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Why do people hate the tech industry? (2023)

sevarg.net

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Re: Why do people hate the tech industry? (2023)

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You read obvious sarcasm as earnest. And you didn’t answer a question I asked. And you just hurled some insults.

“people who have good jobs and high status want to _conserve_ it and not lose position - tech industry keeps threatening the status quo again and again” I did answer your question. Are you saying the above quote is sarcasm? You asked why I highlighted techs impact on the upper middle class. It’s because you singled them out as the primary opponents of tech multiple times. I didn’t use any insults at all. Where are yo…

> It’s not a compliment that it was so easy for me to recognize you as a reader of his. You should learn how to think for yourself.

..

Re: Why do people hate the tech industry? (2023)

#113
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. It's just that capitalism produces immense concentrations of wealth as a core feature of the system.

Sure, so did the Roman Republic and Pharonic Egypt and Imperial China and Communist China So you're going to need a more accurate diagnosis than simply capitalism

I have to tighten your earlier point a bit first: it is not just absolute concentration of wealth that causes this, it is high levels of inequality, e.g. lots of people in misery with a few folks that have ridiculous riches.

I'm pretty sure the commoners (and even more so, the slaves!) in Rome, Egypt or Imperial China didn't love the system either.

However, I think the average modern-day, communist Chinese person has seen such a rise in standards of living (one billion people pulled out from poverty!) that they don't really hate the system despite there also being high wealth concentration amongst party and business elites.

The gap is the problem, not the peak.

Re: Why do people hate the tech industry? (2023)

#114
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a weirdly optimistic view of technology. Specially the comparison to homophobia and racism. Yes, tech has solved people's basic but real needs for communication, banking, entertainment, etc. Then after a certain level, without aggressive dark patterns, people's needs for tech were basically met. No one needed social media, we needed social networks . No one needed inescapable "algorithms"¹ besides the ones try…

I personally love social media because it brings different cultures together. Infinity immigration has been tried but not in a nice way. Next best thing is social media - bringing cultures together in a marketplace and having ideas beat eachother is important for a civilisation. Without social media you would have corners of culture getting stuck on whatever ideas they had from 2000 years ago. With social media these…

That's fine, if that's your choice. Reddit was awesome at first because it was a hot pot of cultures. But we lost that control. You don't see what you want unless you fight hard against the algo.

Re: Why do people hate the tech industry? (2023)

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“people who have good jobs and high status want to _conserve_ it and not lose position - tech industry keeps threatening the status quo again and again” I did answer your question. Are you saying the above quote is sarcasm? You asked why I highlighted techs impact on the upper middle class. It’s because you singled them out as the primary opponents of tech multiple times. I didn’t use any insults at all. Where are yo…

> It’s not a compliment that it was so easy for me to recognize you as a reader of his. You should learn how to think for yourself. ..

Let’s just say I’m delivering the message with the same level care and thoughtfulness that neoliberals exemplify when they defend genocide.

Have a good day. Or don’t. I really don’t care.

Re: Why do people hate the tech industry? (2023)

#116

With all the money floating around in tech you'd think PR would be solveable. But you still have AI founders going out in public and saying they want to get rid of jobs instead of some pitch about how easy work will get or you'll be happier or etc. Why?

sociopaths talking to other sociopaths.

they're not pitching to the average person, they're talking to C-levels, private equity, other ruthless billionaires, etc.

and when you have a solution that will eliminate the workers, why do you care about lying to the workers? instead of being lambasted about being blunt and evil you'll be lambasted about being duplicitous and evil

Re: Why do people hate the tech industry? (2023)

#117
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think when you couple extreme wealth inequality with extreme mis-allocation of capital (aka societal energy) with no buy in from the population, you (the Stanford educated elite - not you specifically) run the risk of getting your fucking head chopped off.

Sure, of course. I'm trying to draw a distinction between disagreement and hate. I'm not trying to eliminate either one.

i can disagree with my friend's opinion about if a cake is tasty.

i can disagree with my neighbor's opinion that his wife is pretty or his kids are smart.

i hate entrenched capital that is trying to obliterate my ability to work, and which will leave me to starve, and which is very, very blunt about how little they care about us.

Re: Why do people hate the tech industry? (2023)

#118
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? Because their messaging is not addressing the general public, but their investors. And they've realized that their investors are really receptive to panic-baiting (we'll get rid of jobs, ASI is right around the corner, p(doom) = 25% etc).

This doesn't answer GPs question, though: Why is a panic-baiting "we'll get rid of jobs" better than some gain-baiting "we'll make your workforce 10x more productive"? Why is panic a better response to investors than gain? We got: - A : "AI helps in automating tedious tasks" - B : "Your workforce can be more motivated and productive" - C : "You can do more with fewer people" Why not advertise A → B , stop there and l…

Panic just makes it sound more real, I think. They were saying stuff like "Eek, our technology is TOO dangerous and advanced and we need to be regulated :-O" when they definitely didn't actually want to be regulated. ("They" meaning at least Sam Altman).

"Your workforce will be more productive" sounds much less impressive than "OMG you will literally not need employees anymore!! 10x profits!!"

Re: Why do people hate the tech industry? (2023)

#119

In my opinion tech used to be fun and we used to create products that actually empower people. Think MySpace, early-days Facebook, Soundcloud, Ableton Live etc. They exist to empower the masses to connect and to create. Today the business model has made every products and contents to be enshittified. We've optimised for the wrong thing and not only the common people hate the tech industry. Even I no longer feels the…

When it comes to empowering, I am not sure much beats Excel. It lets non techy people codify amazing things and get real work done.

excel runs the world

Re: Why do people hate the tech industry? (2023)

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YouTube empowers millions of creators around the world. It's more about the fact that at a sufficiently large scale any platform faces the same issues. Some creators are terrible without breaking the rules, people argue, etc.

> YouTube empowers millions of creators around the world. Agree. But it empowers them to vie for attention in mostly the worst ways possible and, overwhelmingly, has led to a lot of bad content. There's some gems too. But, by and large, YouTube is less desirable for me to use than it was 10 years ago and I think it's because of the transformation into an industry, rather than an indie platform that also paid out. It…

empowers them to create slop clickbate shit

yeah there are some truly great creators but they're drowned out in the sea of piss that is the generic YT algo

AI is now taking those jobs, which I'm not sure if it is better or worse

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