Some years ago when my bike was stolen, I looked into tamper alarms & this was exactly why I dropped the idea: Nothing of the sort existed that didn't rely on some startup basically remaining in business AND behaving in good faith forever.

For those following along at home, that's two things which will never happen.

#tech

"When it comes to making a new, good internet, there's plenty of room for labor law, civil rights legislation, antitrust, and other legal regimes. But privacy has the biggest constituency, gets us the most bang for the buck, and has the fewest harmful side-effects. It's a policy we can all agree on, even if we don't agree on much else. It's a coalition in potentia that would be unstoppable in reality." - @nprofile1q...

#privacy #surveillance #SurveillanceCapitalism #tech #BigTech

"Trump is the escrow agent who keeps the money and the deed, then announces he did it because the seller was a fentanyl dealer and the buyer was a lizard-person; and then publishes a long screed on Truth Social calling everyone who criticises him a terrorist, promising to do it again next time.

Even if you need to sell your house, and even if Trump is the only escrow agent you can find, you're just not going to trust him with your deed or the money." - @nprofile1q...

Learn this, world.

#uspol

Again, this is just a specific example of the general genAI problem: It makes shit up & most of it will seem OK because you don't know enough about the subject matter to see the harm it does.

Until now we've been able to assume that even lies & misinformation took at least some effort & someone would need a reason for it - but now they just happen, with zero effort or reason.

We also thought the utility of asbestos & leaded gasoline outweighed the harms. We were wrong then, too.

#AI

Fucking THANK YOU, @nprofile1q...!!

- and BTW I would contend, based on a lot of ancedotal evidence, that the "usefulness" of these AI tools tends to lean strongly towards convenience, which at least in my view makes this weak argument even worse.

#AI

Counterintuitively, this is actually a point of hope - because this has been the case literally since the dark ages & yet still, we have managed to make continued progress on behalf of humanity against the explict, well-funded interests of those forces.

They can slow us down, but they simply cannot stop us. This is a fact of history.

#resist #capitalism

It's really extremely simple: Does the business need you to allocate time to work in a manner that procludes you from doing something else - say, by being available to Uber, or waiting outside a take-out with a "Just Eat" thermo backpack & a uniform jacket that that reads "Partner"?

If the answer is "Yes", the business must pay you properly for that time, because it is taken away from YOU to keep THEIR lights on.

#uspol #business #tech #GigEconomy

Exactly, @nprofile1q... - bothsidesism can go fuck itself.

One important note, before the "well ackshully"'s start: Left & right wing *dictators* are the same.

Politics & ideology is wholly irrelevant to what a dictator wants, which is to be a fucking dictator, i.e. not just "be in charge", but to specifically wield the power to do things to people that they would rather he didn't.

That's why Trump & Putin are of the same bretheren.

#politics

You want examples about how using AI makes people stupid? How about this: Just saw a perfectly well-educated, functioning adult "design" a fucking OVAL bottle with a screw top... 🙄

I mean, it's RIGHT THERE in the AI drawings, SPECIFICALLY pointing out that A. the thing is oval for reasons & B. the top screws on & off.

It looks so real & it looks so convincing but it's utterly fake & the technology is specifically designed to override your common & critical sense. Do not use.

#AI

This is unaccountably hilarious to me - like a wolf pack being bullied by a huge flock of ducks 😂