAOs, storytellers, and creators to come and build out the future in web3 with us on the Flow blockchain.” ^[34]Wikipedia

The Brud team.

Being on the Brud team is where to be, I think.

I’m lost

I thought the future was the Jetson’s

My mind is kind of wore out. Reading about all this AI shit is very disturbing. Is it? Not really. It’s the same old story…human beings inventing shit. Now they’re inventing themselves. Any day now these Plastic Fantastic Beings will invent us.

Thanks Trevor!

I’ll be dead by then, so no big deal. I don’t want to think about it….I’m a tired old man.

But you know what?

I still got some energy. And if you asked me to invent a Plastic Fantastic Being?

I’d probably cook up somebody like this:

John Dillinger

With or without a plastic gun.