If you lived in a world where smoking was returning in full force—through unethical, manipulative, and probably illegal tactics tobacco use was returning to 1960s levels—would you work within the tobacco industry to make it less bad?
-
@baldur i like that but it’s more like the nazis saying your extermination will actually somehow be good for you
@cultdev @baldur you mean like Arbeit Macht Frei? or more like get into this rail car for a ride to fresh air and warm vineyard sun picking grapes? The Nazi invasion and violent occupation of Hungary, with promises of a better life than could be had from liberation, killed nearly 500K in just a couple months.
-
@baldur that being said, I think tech is becoming like finance, quite rent seeking
Rent seeking as we know doesn’t provide any real value to the economy. Right?
-
If you lived in a world where smoking was returning in full force—through unethical, manipulative, and probably illegal tactics tobacco use was returning to 1960s levels—would you work within the tobacco industry to make it less bad? "Nicotine is an excellent ADHD drug so it can help accessibility!"
Because this is exactly what people in the tech industry are starting to sound like.
@baldur Elijah Wood's cameo in I'm a Virgo: https://youtu.be/3uGHXMjImcc
"The death penalty is a horrific thing and I want to do something about it. It'll be a while until it's abolished all over. So, I'm studying to be an executioner. If I can, as an executioner, change things up a little bit, making their deaths a little less painful..."
-
If you lived in a world where smoking was returning in full force—through unethical, manipulative, and probably illegal tactics tobacco use was returning to 1960s levels—would you work within the tobacco industry to make it less bad? "Nicotine is an excellent ADHD drug so it can help accessibility!"
Because this is exactly what people in the tech industry are starting to sound like.
@baldur
Um, that's why Vaping was invented, all the nicotine, no tar, no particulates. Less bad (but not really; inhaled ethylene glycol and crushed lithium batteries on every sidewalk aren't good). -
If you lived in a world where smoking was returning in full force—through unethical, manipulative, and probably illegal tactics tobacco use was returning to 1960s levels—would you work within the tobacco industry to make it less bad? "Nicotine is an excellent ADHD drug so it can help accessibility!"
Because this is exactly what people in the tech industry are starting to sound like.
@baldur It seems more like a world where concern about computer tech adoption is back to 1960's levels again.
I don't think you need the smoking analogy, it's just computers.
The computers are the danger and the addiction is often worse than smoking.
-
B bogwitch@social.data.coop shared this topic
-
@baldur Funny that you ask, couple of days ago someone was basically stating something along the lines of "oh I see you are inept, since you are using LLM" and some people were trying to guilt-trip him because of "ableism", since people with disabilities are dependant on LLMs for some reason. What the fuck?
@DJGummikuh @baldur counter point, I'm very dyslexic... I consider people's use of LLMs to be an anti-accessibility force in my life. They have proven less than useless to me so far as I find reading text cognitively taxing, unless I use the tools I've built up for reading and writing code and documentation more easily. I find LLM text doesn't have enough signal to noise ratio for me to use those tools.
-
@DJGummikuh @baldur counter point, I'm very dyslexic... I consider people's use of LLMs to be an anti-accessibility force in my life. They have proven less than useless to me so far as I find reading text cognitively taxing, unless I use the tools I've built up for reading and writing code and documentation more easily. I find LLM text doesn't have enough signal to noise ratio for me to use those tools.
@theeclecticdyslexic @baldur good point. I mean LLM Texts are often written to a specified length, which automatically lowers information density. Also, if you then use LLM to condense it back down, nobody guarantees that it's not hallucinating some shit that never was in the original bloated text.
-
Rent seeking as we know doesn’t provide any real value to the economy. Right?
@cyberquixote @baldur right
-
It's one trillion dollars ... why aren't we to expect the industry members will do whatever it takes, over whatever laws of land or morals they may still have.
No one expects anything reasonable from the industry. It's the random people doing unpaid shilling who are the problem.
