Post by @emilymbender@dair-community.social

@emilymbender@dair-community.social 3 hours ago

RE: https://tldr.nettime.org/@tante/116924874418802342

I really appreciate this stance.

Too many people try to use "but it's useful" as a counterargument to what we say, for example, in The AI Con. Useful for whom and at what cost (to the user and especially others) should always be the immediate follow up.

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@gneilyo@mastodon.online 1 hour ago

@emilymbender Everyone has a few grams of iron in their blood, and iron is useful, yet I doubt Linus would sacrifice his share so we could make a few paperclips. The price is acceptable so long as someone else pays it.

Richard Levitte

@levitte@mastodon.nu 2 hours ago

@emilymbender
Hmmm

Hand tools (like hammers 'n stuff) are useful, yet you can use them to build a bomb.

I dunno, there are logical fallacies in the argumentation, but yeah, I get the trick of using children to compare with. It's not a new trick.

Quercus 🟡⚪🟣⚫

@coppercrush@beige.party 3 hours ago

This is fundamentally why I am a luddite. I find in most cases, the term 'useful' when applied to 21st century tech is an equal substitute for 'exploitative'. Arguing for individual use cases outside of greater ethical contexts needs to be made a discoursive non-starter.

@emilymbender