John A.C. Hardin

Golf course builder, former pastor, Ph.D. nerd, author, amateur musician, dad, husband. Now exploring AI and creativity at @abundanceinst's Creative Frontiers.

[John A.C. Hardin @johnachardin]

Was it grit or a halftime system override? It reminds me of Brawn GP's legendary 2009 Formula 1 campaign. Some times you have to change the architecture, to change the game.

[John A.C. Hardin @johnachardin]

"There is no doubt that the right of publicity makes private censorship of popular meaning-making possible.

It creates an opportunity for celebrities (or their assignees) to suppress disfavored meanings and messages." - Michael Madow

[John A.C. Hardin @johnachardin]

@SMCEO2005 @bellaadinnda Amen, and the scarcity of the skill set/value contribution.

[John A.C. Hardin @johnachardin]

A new technology came along that absolutely changed everything about music. Folks worried that it was poisoning the art. But one artist took hold of it, wrote to it, and pioneered a new sound.

[John A.C. Hardin @johnachardin]

It all started when Samuel Warren got sick of the 1880s paparazzi bugging his family. He proposed a legal right to privacy, to keep your image from being property. Instead, we got that your image is property, and now the deepest pockets might one day own you, even after your dead

[John A.C. Hardin @johnachardin]

Warren & Brandeis wanted protection from instant photography and sensational journalism. They sought a right to privacy because your likeness isn't property, it's not commercial.
We got protection, but as property; it's commercial. Now you can own you, but so can someone else.

[Abundance Institute @abundanceinst]

Like Warren and Brandeis over 135 years ago, many are worried about what this means for your ability to protect against the unauthorized fabrication and distribution of... you
@johnachardin

[John A.C. Hardin @johnachardin]

The right to control your likeness in American law was born in a court case between two bubblegum companies.

That's the founding moment of the "right of publicity."

Not a violation of human dignity. A contract dispute over Topps cards (but not that tasty plank of gum 🤣)

[John A.C. Hardin @johnachardin]

Look no further than the AFM's recent lawsuit against Warner and Universal to spot where this flip occurred.

[Stand Together @StandTogether]

Every time a new technology entered music, the industry called it a menace. @abundanceinst Senior Fellow @johnachardin says the pattern reveals less about protecting art than about protecting who controls access to it.

[John A.C. Hardin @johnachardin]

@AdamThierer Yes, yes! There are so many historic examples of this going off the rails, that I'm truly baffled by the idea. It was hard for me to pick just one to reference, but I went with the RFC. 🫣

[John A.C. Hardin @johnachardin]

This reminded me of my great great grandfather, John Gary Anderson. He built wagons during the Civil War, then created a buggy company, then shut it down and built the only car manufacturing company ever in the South, Anderson Motors. He kept evolving with the tools.

[BungJawstin @BungJawstin]

Todd on AI

[John A.C. Hardin @johnachardin]

The Bernie Sanders AI fund really has me scratching my head. Would love to learn more on how this could work given government's track record of owning a stake in businesses. What am I missing? @abundanceinst

[John A.C. Hardin @johnachardin]

Doesn't history show that Sanders' solution doesn't work? The RFC became corrupt, Britain's ownership of coal, steel and rail paralyzed the industries, ARAMCO serves political needs. It's not the people that own it, its the government officials, right?
https://t.co/I9RgHNmbcQ

[John A.C. Hardin @johnachardin]

He beat massive global studios with old gear: • Buried tape in the dirt for natural grit • Buried mics to trap the heavy bass • Treated his gear like a living organism.
And forged the modern reggae sound & Dub music. Don't wait for the perfect tools, build with what you have.

[John A.C. Hardin @johnachardin]

Before Cher, AutoTune was just a day in the studio. Publicly, it wasn't discussed.
Like Nanna's "from scratch" sauce... with a suspicious number of empty jars in the pantry.
Everyone uses the shortcut. No one admits it. That's a collective illusion, and it's AI in music today.

[John A.C. Hardin @johnachardin]

King Louis XVI got fed up with Franklin's face on everything (so he put it in a toilet), but Franklin never minded. 🤣

[Abundance Institute @abundanceinst]

Benjamin Franklin's face was painted on dishes, etched into clocks, glazed onto vases, and stitched on clothing. As he wrote to his daughter, “your father’s face [is] as well known as the moon.” 

And he didn't sue anyone. The very idea of owning his face would have struck him as bizarre.

Then technology changed. @johnachardin

[John A.C. Hardin @johnachardin]

Before the Kodak camera, famous folks didn't mind you capturing their face. But George Eastman's leather-wrapped box kicked off the pursuit of a right to privacy that we're still debating today in the age of A.I.

[John A.C. Hardin @johnachardin]

Every tech innovation provokes the same responses: economic pain, status anxiety, and moral urgency.
Before writing a regulation, it's worth getting clear on which one is actually doing the work.
A 15th century monk trying to ban the printing press left us a blueprint for today.

[John A.C. Hardin @johnachardin]

Every tool in a modern recording studio was once accused of destroying the "soul" of music. In 1925, the microphone was a "fake" cheat code.

[John A.C. Hardin @johnachardin]

In 1474, Filippo de Strata warned that the printing press let people buy expertise. For a small sum, "doctors" could be made in three years.
Weekend masterclasses. MOOCs. Wikipedia. Substack. YouTube. X. AI.
The gate gets wider. We don't need locks just solid measures of mastery.

[John A.C. Hardin @johnachardin]

@abundanceinst Louis XVI gave a female courtier a chamber pot with Franklin's face inside, because he was so fed up with all the admiration for the American.