Hm. I guess we just see things differently. I’m not subscribing to any idea simply because it falls under any particular label. I think a local system relying on artisans and local foods and the basic needs of those within the community coming first would be amazing. I don’t yearn for industrialized labor. Would a worker-owned system be better than what we have right now? Of course. But I think massive globalization, industrialization, and homogenization has been mostly a net negative, especially for the environment. You and I mostly agree. But if we’re talking utopia, or aspirational system, then smaller scale and localized would be best. I see seizing the means of production as a bandaid on a gaping wound. It helps, but it’s a first step because we need to start somewhere.

Well…yeah. Mass production was a bad turn for the worker. That kinda proves my point. It led to consolidation of wealth and power in the hands of the barons.

And why is saying a technology is a net negative “primitivist?” Haven’t multiple technologies exploited everyone more while operating as spying and brainwash machines? At some point the more advanced technological advancements became more advanced tools of oppression.

Going back to “dumb” technologies and slower communication should very well be a goal for a more truly advanced society. Technology hasn’t set us free, in fact it’s almost exclusively been a tool of the bourgeoisie to further exploit everyone else. To demand more of our time, to steal more of our attention. I agree with pretty much all of what you said. But with just a different inflection in the point.

I mean, why does it have to be one thing we are trying to not support? People in leftist spaces are trying to root out AI because of its myriad global problems and the way that the industry is akin to a new type of destructive bomb in the class war. Consolidating more wealth and power into the hands of the same technocrat few, poisoning the earth, destroying the livelihood of artists (and entire companies and divisions of workers across multiple industries because bosses are seeing dollar signs), stealing from the many and giving to the few in terms of creativity, it’s set to benefit the VCs…what is there to like about it?

You’re seeing a lot of talk about it because so many people thoughtlessly bought in when the more moral action would be to abstain from using it and insist on spaces that don’t welcome it. It’s not really that we are shifting energy away from more important things. It’s just that people will always say “hey, can we not use this here?” And you’re acting like we’re letting starving orphans starve so we can fight AI.

I think it’s just that they were saying his won’t end up benefitting us. It’s just changing who is holding the binoculars.

GTA Online still brings in a billion dollars every year. The next GTA will try to capitalize and expand on that, and cannot, then, be perfect.

Ftfy

This is such a basic ass answer, but my recommendation would be to unplug, go outside, and read philosophy. Read Camus, read Sartre. Read existentialists in general. They talk about these things and come to interesting conclusions. Life is absurd. And it’s even more absurd than it’s ever been. The answer to that absurdity lies in your own personal meaning. Because life goes on whether you languish in it or attempt to find beauty in the monotony.

Another basic ass answer: It’s capitalism. Capitalism stole the meaning from your life to create profit for shareholders. It took the meaning from your life by telling you what job you have determines what you are. How long were we conditioned to attach our value as people to “what we want to be when we grow up.” Life feels meaningless because that deep conditioning is completely at odds with how we actually feel as people.

Another way you can start finding meaning is to find meaning in fighting against that. Find a job that you can ignore so you can live your life when you’re not working. Especially in the US we live to work. That creates this dissonance inside you because that’s fucking absurd. But it’s the kind of absurdity that should breed anger and resentment at the system, and those feelings should get translated into righteous action against these systems of exploitation and control. Find joy and immediacy in sabotaging ads conditioned to make us feel inferior. In doing anything that gives the finger to these twisted injustices.

There are a lot of ways to buck this feeling of joyless monotony. And the best way is to try to create something better, for yourself and for others. We are pushed to waste our “free” time consuming and producing. We are pushed to turn our hobbies and creativity into a “hustle.” Start revolting against these ideas in your everyday life and I think you will start to find a lot more meaning and joy. It’s scary, but a placid safety will while away your life and leave you feeling empty. Dangerous freedom will make you finally feel alive.

Oh, I just block those.

I downloaded it on this rec and I’ve been playing the hell out of it the past day. Sweet game that’s filled the last of us void I’ve been in since finishing those games. Def different, but similar genres and themes (so far anyway).

They’re bad for now. But the existence of them now is a dire fucking warning and the message is clear: STOP USING FUCKIN SOCIAL MEDIA. How many times do they need to take advantage of you, break your trust, sell you out, and manipulate you before you take all of their power away? We all know they’re evil, everyone knows they fuckin suck. The answer is so painfully clear. But people continue being the engine to their entire existence. Why. Just why.

Gaydio waves

It is

Coupon: The movie: The Ride

lol what’s not good about the last of us 2? It’s an excellent story, really engaging gameplay, great storytelling, it’s evocative, gorgeous, gruesome, poignant, sad as hell, has tons of depth, great characters, cohesive and interesting themes, great sound, voice acting…you really can’t ask for much more from a game.

That’s a relatively new phenomenon. All tech media was positive and the stuff of dreams until around the 2010s. Because we were seeing a steady and noticeable shift in the power dynamics. We were being pulled deeper under a capitalist nightmare instead of flying in a techno futuristic dreamscape. We couldn’t see anything but the piling negative aspects of our technology: it’s killing us, it’s enslaving us, its being used to spy on us, we’re being told it’s a wonder but we keep finding out it’s a horror. This isn’t on us for not being enlightened enough to see asimov’s words. We’re too aware of the active manipulation and torture. They made us the product, and they made the things we bought spy machines and tools of manipulation and deception.

We need to create better, freer tech, free from the oligarchs currently wringing us all dry while they build their multimillion dollar doomsday bunkers with the money they’re stealing from us if we are going to build the better world in which the better half of humanity succeeds. Art imitates life. And currently they’re outsourcing art to the oligarchs machines that are 10000x worse for the planet and the power dynamics.

Eh. I think she became one of the funniest characters in an increasingly cartoonish world. I think her change in characterization was excellent. She wasn’t just the stubborn object of Jeff’s desire, she became a hilarious character reflecting the insanity around her. She went from not much to do besides deflect Jeff’s advances to having the funniest moments and lines in the show.

https://www.npr.org/2023/12/14/1218643254/israel-is-using-an-ai-system-to-find-targets-in-gaza-experts-say-its-just-the-st

https://www.npr.org/2023/12/14/1218643254/israel-is-using-an-ai-system-to-find-targets-in-gaza-experts-say-its-just-the-st

We’re not gonna talk about Judy. No, we’re not gonna talk about her at all!

Look at how much conspiracy content especially after 2016 focused on pedophilia. A lot of it. That carried over into this

If you don’t mind my asking, how do you not have a moral objection to using AI? With everything we know about it, the theft, the benefit to the technocrats, the environmental toll, I could not bring myself to wave away those issues. Not to mention the power imbalance of this tech being controlled by the ruling class, looking to eliminate people’s livelihoods for the sake of profit. What do you use it for? I feel like we should be boycotting them en masse.