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I would rather see my books get pirated than this

janefriedman.com

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Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#431

Post by wpietri »

hsbauauvhabzb wrote: post #138
wpietri wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, my big concern about LLMs is not Skynet or a zillion people out of work. It's that the spammers and their ilk are now vastly more capable. The fact that generative LLMs are glib bullshit machines is a problem for most sane uses, but a plus for people who don't give two shits about the truth as long as they've got a chance of making some money.

This, but also in the professional space. My coworkers much be 200% faster now, but I’m going to spend 80% of my time unfucking their work.

Yup. And this has always been a problem in software. Too many people treat a team sport as a bunch of individuals running around on the field doing their own thing. But I think it's going to get worse because of the way LLMs differentially amplify the least competent.

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#433

Post by thisismyhna »

Nevermark wrote: post #125

A textbook I coauthored was translated into Chinese, Korean, and some other languages and published. Without any contract or compensation for me and my co-authors. We were delighted! :)

Would add that to my resume, "Authored textbook available in these languages..."

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#434

Post by neycoda »

nomat wrote: post #44

I think this is the future of computers for people. they will open their phone and say "hey siri get this book or computer or car" and the browser will show them a bunch of made up products generated by an AI and they'll get the product drop shipped from china and it'll be a shitty counterfeit just like the $5 256GB USB drives. But they won't know because when you look for reviews, the review websites will also be ge…

Nobody's expecting perfect but humans' definition of good enough typically isn't.

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#435

Post by JohnFen »

opportune wrote: post #66
nomat wrote: post #44

I think this is the future of computers for people. they will open their phone and say "hey siri get this book or computer or car" and the browser will show them a bunch of made up products generated by an AI and they'll get the product drop shipped from china and it'll be a shitty counterfeit just like the $5 256GB USB drives. But they won't know because when you look for reviews, the review websites will also be ge…

Yeah, until someone creates a website that just ships the products they say they have, and people type in the URL for the site directly and shop there? If online shopping were truly such a terribly scammy UX in 100% of cases people would stop using it or shift to shopping from trusted sellers who recognize the tremendous amount of value they can capture by not scamming people.

> If online shopping were truly such a terribly scammy UX in 100% of cases people would stop using it

Some people have. This is one of the main reasons why I stopped using Amazon years ago.

But lots of people won't. If people were that rational, then the thousands of straight-up obvious and traditional scams perpetrated every day wouldn't still work.

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#436

Post by JohnFen »

bunga-bunga wrote: post #395
bobboies wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the trouble is these market places allowing third party vendors on there (obviously). All you need is a system to authenticate reputable sellers. Instead of looking at the stars on a product and clicking “buy now,” folks just need so ask: do I know this seller? Is this the ACTUAL publisher selling me this book? I’d rather go into a real shop anyway. Unless it’s buying some hard-to-find item there’s no excuse.

> I’d rather go into a real shop anyway You’re assuming that scams don’t make their way into regular distributors as they try to cut corners and maintain competitiveness. You already see established brands lower the quality of their products after the first round of reviews online. If found out, they just blame manufacturing. Sorry.

True, but it's much less of a problem in physical shops. You can actually examine the merchandise. You know that the item you're paying for is literally the item that you're getting. You're dealing with the shop face-to-face, which reduces a lot of the more brazen scams. And if you have a problem, the shop is likely to do something to fix it -- and if they don't, you have realistic legal options.

In most ways, buying from a brick-and-mortar establishment is a better choice than buying online.

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#437

Post by Workaccount2 »

red-iron-pine wrote: post #385
nomat wrote: post #44

I think this is the future of computers for people. they will open their phone and say "hey siri get this book or computer or car" and the browser will show them a bunch of made up products generated by an AI and they'll get the product drop shipped from china and it'll be a shitty counterfeit just like the $5 256GB USB drives. But they won't know because when you look for reviews, the review websites will also be ge…

> But they won't know because when you look for reviews, the review websites will also be generated just for you, filled with AI-made reviews and users. The entire internet will just be a computer that guesses what you want and shows you its best guess as the truth. a little matrix-y. dead internet theory -- the idea that the internet will eventually be mostly or entirely bots talking to bots https://en.wikipedia.org…

It tickles me that somewhere out there on some forgotten instance in a dark corner of some massive data center, there is a #IndieMovies chat channel still running on some long forgotten college kid weekend project, and in that are two early gen chat bots that have been going back and forth for over a decade now, and will continue to for the next 20 years.

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#438

Post by phpisthebest »

wombat-man wrote: post #415
sneak wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not less time, however. It's easier and cheaper to buy all of the top 5 spatulas on amazon (and throw 4 away) than to drive to a strip mall and find parking.

Lol, sure. Personally I don't like dealing with online returns and I dislike the idea of buying things just to immediately throw them in the garbage. I'm picking an item I plan to use regularly, I want to see it irl and know what I'm getting. Also, I am not trying to hyper optimize my use of time, but rather I find the experience of huge selection, fake reviews mixed with sponsored listings to be very unpleasant. I h…

I try to optimize my happiness, and not talking to people in person makes me happy

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#439

Post by [deleted] »

interestica wrote: post #136
Fricken wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might be why physical bookstores are making a comeback. Trustworthy curation is essential, and worth paying a premium for. This has always been the case, but maybe not fully appreciated.

This has been why I've started to really like Costco -- they're essentially acting as product curators (and back it up with a generous return policy.)

[deleted]

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#440

Post by JohnFen »

hsbauauvhabzb wrote: post #140
hsbauauvhabzb wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This, but also in the professional space. My coworkers much be 200% faster now, but I’m going to spend 80% of my time unfucking their work.

But also good luck next time you google health symptoms - sure it’s bad, but everybody does it, and we’re going to move further and further away from accurate.

Not everyone does it. I don't, because doing that is not only pretty worthless, but can be hazardous.
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