How the Adult Film Industry Helped Shape Technology as We Know It

Sex sells, but it also inspires: How the adult film industry shaped the tech landscape we know and love.

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Ok - here we go... a walk down memory lane and talk about the good old days of VHS and dial-up internet and porn. 

The adult film industry played a significant role in shaping the technology we use today. From the format wars to online streaming, porn was at the forefront of innovation. 

Today, as we enter the age of AI-based personal assistants, I'm left wondering: how will porn drive the evolution and standards? How'd porn impact tech in the past, and what it could mean for the future of AI.

First, we've been here before.  No matter how evolved one might think the human race is, base desires still drive progress in all things.  There's a coined phrase, "erotic technology impulse".  

John Tierney, a fellow at Columbia University studied the cultural impact of technology, traced the “erotic technological impulse” back at least 27,000 years—among the first clay-fired figures uncovered from that time were women with enhanced body parts. 

“Sometimes the erotic has been a force driving technological innovation,” Tierney wrote in The New York Times in 1994, “virtually always, from Stone Age sculpture to computer bulletin boards, it has been one of the first uses for a new medium.”

Fascinating.

AI-Powered Einstein is Revolutionizing Salesforce: Is This the End of CRMs?

Say goodbye to pushy salespeople and hello to AI.

From the articles, Salesforce not ready to unleash generative AI on its customers, Salesforce hits the hyper-space button on AI with Einstein GPT, Salesforce to add ChatGPT to Slack as part of OpenAI partnership, Salesforce’s Einstein GPT soldiers up in the AI arms race, Salesforce Announces Einstein GPT, the World’s First Generative AI for CRM

Executive Summary:

1. Salesforce's new Einstein GPT AI tool aims to reduce the amount of time required to sell and provide more personalized content for customers.
2. AI is changing the sales landscape by liberating buyers from pushy salespeople and allowing them to make informed decisions.
3. The integration of AI in sales will revolutionize the industry and lead to more efficient and satisfying experiences for both buyers and sellers.

My Impressions: CRM platforms such as Salesforce are being eliminated; So too, are selling professionals.

#Microsoft, #Meta, #Alphabet, #Salesforce, and more are gazing into the Last Event Horizon and they are scared.

Think about it: Artificial Intelligence manipulates data through processes applying algorithms, presenting information based on the processes and calculations. (An overly simplistic description)

• Everything we do in sales is a process.
• Everything we do in purchasing is a process.
• AI optimizes our processes by comparing them to every other similar process that has ever happened in history.

We have slipped the event horizon. Quicking a secular metamorphosis of the sales industry by leveraging data and analytics to provide customers with personalized recommendations and insights, while also optimizing providers' workflows and processes. This eliminates the non-productive and emotionally influential forces in the selling process, replacing the need for traditional salespeople with a direct communication channel between the prospect's AI system and the provider's AI system. (See Ecosystem)

AI is not just a tool or software solution anymore; it's eating all other forms of software and solutions.

From copiers to 7th-generation jet fighters, whatever requirement, including variables from pricing to retirement, the right solution is presented through this streamlined and efficient process. 

In this new landscape, the role of salespeople will be eliminated because 'my AI talks with your AI' and good things happen.

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New York City's Decline: Work From Anywhere, Enjoy The Pot

The only green New York City needs is in its parks, not in its pipes.

Executive Brief:

• The smell of marijuana is ubiquitous in New York City, and Mayor Eric Adams' support for the burgeoning marijuana industry is a mistake, according to Jason De Sena Trennert.
• Encouraging behavior that is antithetical to family and capital formation is not the way to save cities.
• Ignoring quality-of-life issues could drive people out of the city and cause economic disaster.

"Given that New York City’s economy depends on four million commuters and remote work is increasingly feasible, ignoring quality-of-life issues could cause economic disaster by driving people out of the city. That would be unfortunate for a town that prides itself on being the center of global finance."

Look to Detroit and see your future, without the "Devil's Lettuce"

New York considers itself the center of the financial world - but in a world scrambling away from the center of everything - office center, shopping center, data center - what is left to attract people to 'Bite the Big Apple, Don't Mind the Maggots"?  Apparently, Tumble Weed.

I'm not saying that the aroma of good bud is keeping workers away from the office - I'm just observing another dimension in the work from anywhere world.  Lots of people in New York City are sampling the Emerald Triangle instead of Starbucks on their way into the cube farms of "Metropolis".

Jus sayin...

Technology and enlightenment have magnified all that is best and everything that is repugnant in business, city living, all levels of politics, and relationships.

Is the advent of more liberal laws simply one more reason to flee or is it a result of the work-from-anywhere movement and evacuated urban areas?  

New York City will always be 'something'. Just not sure what. 

AI Kills Everything - March 2023

My List of what AI and the Illumination of Working from Anywhere Will
Kill -

How Your Personality Determines If You Can Work Remotely

Matching personality traits to hybrid work arrangements can optimize employee performance, resulting in a win-win for all involved.

Article in Psychology Today, How Your Personality Determines If You Can Work Remotely

Summary:

1. Many employees excel in hybrid or fully remote work settings, while others struggle to work effectively outside the office, even with the same home office arrangements.
2. Personality differences are an important driver of performance differences in remote work settings, frustrating managers who end up developing mistrust of employee productivity.
3. Matching hybrid work arrangements to relevant personality traits can optimize employee performance, resulting in a win-win for everyone involved.

Impressions:

The first thoughts through my mind were, "Great.  Another psyco-bable, piece from the lofty, high faluting, intelligentia.

I was mostly correct. The article is one of many attempting to explain how the corporate world continues on the status quo, central command, and control model:

1. Separate and Isolate
2. Frighten
3. Provide refuge

This article clearly falls in the "Separate and Isolate" category.  Perhaps the best way to illustrate this is through music:

"...secret destroyers hold you out to the flames..."

Enjoy this GPT-Assisted piece:

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Salesforce Goes on a Diet: Slimming Down Teams for a Fitter, More Profitable Future

Who knew software companies could have beach bodies too?

Quick:

Salesforce, the pioneer of cloud-based business software, is shifting its focus to increasing profitability. The company is taking steps to reduce costs and improve efficiency by streamlining sales teams, integrating acquired companies, and relying more on self-serve tools to bring in new customers. 

Translation, layoffs, and reduced expense accounts.

The shift towards greater efficiency and profitability represents a significant departure from Salesforce's previous focus on big marketing spending and a flood-the-zone approach to interacting with customers. 

What Color is Your Loofa? - The Seven Colors of Asking (Prompting) Intelligently

Swimming in AI

A plethora of pleasures

Journey to the edge

Bing, ChatGPT, Watson...whatever. Like the days of Beta v VHS, there will be a standard, one day.  For now, it's time to swim within all the options, the lake of AI - feeding on what each has to offer.  

One Day there will be only one or two standard AI offerings, indeed, soon we'll have the option of employing our individual, unique, and personalized AI - like a Toy.  But for now, let's enjoy the plethora of pleasures through discovery.

The first step is learning how to ask; which is just as important as 'what' to ask. We interface with AI with more than questions, we use 'prompts'. 

In AI, a prompt is an input given to a language model to generate text, providing context and direction for the output, and its use has become a topic of ethical concern.