-
If you lived in a world where smoking was returning in full force—through unethical, manipulative, and probably illegal tactics tobacco use was returning to 1960s levels—would you work within the tobacco industry to make it less bad? "Nicotine is an excellent ADHD drug so it can help accessibility!"
Because this is exactly what people in the tech industry are starting to sound like.
@baldur I think the analogy is fair to a point. There’s a difference between acknowledging that a technology can have legitimate uses and using those benefits to justify an industry or system whose broader incentives may be harmful. Saying “nicotine can help people with ADHD” doesn’t erase the harm caused by deliberately expanding nicotine addiction. In the same way, pointing out the benefits of tech or AI shouldn’t become an excuse to ignore the ways the industry can manipulate people
-
If you lived in a world where smoking was returning in full force—through unethical, manipulative, and probably illegal tactics tobacco use was returning to 1960s levels—would you work within the tobacco industry to make it less bad? "Nicotine is an excellent ADHD drug so it can help accessibility!"
Because this is exactly what people in the tech industry are starting to sound like.
@baldur I don't want to, unfortunately i have a mortgage to pay and in my defence the industry pivoted to cancer sticks after I'd reached a senior position (too senior to easier switch career, not senior enough to change course)
-
If you lived in a world where smoking was returning in full force—through unethical, manipulative, and probably illegal tactics tobacco use was returning to 1960s levels—would you work within the tobacco industry to make it less bad? "Nicotine is an excellent ADHD drug so it can help accessibility!"
Because this is exactly what people in the tech industry are starting to sound like.
@baldur
I don't know if you're talking about ai dependence or the very real problem of tech companies pushing dip/snoose on their employees -
If you lived in a world where smoking was returning in full force—through unethical, manipulative, and probably illegal tactics tobacco use was returning to 1960s levels—would you work within the tobacco industry to make it less bad? "Nicotine is an excellent ADHD drug so it can help accessibility!"
Because this is exactly what people in the tech industry are starting to sound like.
@baldur "I can only relax with a cig in my hand.
Stop disciminate me. I neeeeeedddd nikotineeeee. " - Some smokers probably. -
@baldur I have bad news for you about nicotine.
-
If you lived in a world where smoking was returning in full force—through unethical, manipulative, and probably illegal tactics tobacco use was returning to 1960s levels—would you work within the tobacco industry to make it less bad? "Nicotine is an excellent ADHD drug so it can help accessibility!"
Because this is exactly what people in the tech industry are starting to sound like.
@baldur …well…smoking is making a strong comeback…an insanely strong one. Via weed (there are dispensaries all over) and vaping (where they wildly outnumber liquor stores). Add in all the edibles/smokeless…and cigars moving upscale…
Smoking never left…tobacco left. Like with tech it just switched vice. Gambling went tech too. Sex. None of those people went anywhere. They just adjusted. Exactly like the Techbros… -
If you lived in a world where smoking was returning in full force—through unethical, manipulative, and probably illegal tactics tobacco use was returning to 1960s levels—would you work within the tobacco industry to make it less bad? "Nicotine is an excellent ADHD drug so it can help accessibility!"
Because this is exactly what people in the tech industry are starting to sound like.
@baldur It's really funny how people will happily work to make the world worse at big tech for years on end then suddenly grow a conscience and quit the moment their equity fully vests -
-
@H4Heights @baldur https://www.amazon.com/Blitzed-Drugs-Third-Norman-Ohler/dp/1328663795
A lot "ADD" diagnosese are just speed freaks going to croakers in the US. Of course, if you point this out...
-
If you lived in a world where smoking was returning in full force—through unethical, manipulative, and probably illegal tactics tobacco use was returning to 1960s levels—would you work within the tobacco industry to make it less bad? "Nicotine is an excellent ADHD drug so it can help accessibility!"
Because this is exactly what people in the tech industry are starting to sound like.
@baldur this is what I've been thinking about my own industry (marketing). It will take a while to get into the new career I'm aiming for, but working on it!
-
