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6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

joanwestenberg.com

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Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#21

Post by bluefirebrand »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #11
tmpz22 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technology innovation's highest priority has always been to move money from the middle class to the ownership class. Why so many people assume altruistic outcomes is beyond me. Why so many people see any other outcome of OpenAI then increased income inequality is beyond me.

That's pretty demonstrably not true, historically. The explosion of the middle class of the 20th century was because technology still required a huge amount of labor, but it increased productivity to the point where that labor could live much more comfortably on their wages.

Productivity has been increasing even more rapidly, but the middle class is collapsing, so I'm skeptical that these two things are very strongly related

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#22

Post by roenxi »

zdragnar wrote: post #13
XorNot wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes." Except this quote is just...internet clickbait. As though technological development is a straight line with easily predictable outcomes. Hell it's even engaging in a bait and switch argument: "I want to art and writing" -> well, AI isn't stopping you from doing those…

Nothing about the quote is related to gainful employment or monetary transaction. It is entirely about the prospect of technology serving people by freeing their time from chores to pursue luxury activities. Instead of that expectation, the reality of technological advancement that AI has given us so far has been to do those pursuits of pleasure for us, while we still have to do mundane, unfulfilling chores in our da…

Something can be a joke and still be worth taking seriously. In this case, the joke is misleading on an important topic - the existence of AI changes economic realities but has no bearing on how humans spend their leisure time, or how much of that leisure time they have. In fact, it probably will increase the amount of leisure time available on net since it is freeing us up as a species from needing to do a bunch of artistic and creative chores.

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#23

Post by roenxi »

daseiner1 wrote: post #17
XorNot wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're on a website of software developers. Our entire job description is to eliminate white collar work. Not a lot of secretaries and typists anymore. Less and less classic sysadmins as well.

Not entirely clear to me how that’s relevant. I merely disagree with valorization of menial work and the people who do it.

> I merely disagree with valorization of menial work and the people who do it.

With you all the way on wiping out menial work; if we can automate it away that is a win for all of us. But do be careful when talking about the people who do it - they're generally wonderful and making very real and measurable contributions to the wellbeing of everyone else. They deserve a bit of valorization. Not saints, but but certainly up there on the scale of people putting in a good effort.

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#24

Post by extr »

This person acts like they were disseminating propaganda for the reich. I get that doing corporate PR probably feels very cynical in general but coaching founders not to fumble the bag in an interview or writing blog posts about funding rounds are on the lesser evils side I think. Who is the victim of manipulation there? VCs? Lol

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#26

Post by ElFitz »

shrimp_emoji wrote: post #14
daseiner1 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If wanting to reduce menial tasks in my life is classist, then sign me up.

Girl, same. I am never going to the grocery store again. Thank god for the economic underclass willing to do delivery. They're like the plankton of the economic ecosystem. Without them, it all falls apart. Sad but necessary. But, as karma, delivery will eventually be the only job left for all of us, until we get deep enough into Moravec's paradox for that to eventually be automated too.

> delivery will eventually be the only job left for all of us

Reminds me of Death Stranding, aka "FedEx Simulator". The game also mentioned the topic of automation a few times.

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#27

Post by Arainach »

monero-xmr wrote: post #18

If you are grounded in religious faith, your whole life won’t revolve around whatever your job is. The author seems very intertwined with his job and the output. I’m not saying you shouldn’t analyze the meaning of your work, but he seems fairly un-anchored

Belief in a higher power is not a substitute for finding goodness in what you do.

I agree - with rose tinted glasses, there was a period that lasted all the way to shortly after the release of the iPhone where it was reasonable to be (and much of society was) excited about the possibilities of technology.

Those times are dead. Financial engineering and the monetization of every piece of user data, ever flat surface, every eyeball, from birth to death have left me a sad husk sitting in a chair typing for a paycheck. My solace has been the kind of creative activities now undermined by generative AI.

So many great artists got their start at the entry level - whether as a mall portrait photographer, an understudy at a newspaper, or what not. With those roles killed by AI, where will innovation or even passion come from?

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#28

Post by fiatpandas »

extr wrote: post #24

This person acts like they were disseminating propaganda for the reich. I get that doing corporate PR probably feels very cynical in general but coaching founders not to fumble the bag in an interview or writing blog posts about funding rounds are on the lesser evils side I think. Who is the victim of manipulation there? VCs? Lol

> Who is the victim of manipulation there

Sometimes your own soul becomes the victim that affects you the most.

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#29

Post by dfedbeef »

monero-xmr wrote: post #18

If you are grounded in religious faith, your whole life won’t revolve around whatever your job is. The author seems very intertwined with his job and the output. I’m not saying you shouldn’t analyze the meaning of your work, but he seems fairly un-anchored

Pretty sure this is a she/her situation.

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#30

Post by atoav »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #3

While this author is of a younger generation, this really resonated with me as a Gen Xer. I feel there is so much disillusionment among folks that came of age during the 90s because there was so much techno optimism then, and it didn't quite turn out like we envisioned. Two things made me think about this recently: 1. I saw a Reddit post that was titled something like "The 90s were peak humanity. Enough tech to make…

Tech is now a mercenary in the battle for people's attention and/or a fraction of their monthly money.

The number of people in tech grew in absolute terms. That also means the fraction of people giving back to open source also grows and we are getting better open source software. Many however don't give back, they just take.

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