I think @WeirdWriter@caneandable.social made that first point very beautifully in https://sightlessscribbles.com/the-colonization-of-confidence/ and I liked it so much I want to share it to no end
CC: @screwturn@mastodon.social @tante@tldr.nettime.org
Post
Replies:
0
@tante Personally I focus on showing that we techies aren't obligated to be excited about "AI", if you feel a need to be excited for new tech there's other options!
And old tech is awfully impressive too!
But at the same time... The controversy around "AI" keeps the conversation going, in a way I struggle to compete with.
> I can keep making the same arguments against using "AI" for anything relevant from here till the cows come home but it's not gonna change people's opinion.
Have you made these arguments in writing anywhere? I'm particularly interested in the skill atrophy angle.
Sisyphean tasks don't mean keep going until you're exhausted, demotivated, & depressed.
https://democracyproject.org/posts/sisyphean-democracy
https://vocal.media/writers/life-as-a-sisyphean-struggle-finding-meaning-in-the-futility
https://www.democracydocket.com/opinion/the-gops-sisyphean-punishment-for-supporting-trump/
It means self-care, taking a break sometimes, rest & recuperation too. Trite advice, I know but...
The fight against billionaire fascism & AI is daunting but take moments to encourage others to tag in so you can get a break & refind the joy of living.
https://jacobin.com/2023/09/climate-crisis-artificial-intelligence-existential-risk-billionaires-capitalism
1/
@tante The act of putting up resistance is valuable in itself. It makes others of us feel less alone, and keeps at least some pressure on the adopters that they still have to defend their choices. Our mistakes in the past were sometimes allowing things to seem inevitable.
"AI" is no different (in this respect) from the adtech surveillance thing. People screamed and screamed about the risks to society. Zuboff wrote years ago the definitive book on #surveillancecapitalism but the odious engine is still more or less intact, printing billions of profits every quarter, buying the souls of regulators, politicians etc.
Except... there are a few cracks here and there. You never know when they might grow and the whole damn immoral construct gets washed away.
@tante I honestly feel defeated by ai. Not only I could not keep it away from our NGO, no, I think I made it extra bad by pointing out the obvious and everybody signed but nobody listens and cared on a deep level by absolutely abandoning it. Iam tired too… and it’s not only AI it’s also all this big tech stuff.
I was interviewed for a documentary last week and we talked a lot (also about "AI") and the director told me to write a quick book on it, like bring it all to paper he'd help me get a publisher and all that. And - not trying to brag - I don't think I'd have a hard time getting it published, I do have a bit of visibility in Germany.
But holy shit do I not want to have to tie my name even more to that soul crushing, inhumane, life-negating slop topic.
@tante I get that, but I think you should do it. Having an articulate argument to point to is valuable. Maybe the one you write makes the point in a way others don't. Maybe it's persuasive to those who haven't heard it elsewhere, or who didn't resonate with what they have heard, for whatever reason. Maybe it reminds the rest of us we're not crazy or alone. The landscape is saturated with propaganda; every dissent is important. And who's to say which dissent will end up making a huge difference.
Huh. The act of typing this made me realize just how tired I am of all of it.
It's so similar to crypto/web3 when for a year or two everyone kept telling me that I was just dumb or lacked vision or just didn't understand shit and when it all crashed as I had predicted, hurting the people I predicted in the way I predicted everyone just moved on to "AI". The same motherfuckers doing the same shit.
Burns you out.
@tante wenn du magst
🫂
So yeah. Thanks for listening. I'm gonna crash. Sleep a bit.
Tomorrow we'll get up and do it all again. What else is there to do?
@tante Can't say "I feel you", but I feel the tiredness.
I wish someone w/b there with you, just to give you a long hug before you go to sleep. 😔
Thanks for the things you are doing and writing...
@tante It's just ruined all the joy of this field.
@mttaggart Yeah. Especially seeing so many people who should know better bend the knee to big tech because the slot machine feels so good. Maybe that's part of it? Seeing so many people I respected and maybe even admired just throw it all away. It does feel like a form of betrayal. Even though of course none of those people owe me anything.
@tante @mttaggart Betrayal is precisely one of the main feelings - of course like you say not because anyone owes you anything but rather because for a brief moment of time we* had the power to shape our own destinies without having influence or capital.
@vladimir_lu @tante Betrayal and a feeling like the world is asking me to accept something I know in my bones to be wrong.
@tante @mttaggart Oddly enough, this toot reminds me of the time I got blocked by one of the German "Wirtschaftsweisen" on Twitter for pointing out some of my observations* about Blockchain and smart contracts.
* Rather simple observations, mind you.
@tante I don't know whether you care to hear this or even believe me: I fell this so hard.
AI in its current form is so deeply inhumane that it will be a generation's work to unravel the damage that the hype has done and will continue to do until it finally pops. But alas, it will pop.
@tante it's really sad to watch communities I used to enjoy being part of getting suffocated under the pressure of any old passing fool or troll barging in to start up the same old arguments about "AI"
Reminds me in some ways of the bad old days of vim/emacs or brace style flamewars in every corner of tech spaces, except that it doesn't feel as arbitrary.
@tante and one of the heartbreaking things is that the people coming in and stirring up these fights are often *beginners* who think they're hanging out on the leading edge by engaging with the topic this way
but as point of fact, they are alienating members of the community who could help bring them into it and grow their skills. because those members are tired of it and want nothing to do with people who are stirring the pot because they think it's a good thing to do.
the way these technologies mislead and waste the time of beginners is one of the things that makes me the angriest about them. newbies deserve SO much better.
@SnoopJ Yeah. The core of what "AI" produces is "epistemic injustice". On a generational scale.
