A worthy reminder in the era of Big Tech that domination can take the form of manufacturing dependence. And once that dependence has been consolidated, re-establishing autonomy and sovereignty can be a nearly impossible task: it took China a century to recover from the effects of the Opium Wars

The other remarkable bit in today’s context is the way in which dependence on opium structured a relationship of domination, and eventually humiliation, between the West and India/China.

What’s heartbreaking is the portrayal of Canton as a brief moment of heterotopia, where people, languages, and cultures from across the Indian Ocean and the West have come to an uneasy and fragile balance — albeit one that will soon be tipped over by the forces of opium, colonialism, and war

Lots of great moments thus far, but a standout is when artist Robin contemplates the staggering singularity of Guangzhou, only to be rebuked by a merchant who points out the historic temple of Guanyin, another Buddhist temple, and a mosque - it's globalisation all the way down!

True story: I used to cringe when reading a blogpost or news article with obvious grammatical or linguistic errors. Now, I heave a sigh of relief when I spot them, because I know it means someone actually cared to think through the piece and craft their thoughts into expression

"The stakes aren’t just about preserving linguistic diversity — they’re about protecting the imperfections that actually build trust."

The printing press standardised language and slowed down the speed at which written language evolved over time; LLMs could either homogenise language to a greater extent, or prompt a counter-movement of intentional language muckery and play
www.dictionary.com/e/printing-p...

Part of me wonders if the only way around the distrust that AI use - or the suspicion of AI use - engenders, is for writers and artists to begin messing with and innovating their use of language in a way that outpaces LLM evolution.