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Yes, painfully. See, for example, Battle of Blair Mountain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain
"I read him McNamee's reply: "I buy the basic thesis. The US kept interest rates at near zero from 2009 to 2022. This encouraged business models that promised world-changing outcomes, even if they were completely unrealistic and/or hostile to the public interest (eg the gig economy, self-driving cars, crypto, metaverse, AI). This came at a time of no regulation of tech and an accepted culture in business that said ex…
Distorted interest rates touch everything. If we're going to pick a handful of things that low interest rates effected that basket is too varied. The gig economy is a major employer, the others are not. And AI isn't being pushed by low interest rates, it is being pushed by things like AlphaGo or ChatGPT being somewhat magical.
I feel more and more that those in power - the capitalists - have done a tremendous job of conditioning us from birth in the last 100+ years that capitalism is “the only way”.
Yet if you read a book like “Debt: the first 5000 years” by David Graeber, it put things into perspective. And there is so much more to read.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Distorted interest rates touch everything. If we're going to pick a handful of things that low interest rates effected that basket is too varied. The gig economy is a major employer, the others are not. And AI isn't being pushed by low interest rates, it is being pushed by things like AlphaGo or ChatGPT being somewhat magical.
...and where did the money for AlphaGo and ChatGPT come from again?
FTFA: "We’re now in servitude, Varoufakis argues, to the fiefdoms of our new global masters, Lord Zuckerberg of Facelandia and Sir Musk of the rotten borough of X."
tl;dr The working people live as interest serfs in an economy that has become impossible to afford for many. Meanwhile, enormously wealthy people have unchecked power over politics, technology, and public policy. These wealthy people can alter the workforce and fund movements according to their unrestrained and unscrupulous caprices.
Public policy in the US is in tatters (and is under heavy strain elsewhere), affordable lodging is a quaint hypothesis, and the current middle class cohort (i.e. anyone with what used to be a good salary) is trying to characterise its debt despair as temporary embarrassment.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Distorted interest rates touch everything. If we're going to pick a handful of things that low interest rates effected that basket is too varied. The gig economy is a major employer, the others are not. And AI isn't being pushed by low interest rates, it is being pushed by things like AlphaGo or ChatGPT being somewhat magical.
ChatGPT and friends look magical, but as yet no great revolution in working practices or whatever has occurred. So the excitement about AI is based on 'very large future promise', which is exactly the kind of thing that ultra low interest rates tend to pump.
I believe it’s a good thing if the HN crowd steps out of their bubble and inform themselves a bit more on topics of capitalism, socialism and communism. I feel more and more that those in power - the capitalists - have done a tremendous job of conditioning us from birth in the last 100+ years that capitalism is “the only way”. Yet if you read a book like “Debt: the first 5000 years” by David Graeber, it put things in…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
ChatGPT and friends look magical, but as yet no great revolution in working practices or whatever has occurred. So the excitement about AI is based on 'very large future promise', which is exactly the kind of thing that ultra low interest rates tend to pump.
I know a bunch of people who are very excited about AI and using it in a professional context. Their feelings are inspired by demonstrated and past performance, the future promise is so big that I don't think anyone can process it. I don't think they understand what exponential growth in processing power implies.
Sounds like a sentence that was taken from some pulpiteer's sermon when talking about god or afterlife. In other words: this promise is rather some nice fairy tale for some naive nerds and investors who love to believe in it.
> I don't think they understand what exponential growth in processing power implies.
This is very easy: for the data points (x_i, y_i), you can draw a decent straight line through the data transformed data points (x_i, log y_i). Thus: exponential growth is just some fancy term for "we do linear regression/linear Taylor approximation in this transformed space". I'm deeply impressed by such deep mathematics *sarc*.