Rebellion is moral, sustainable thinking even when it goes against the grain. Its ecocentric, theocentric, pick another -centric. Just not ego-centric.
Many years ago when I worked as a graphic designer, I felt the absurdity of what you write here. I was zoomed in on a cluster of pixels for some long forgotten project and thought, "Here I am Geoff, living on big beautiful world, floating in a solar system of minor outpost of a galaxy, in the midst of an unknown vast number of galaxies hurtling through space, reduced to staring at a few pixels on a screen." The way we live in this world is pure absurdity. I was self-employed at the time so took a long bicycle ride along the Hudson River, up and down hills, through historic villages. I have spent a lot of time hiking in the mountains. My possessions are few and my wealth non-existent. I chose the most valuable commodity we have, time. I have no regrets even if it costs me some years as I grow older, particularly with the plight humanity has come to. I wish I could make all of humanity walk out of their jobs right now. We have the power to stop this death spiral if enough of us are willing to bravely sacrifice.
I appreciate the sentiment behind this post. Life is too precious to be wasted by capitalistic confinement into exploited labor. However, I wouldn't romanticize the frontier of tech too much. They're also just pushing code day in and day out like someone looking at a dumb pie chart. There's a lot more creativity problem solving required, but also so much politics, grinding and people pointing fingers at them to make biased models using a shit ton of resources that they know is risky for humanity.
I agree. This is a beautifully written piece, and I feel like I'm raining on a nice parade, but the core premise sits atop a dream of techno-idealism that is now dead for me and many others.
Yes, the office cubicle grind is awful, but technology itself won't save us. On the contrary, in its current form the tech industry has only become a more efficient machine for this same exploitation, a means of extracting money from regular people in every area of life and funneling it to a handful of billionaires. Those same billionaires also control the social media algorithms that push propaganda and distract the masses so the extraction scheme can keep running smoothly and invisibly beneath the infrastructure of modern life. As we saw in the news this week, the system is astonishingly effective.
AI will not set us free to explore Mars or spend our lives on creative endeavors. It's more likely to take our boring cubicle jobs and leave us with nothing, unemployed and poverty-stricken, unable to think of anything other than our next meal. The average tech industry worker is a pawn, building API endpoints, committing tedious code changes, and working exhausting hours until the next round of layoffs render them redundant.
Real freedom and utopia and dignity for the poorest 7.9 billion on Earth will not come from technology but from humans collectively deciding to change the fundamental inequalities in the way our societies have been constructed. I see zero signs of that happening soon.
Rebellion is moral, sustainable thinking even when it goes against the grain. Its ecocentric, theocentric, pick another -centric. Just not ego-centric.
People are often unreasonable, illogical,
and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, People may accuse you
of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some
false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank,
people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone
could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness,
they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today,
people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have,
and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis,
it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway
Author unknown
The next step is to train AI in the perceptual. That which we experience, for which there are words that describe.
Many years ago when I worked as a graphic designer, I felt the absurdity of what you write here. I was zoomed in on a cluster of pixels for some long forgotten project and thought, "Here I am Geoff, living on big beautiful world, floating in a solar system of minor outpost of a galaxy, in the midst of an unknown vast number of galaxies hurtling through space, reduced to staring at a few pixels on a screen." The way we live in this world is pure absurdity. I was self-employed at the time so took a long bicycle ride along the Hudson River, up and down hills, through historic villages. I have spent a lot of time hiking in the mountains. My possessions are few and my wealth non-existent. I chose the most valuable commodity we have, time. I have no regrets even if it costs me some years as I grow older, particularly with the plight humanity has come to. I wish I could make all of humanity walk out of their jobs right now. We have the power to stop this death spiral if enough of us are willing to bravely sacrifice.
I appreciate the sentiment behind this post. Life is too precious to be wasted by capitalistic confinement into exploited labor. However, I wouldn't romanticize the frontier of tech too much. They're also just pushing code day in and day out like someone looking at a dumb pie chart. There's a lot more creativity problem solving required, but also so much politics, grinding and people pointing fingers at them to make biased models using a shit ton of resources that they know is risky for humanity.
I agree. This is a beautifully written piece, and I feel like I'm raining on a nice parade, but the core premise sits atop a dream of techno-idealism that is now dead for me and many others.
Yes, the office cubicle grind is awful, but technology itself won't save us. On the contrary, in its current form the tech industry has only become a more efficient machine for this same exploitation, a means of extracting money from regular people in every area of life and funneling it to a handful of billionaires. Those same billionaires also control the social media algorithms that push propaganda and distract the masses so the extraction scheme can keep running smoothly and invisibly beneath the infrastructure of modern life. As we saw in the news this week, the system is astonishingly effective.
AI will not set us free to explore Mars or spend our lives on creative endeavors. It's more likely to take our boring cubicle jobs and leave us with nothing, unemployed and poverty-stricken, unable to think of anything other than our next meal. The average tech industry worker is a pawn, building API endpoints, committing tedious code changes, and working exhausting hours until the next round of layoffs render them redundant.
Real freedom and utopia and dignity for the poorest 7.9 billion on Earth will not come from technology but from humans collectively deciding to change the fundamental inequalities in the way our societies have been constructed. I see zero signs of that happening soon.
aahhhh fuck i have been waiting so long for another pavement post, beautifully written as always <33
beautiful