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Clankers Die on Christmas

remyhax.xyz

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Re: Clankers Die on Christmas

#61
post #37
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not a hypothetical situation.

Cutting datacenter power still looks more reliable for large installations. I bet they still have completely analog circuit breakers, e.g. to be activated during a fire.

Dear downvoters, did you even read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_Enter ? :)

Re: Clankers Die on Christmas

#62

For others who, like me, didn't know what "clankers" are: it appears it's a popular derogatory term for robots or AI, arising from the Star Wars universe where clone troopers used the term as a derogatory term for droids.

I wouldn't say popular It has a strong smell of "stop trying to make fetch happen, Gretchen."

It's definitely popular online, specifically on Reddit, Bluesky, Twitter, and TikTok. There's communities that have formed around their anti-AI stance[1][2][3], and after multiple organic efforts to "brainstorm slurs" for people who use AI[4], "clanker" has come out on top. This goes back at least 2 years[6] in terms of grassroots talk, and many more to the original Clone Wars usage[7].

For those who can see the obvious: don't worry, there's plenty of pushback regarding the indirect harm of gleeful fantasy bigotry[8][9]. When you get to the less popular--but still popular!--alternatives like "wireback" and "cogsucker", it's pretty clear why a youth crushed by Woke mandates like "don't be racist plz" are so excited about unproblematic hate.

This is edging on too political for HN, but I will say that this whole thing reminds me a tad of things like "kill all men" (shoutout to "we need to kill AI artist"[10]) and "police are pigs". Regardless of the injustices they were rooted in, they seem to have gotten popular in large part because it's viscerally satisfying to express yourself so passionately.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/antiai/

[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/LudditeRenaissance/

[3] https://www.reddit.com/r/aislop/

[4] All the original posts seem to have now been deleted :(

[6] https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/13x43b6/if_we_ha...

[7] https://web.archive.org/web/20250907033409/https://www.nytim...

[8] https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/clanke...

[9] https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/68364/1/cl...

[10] https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/we-need-to-kill-ai-artist

Re: Clankers Die on Christmas

#64

Whoops. Looks like my blog published a bit earlier than expected. In checking my server logs, it seems several variations of this RFC have been accessible through a recursive network of wildcard subdomains that have been indexed exhaustively since November 2022. Sorry about that!

For those of us who are particularly slow: care to cheekily hint at whether this is sincerely intended as satire or not...? In other words, first-order or second-order?

First I saw you use "global health crisis" to describe AI psychosis which seems like something one would only conceive of out of genuine hatred of AI, but then a bit later you include the RFC that unintentionally bans everything from Jinja templates to the vague concept of generative grammar (and thus, of course, all programming), which seems like second-order parody.

Am I overthinking it?

Re: Clankers Die on Christmas

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like it started as a joke, but now people are just using it as a stand-in for racial slurs against Black and brown people, and it's honestly sickening. Like TikToks of people making classically racist jokes about Black people but changing it to "clanker" as a workaround.

Why do people so badly want everything to be about race?

What do you mean specifically?

Re: Clankers Die on Christmas

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like it started as a joke, but now people are just using it as a stand-in for racial slurs against Black and brown people, and it's honestly sickening. Like TikToks of people making classically racist jokes about Black people but changing it to "clanker" as a workaround.

Sadly there are no technological solutions to humans being arseholes to each other.

Well, I mean, we did invent Nuclear Weapons…. That’s a type of technical solution!

Re: Clankers Die on Christmas

#68

For others who, like me, didn't know what "clankers" are: it appears it's a popular derogatory term for robots or AI, arising from the Star Wars universe where clone troopers used the term as a derogatory term for droids.

From the world first robophobe, humano-fascist: Robot Slur Tier List: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoDDWmIWMDg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpRRejhgtVI Responding To A Clankerloving Cogsucker on Robot "Racism": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zAIqNpC0I0

JREG is the only Canadian I would accept as a Presidential Candidate for the US, and i don't even agree with half of what he says. I just think he'd do a better job than most.

Re: Clankers Die on Christmas

#69
post #43

For others who, like me, didn't know what "clankers" are: it appears it's a popular derogatory term for robots or AI, arising from the Star Wars universe where clone troopers used the term as a derogatory term for droids.

Don't confuse with "clUnker", an old car/machine.

nor with "clackers", and insanely dangerous early 70s toy consisting of two glass balls you smash together at accelerated speeds right in front of your face. I guess they were trying to make us feel better that they were taking our jarts away.
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