Discussion
I don't believe any of the problems of LLMs are the technology of turning a transformer backwards
or indeed "AI" more broadly
100% of the problems are social and the reprehensible purposes a given tech is turned to
in 2026, how on earth can people who are fully equipped to know better propose tech solutionism to this social problem
@davidgerard But tech solutionism is core to the sector. They’ve built hammer factories for decades and now all they see, everywhere, are nails in need of hammering. Couple this demented fixation with the stunted, partial education of far too many, and you have…issues.
The proper visual is the tech sector building hammer factories for decades, giving the outputs of said factories to poorly-socialized, mentally ill children, and sending them out into the world with a “good luck, have fun!”
@davidgerard There's been a propaganda wave since... at least the 60's/70's, stronger since the 90's and 00's, that tries to tie social progress intimately to technological progress - the claims like how industrializing made it possible to end slavery (we could have done that anyway), made civil rights possible (could have done it anyway), made the gay rights movement work (could have done it anyway), even things like how it made it possible for people to coordinate in MN vs ICE >
@miss_rodent @davidgerard I contextualize it with the US far right's fear of left-wing student activism, conceived in the 1960s and early 1970s: hence turning education into a mandatory requirement for employment while front-loading it with undischargable debt, combined with enshittification of the public education system (so that only elite schools, for the rich, provide a decent civics/social education). Then insist that tech = progress and you need IT button-pushing skills instead of history.
@cstross @davidgerard Yeah, sounds about right. It definitely aligns with the gutting of public education (both worsening public schools, and the imposition of tuition costs to universities) to create an ignorant controllable underclass and an educated powerful elite - and serves to ascribe magical powers to the elite, in a way analogous to what god-kings and divine right to rule use to accomplish.
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