This is weird. So my wife and I have dinner on Wednesday. We light candles for Hanukah. We watch a little TV, endure the president's pathetic rant. About 10 p.m., I walk the dog.
Back at home, I go to post my photo of the four candles on the blog — I figure, this is a year to be Jewish a little more prominently. Show we're not afraid. I'm not afraid, anyway. Not yet.
I look at my photos, and there's the black and white photo above, the most recent photo. I didn't take it, didn't download it, don't know the person in the photo or how it got there.
I asked Prof. Google to explain. The possibilities ranged across the board. Shared by somebody with access. Hacked somehow. I had a hard time believing it was something done intentionally. What would be the point? A test? Next time it'll be something vile. The cops will bust in, and the incriminating evidence will be spattered across my phone.
Nah. That can't be. Maybe the photo was transmitted years ago and somehow, through some alignment of the planets, congealed on my phone. Strange stuff happens.
Several times in recent months, a random Facebook video was sent by me to my son. Only I didn't send it. This seems something like that. An artifact, a glitch. When you consider how pervasive these networks are, how omnipresent the phones, in our hands for hours, I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often. I am using an iPhone 12, and have been poised to get a new phone —the 16 or the 17, anybody notice a difference? They cost about the same.
Several times in recent months, a random Facebook video was sent by me to my son. Only I didn't send it. This seems something like that. An artifact, a glitch. When you consider how pervasive these networks are, how omnipresent the phones, in our hands for hours, I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often. I am using an iPhone 12, and have been poised to get a new phone —the 16 or the 17, anybody notice a difference? They cost about the same.
My wife urged me not to post the photo — it's not a kid we know, but someone's kid, unless it's an AI composite, and children should be kept offline as much as possible, lest their images be seized and put to unspeakable purposes. I made a pouty face, and she then suggested I do an image search, which I did. Turns out the photo was posted to X the day before I saw it, by the Paris Review, along with a quote from the poet Alice Oswald. A blip from a network I signed up for years ago but now seldom visit.
Oswald is an English poet of considerable renown. Of course I looked at her oeuvre, starting with "Severed head floating downriver," which seemed apt for this occasion. It begins:
It is said that after losing his wife, Orpheus was torn to
pieces by Maenads, who threw his head into the River
Hebron. The head went on singing and forgetting,
filling up with water and floating way.
And ends:
this is how the wind works hard at thinking
this is what speaks when no one speaks
I deleted the photo from my phone. But the unease lingers. These devices, they're cracks in our lives. Our light shines out, wanly and is largely ignored. Meanwhile, all sorts of stuff seeps in.
Do you have Norton or some other virus protection on your phone? Mine runs scans and - I think - keeps it safe from hackers.
ReplyDeleteTG : Nothing is safe from hackers. Nothing is untouched by corporate data mining. With Ai embedded on all devices including phones, on all apps, programs, etc. you're stripped of all privacy, marked and marketed.
DeleteFirst reaction: That was creepy.
ReplyDeleteWhy aren't you afraid? I'm a Jew, I live in the same municipality as you, and I'm afraid.
ReplyDeleteYour phone sounds like it's been hacked. Phones don't do this randomly.
ReplyDeleteamazing, creepy & scary!
ReplyDeleteand the church? is that st. volodymyrs on Oakley in Chicago ?
ReplyDeleteEverything you said after "Paris Review" reminded me of Wes Anderson's film "The French Dispatch." I don't know, Neil, these things seem to happen every day, these days. Are we to just delete and forget? Perhaps. However, most of us find it difficult to do.
ReplyDeleteLike those goofballs in the Westerns who didn't tote a gun, I don't tote a phone.
ReplyDeleteThis sort of thing is another of the reasons why. No apologies.
I'm glad you figured out where the photo came from. That's the kind of thing that would haunt me, otherwise. I've found unintentionally saved photos in my photo gallery on occasion. They are usually photos i looked at in a group chat, but occasionally they come from social media. I've always assumed i clicked on 'save' instead of 'close', or some such equivalent. The issue of videos being sent in your name without your consent or knowledge is more concerning/ frightening. The "unease" of that would linger with me, too.
ReplyDeleteAs for phone upgrades.... i dropped my iPhone 14 in a pond in May. It functioned but had glitches after it dried out. I was able to hold out until fall. My intention was to get the 16 because I expected it to be cheaper. I was surprised when that wasn't so. I traded in the old phone and got a 17. The carrier wanted the valuable metal from the old phone, and wanted to lock me into another contract so i wouldn't bail due to lousy customer service. For that, they were willing to replace the old phone "practically for free", but I wasn't allowed to pay the difference up front, and have the phone paid off. Instead, the phone is now 3% paid off - i get a charge and a matching credit on each bill. As for the phone itself, I'm not a fan of the "liquid glass" feature, but there are settings that reduce the effect. The camera is far better, but not sure how much better it is compared to a 16. Whichever phone you choose, the upgrade over the 12 will be worth it. Especially the security features. Sadly, the issues with the mobile phone carriers stay the same.
I have not read Oswald before. Thanks for the introduction to her work.
My first thought upon seeing that photo was that (given the events of the past week or so), you had popped up that widely seen photo of 1988 mass shooter Laurie Dann. Now we have Google to help with identifications... and there is a definite resemblance. Coincidentally, one of her surviving victims, Phil Andrew, is currently running for Congress on a platform of reducing gun violence. But I digress...
ReplyDeleteIMO, since you retain your phone for a while, get the newest. The differences between the 16 and 17 aren't huge, but there are some improvements and a year newer phone will be supported for that extra year on the back end.
ReplyDeleteSeemed to me that the photograph revealed an eagerness that was just barely restrained from leaping off the screen. But then it occurred to me that many many photos of children have that feature. Tying that to the Oswald poem, I can only mourn the passing of that quality from my own features, given that the Maenads have tossed my skull far down the water course, bobbing on the waves and grinning lasciviously.
ReplyDeletetate
Perhaps this kind of thing happens so often it’s not as big a coincidence as it feels like that you posted about your son receiving videos that only seemed to be from you, but last night I started wondering about some FB videos that a friend appears to be sending me.
ReplyDeleteThey’re some sort of animated art -- ai, almost certainly -- and to my mind slightly grotesque, but it’s nice to be thought of so when the first one came I responded with a bit more enthusiasm than I really felt. Then came another and another, and now we’re up to half a dozen. I’ve stopped replying since the sender says little or nothing, but it feels awkward to ask my friend if they’re really from her.
Aha! And you don't believe in aliens. This was definitely the work of intergalactic aliens carefully studying the inhabitants of Northbrook and their responses to random stimuli. 👽🛸😉
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of stray photos, I'm assuming the church atop the blog is just a nice photo you took recently that has nothing to do with the post. Could you please identify it for us, perchance?
Sure. Sts. Volodymyr and Olha Church, on West Chicago Ave. in Ukrainian Village. I walked past it going to the West Town Chamber of Commerce for a memorial exhibit for Tony Fitzpatrick and put it up, well, just 'cause.
DeleteThanks very much for that info and explanation, NS. I thought it looked familiar and our notes show that we visited that church during Open House Chicago in 2014. It was a swell photo!
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