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Why do people hate the tech industry? (2023)

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

#161

Post by glaslong »

Planktonne wrote: post #33

People hate the tech industry because it has negative effects on their lives, and these effects are deliberate rather than incidental. There are, of course, some good people/companies/projects in the tech industry, but think about the overall impression of the industry as a whole: careless and malevolent. The tech industry and its figureheads have - Lied consistently about their capabilities - Brazenly flouted the la…

(Dis)honorable mentions to the current waves of gleeful surveillance state enablement and gambling by any other name, the latter even directly preceded by desperately trying to get everyone's less techy relatives to bag-hold crypto pump n dumps

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

#162

Post by tqi »

nemomarx wrote: post #13

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?

I think the real question is, if the big tech companies are so all knowing and all powerful, with so much control over media and messaging, then why is their PR so bad?

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

#164

Post by bad_username »

tqi wrote: post #163

Because journalists and their employers view tech as a competitor for ad dollars and threat to their professions.

Tech companies possess immense resources and huge potential to shape public discourse. Activists (that often includes journalists today) wish to exert power over tech companies for that reason. In the era of social media, weaponized complaining and astroturfed rage/hate is a very effective method of exerting actual power and inluence. When you see sentences like "Why do people hate X?", understand that this may be a statement pursuing a goal (we need you to believe that people hate X, so you should too), not a genuine quesion.

I am not a fan of tech companies _at all_, BTW. But the enemy of an enemy is not always a friend.

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

#165

Post by SideburnsOfDoom »

JuniperMesos wrote: post #126
watwut wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Last time it was opposing LGBTQ and racial discrimination and now it is technology. The attacks on and hate of trans people are on the rise. There seem to be literal strategy of preventing blacks and women from career rise in military and government. And all of these are enabled and helped by tech. The radicalization and hate grows due to our algorithms. > tech industry keeps threatening the status quo again and ag…

[flagged]

> the poltical demands trans people make in the explicit name of trans rights necessarily entail enlisting the state to help destroy gender distinctions

This is hysterical in both senses of the word, and also nonensical.

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

#166

Post by coolThingsFirst »

whilenot-dev wrote: post #86
muvlon wrote: 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…

Because it's being sold off as the terminal technology and if you aren't in on the final and ultimate technological innovation you will be for forever behind and never catch up.

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

#168

Post by watwut »

JuniperMesos wrote: post #126
watwut wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Last time it was opposing LGBTQ and racial discrimination and now it is technology. The attacks on and hate of trans people are on the rise. There seem to be literal strategy of preventing blacks and women from career rise in military and government. And all of these are enabled and helped by tech. The radicalization and hate grows due to our algorithms. > tech industry keeps threatening the status quo again and ag…

[flagged]

> a lot of people have now realized this and are explicitly fighting back against trans demands.

They are literally actively trying to create the world where trans people are hurt as much as possible. They are not on the defense, they are the assholes.

>Blacks and women have historically benefitted from explicit racial and gender preferences

Man, no one got more historical benefits from explicit racial and gender preferences as white men.

> which looks like "preventing blacks and women from career rise" from the perspective of a pro-affirmative-action person.

They are literally prevented from progress solely due to their race and gender. As was historical norm for a long time.

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

#169

Post by pjmlp »

mrweasel wrote: post #38

I can't actually think of a single piece of tech made in the past ten years that has improved my life, at least not without large downsides. There's some embedded stuff, like lane assist or adaptive cruise control in my car, that I like, but the package as a whole... not really much of an improvement. It's not really bad as such that the tech industry want to attempt to make a smart home, or add software to a product…

I certainly hate that even when working on ecommerce projects, I have indirectly contributed for people to lose their jobs, as chains close their physical stores.

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

#170

Post by pjmlp »

cwillu wrote: post #158
Legend2440 wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I can't actually think of a single piece of tech made in the past ten years that has improved my life This is going to be controversial, but I feel that ChatGPT has improved my life. Also e-bikes, 3D printers, and wireless earbuds really took off in the last ten years. Some of these were invented more than 10 years ago but saw significant improvements that brought them into the mainstream.

Being able to use ChatGPT is useful, but it is significantly offset by how many business interactions are now mediated solely by chatgpt, and I'm not sure on balance my life has been improved.

The fight to actually talk to a human on help desk.
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