yes, we don’t even provide people with accessible computer skill lessons, if you don’t know how to use a computer you’re seen as deficient and it’s your fault, same as with using the internet and building something in it, the only solutions is a service you have to pay for.
And sure some people are gonna be altruistic and reject profit motives, but guess what happens when that person has a life crisis and suddenly needs f.ex a ton of money to pay for a loved ones medical bills. If you’re lucky enough to have had the opportunity to develop a sizeable amount of recognition, perhaps you can rely on charity to solve your issues, which you’re still just off-loading the problem on other people. (I’m not saying it’s anyone’s individual fault here, but that’s what charity is under capitalism) so you have these deeply, deeply ingrained for-profit incentives to enshittify everything.
It’s also why discoverability is so selective and difficult. If you let people just talk about what they’re working on you’re gonna be flooded by for-profit seeking individuals that only care about the money. Lots of people say how AI made the internet so “fake and inauthentic” and I’m like yeah it’s accelerated the fall maybe, but since when have we been authentic lol? Those were the exceptions.
Very much agree, and have exact same view on the whole AI hysteria. Slop has been with us for a very long time already. In fact, I’d argue that a much better way to decide whether something is slop or not is by focusing on its purpose rather than the medium. Any piece of advertisement is inherently slop, even if it was painted by artisans using oils on canvas. It exists for the sole reason to convince you to buy something.
Do you think AI hysteria is even a real phenomenon or is it something that Radical Liberals are orchestrating and being really loud about? I think the Westerm internet is so far removed from reality, but so are RadLibs, the petty bourgeoise, so ironically it’s a pretty accurate representation of how they actually feel like. It’s just that they’re like 1% of the world population amplified by bots, temporarily disadvantaged and the rightists who engage with them in keyboard wars.
I remember the point in my life where I taught that if I try to fit in and secure material gains I’d be able to turn against the system when I’m older. If it wasn’t for the liberals who conditioned me relentlessly into taking the “Higher Road” and their empty promises which I foolishly fell for, maybe I would have, but it’s pointless to blame my past self now. It’s just scary how insidious their propaganda has been. But that has been their purpose.
I definitely think it’s the latter, because vast majority of people don’t really think about AI at all. It’s exactly as you say, there’s just an online bubble where people are eager to signal group membership to each other, and they just rally around talking about how much they hate AI. I also think there are a bunch of grifters using this as a low hanging fruit to grow their subscribers.
And breaking out of the liberal mainstream is no small achievement. We’re all products of our environment, and when everybody holds common beliefs around you, the process of questioning that is not easy. You often feel like you’re the one taking crazy pills when you start discarding mainstream beliefs. Learning is a continuous process, we all hold incorrect ideas in our heads, and there’s nothing wrong with that. The key is developing the ability to introspect, to self criticize, and to grow your understanding.
but since when have we been authentic lol? Those were the exceptions.
Yeah I remember early youtube for example. Early youtube was more of a “doing it because you want to make something fun and put it out there” to an extent. But some of it, especially as it grew, was “appearing to be doing it because you want to make something fun and put it out there but there’s actually a company like Maker Studios behind you that you don’t call attention to and you act like it’s all you anyway (probably because that sells better)”. Then there was shit like all the “prank” channels that would put on this show like they were pranking people in real life and eventually it came out that most of them were staged. Slowly, youtube morphed into being more openly a place where people were trying to make money off of it, but it was already being that with a mask on for a long time prior. When Patreon came along, it more enabled people to turn the stuff into an actually independent “small business”, as opposed to being on contract with a corporation, formalizing the idea of the platform as one to make money off of while trying to retain some semblance of the quirky individual image.
But it was never very authentic. Maybe more so in the very early days before monetization was well-established, but as soon as people could be a youtube partner and make money off of videos, that was the beginning of the end of “quirky authenticity”, instead morphing it into something more like reality TV that is presented as actually real to a (largely in those days) audience of kids who are not wise enough to tell the difference.
yes, we don’t even provide people with accessible computer skill lessons, if you don’t know how to use a computer you’re seen as deficient and it’s your fault, same as with using the internet and building something in it, the only solutions is a service you have to pay for.
