This very very cute stuffed anthropomorphic computer is called Colby. This particular version (bis) is a rendition by hyperreal AI artist Prognoz Pogodi, using an array of mysterious AI tools including ElevenLabs and Kaiber Superstudio. There is an incredibly comprehensive overview of Pogodi's previous social media activity and artistic endeavours by Shel Raphen. I will be referring to this text extensively so I recommend a short skim before continuing. The objective of this article is to first provide a review and (mostly positive) critique on Prognoz Pogodi's more recent work. The second concerns the future of art in a world of hyperreality and simulacra.

Colby's full name is Colby the Computer. Colby is the - titular - mascot of the 1990s cheesy Christian TV show Colby's Clubhouse. As per Wikipedia, Colby has the entirety of the Bible "programmed" into his memory.

Pogodi usually takes videos - recipes, farm life hacks, etc. - from various sources, TikTok or Xiaohongshu, and extracts the script of said video. If the original video is in chinese, then they translate the script into english. I suspect and agree with Raphen that Pogodi tampers with these a little to make them seem more spontaneous and rile. They then have these fun characters recite the script, Colby, Gerbert, Dasha, Steve Harvey, and other characters from Cummiverse bits. On top of the video you will find captions for what they are saying in chinese. These videos are all parts of a compilation called the Prevue Guide Channel. I am particularly interested in reviewing a subset of videos from this collection. My girlfriend loves to tell me that great artists steal all the time. She has the Steal Like An Artist book and we once tried an unsucceful poetic exercise by taking song lyrics as verses. I have always thought this to be good practice. All of art is self referential - think of intertextual literature for instance, Ulysses, Borges, The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye, etc - and to create is to reinvent what has already been created with the lense of contemporary context. Jonathan Lethem writes The kernel, the soul — let us go further and say the substance, the bulk, the actual and valuable material of all human utterances — is plagiarism. This phrase is taken from a Mark Twain letter to Hellen Keller. And yet, its meaning is transformed into something else: a different purpose. Most of Prognoz Pogodi's scripts are stolen word for word. The videos that Pogodi uses as reference usually involve grand conspiracies or esoteric awekenings. and prognoz as the musivc artist. jarring but beautiful. by believing -commenters video will cause psychosis they are diagnosing retroactively psychosis in a society were these are original thoughts from the people who posted the originals, and widely exposed. Idea of socialism is perfect competition in contemporary discourse. Symbol over meaning e.g hypercontrarians, clearly dasha 4 trump bc of the image and not idea. Society of symbols bc of how fast content is created -> rate of consumption goes up -> image is processed instantly and defined a cultural moment, over any text or music or video that require attention and discernment. Double steal: idea that red scar is psyop -> prognoz being doing schizo content all their life -> retroactive steal by making videos that present themselves as psyop.

Leftist symbols + Nword video + behind the scenes video. Who is Prognoz? i24 news reddit account Anthony Morrison, who seems to be the spiritual grandfather of figures like Gary Vaynerchuk or Tai Lopez, who themselves influenced the likes of Andrew Tate. How similar are these people to the dirtbag left podcasts? There is no intuitive resemblance.

What happens to reality when the symbols it worships do not have a referential origin? Baudrillard describes hyperreality as a meticulous replication of the real, through reproductive medium. For instance, I am more enamored with the pictures and videos and portrayals of x celebrity than the person themself. What AI presents in text or audiovisual outputs is not reproductive but transformative This picture is not a picture of Colby the costume from the TV show. It is a picture of Colby, the animated product of a prompt by Pogodi, edited to perfection over different backgrounds. C’est désormais la carte qui précède le territoire.

The artist is not the one who creates the work.

Public perception is negative. Drake CLB, kdiddy, being attributed revolutionary ideas. GOATS are commerciable but do it again, so not dance monkey but yes tay swift. Losers whose biggest achivement is a 1.9k thousand reddit comment on r/aviation talking about quality over quantity as if they have a single clue. prognoz genius by making it all about the image. art reflects society, its not about the nic emusic, or the content (bc if it was wed just watch og videos) its about the image on top. Contrarianism appears in culture especially in rebellious youth -> gen Z hates sex and is super puritan while still believing themselves to be against their elders bigotry -> against boomers + against the image of woke millennials creates a cultural oxymoron that mirrors the capitalist condition: ie it is both true that is not immoral to eat an animal vs it is immoral that meat factories exists (waste and poor allocation). Pogodi regularly interacts with followers in the comments, thus not only presenting an image to society, but allowing it to become real within the walls of the viewer's mind. We are all invited to participate, we are all friends of Colby and Gerbert and by taking the other's words, we are in a sense talking back to the self in communion.