Sun and AI readings in June: life updates

They were forecasting rain today, but instead, it’s bright sunshine and hot in my corner of the city. Yessssss, pure happiness! So I’m taking advantage of my backyard and the sun to recharge my batteries and my mood, which has been on a downward slope lately. The flood of bad news, both local and international, plus the circus that is American politics these days (Trump and Musk finally bickering like an old married couple live on social media), is just depressing. It makes me want to hole up in the depths of some forest, far from people and the hypercapitalist performance society we live in. I’m so exhausted by the frantic race toward mass consumption, and fed up with living in this era of hypernormalization of the capitalist system. As we say in good Québécois: I’m fed up, damn it!

On another note, I’m reading two books these days. Two books about artificial intelligence and its impact on our world: “The AI Con,” which just came out; and “Le Capital Algorithmique” (Algorithmic Capital), a book gathering studies and critical analyses on the movement that’s catastrophically accelerating our technological usage, both environmentally and in how we work. I’ll probably come back to review both these books here when I’ve finished reading them. I have two weeks to finish them before my summer university session starts, where I’ll have mandatory readings for my course.

Speaking of school, which ends this month for my daughter Nano, I’m starting the academic adventure again! I’ve been accepted into the communications bachelor’s program at TELUQ, so distance learning. I’m going to spend my next few years studying part-time in a field related to my current work. You can’t imagine how excited I am to go back to school…! I’m having a little euphoria moment about this right now 🙂 So, with this back-to-school project, plus handling communications for Hackfest, plus work, my next few years are going to be pretty darn busy 🙂

With that, I’m heading back to enjoy my sunny terrace, savoring my coffee and reading my book peacefully while my cats run around everywhere in the yard. For once we have a sunny weekend after such a long time…!