And sure some people are gonna be altruistic and reject profit motives, but guess what happens when that person has a life crisis and suddenly needs f.ex a ton of money to pay for a loved ones medical bills. If you’re lucky enough to have had the opportunity to develop a sizeable amount of recognition, perhaps you can rely on charity to solve your issues, which you’re still just off-loading the problem on other people. (I’m not saying it’s anyone’s individual fault here, but that’s what charity is under capitalism) so you have these deeply, deeply ingrained for-profit incentives to enshittify everything.
It’s also why discoverability is so selective and difficult. If you let people just talk about what they’re working on you’re gonna be flooded by for-profit seeking individuals that only care about the money. Lots of people say how AI made the internet so “fake and inauthentic” and I’m like yeah it’s accelerated the fall maybe, but since when have we been authentic lol? Those were the exceptions.
Very much agree, and have exact same view on the whole AI hysteria. Slop has been with us for a very long time already. In fact, I’d argue that a much better way to decide whether something is slop or not is by focusing on its purpose rather than the medium. Any piece of advertisement is inherently slop, even if it was painted by artisans using oils on canvas. It exists for the sole reason to convince you to buy something.
Do you think AI hysteria is even a real phenomenon or is it something that Radical Liberals are orchestrating and being really loud about? I think the Westerm internet is so far removed from reality, but so are RadLibs, the petty bourgeoise, so ironically it’s a pretty accurate representation of how they actually feel like. It’s just that they’re like 1% of the world population amplified by bots, temporarily disadvantaged and the rightists who engage with them in keyboard wars.
I remember the point in my life where I taught that if I try to fit in and secure material gains I’d be able to turn against the system when I’m older. If it wasn’t for the liberals who conditioned me relentlessly into taking the “Higher Road” and their empty promises which I foolishly fell for, maybe I would have, but it’s pointless to blame my past self now. It’s just scary how insidious their propaganda has been. But that has been their purpose.
I definitely think it’s the latter, because vast majority of people don’t really think about AI at all. It’s exactly as you say, there’s just an online bubble where people are eager to signal group membership to each other, and they just rally around talking about how much they hate AI. I also think there are a bunch of grifters using this as a low hanging fruit to grow their subscribers.
And breaking out of the liberal mainstream is no small achievement. We’re all products of our environment, and when everybody holds common beliefs around you, the process of questioning that is not easy. You often feel like you’re the one taking crazy pills when you start discarding mainstream beliefs. Learning is a continuous process, we all hold incorrect ideas in our heads, and there’s nothing wrong with that. The key is developing the ability to introspect, to self criticize, and to grow your understanding.
Yeah I remember early youtube for example. Early youtube was more of a “doing it because you want to make something fun and put it out there” to an extent. But some of it, especially as it grew, was “appearing to be doing it because you want to make something fun and put it out there but there’s actually a company like Maker Studios behind you that you don’t call attention to and you act like it’s all you anyway (probably because that sells better)”. Then there was shit like all the “prank” channels that would put on this show like they were pranking people in real life and eventually it came out that most of them were staged. Slowly, youtube morphed into being more openly a place where people were trying to make money off of it, but it was already being that with a mask on for a long time prior. When Patreon came along, it more enabled people to turn the stuff into an actually independent “small business”, as opposed to being on contract with a corporation, formalizing the idea of the platform as one to make money off of while trying to retain some semblance of the quirky individual image.
But it was never very authentic. Maybe more so in the very early days before monetization was well-established, but as soon as people could be a youtube partner and make money off of videos, that was the beginning of the end of “quirky authenticity”, instead morphing it into something more like reality TV that is presented as actually real to a (largely in those days) audience of kids who are not wise enough to tell the difference.