MerryJaneDoe

You can watch some videos on YouTube, if you really want to learn. It’s interesting, sometimes in a full-dystopian nightmare fuel kind of way. Yes, we are at the point where some of these robots can climb and jump.

It’s a gimmick, though, for sure. Just like human-mimicking androids are a gimmick. The money for robotics is in manufacturing.

But I’ll bet there will always be an obscenely wealthy person who is willing to pay for a cool looking robot prototype.

There are plenty of leaders to follow, plenty of groups to join, plenty of events to attend.

This type of information isn’t broadcast on the local news. You have to go looking for like-minded people.

Gee, if only we’d tried that before.

Remember the “1%” protests against the billionaire class?

It didn’t matter, because every time people contribute to a 401k or go shopping at a chain box store, they add power to the 1%. People say they want to fight the ultra-rich, but they don’t really want to fight. Nobody wants to sacrifice their comfort or security. We know from history how this ends…

Giggle. We’ve been playing “wait and see” for a decade now.

Elections don’t solve this. We’ve seen that high-level Democrats are no different than high-level Republicans. Biden refused to investigate the Epstein files, he refused to prosecute Trump, and he refused to target gerrymandering/election interference.

There’s no version of this where the old America magically returns. That’s the same logic trap that ushered in this entire mess. There are plenty of MAGA who truly believe that they are shaking up the system and that just one more election will solve everything.

THIS. IS. THE. FUTURE.

We are living in it. The trajectory is set. We didn’t stop militarization of the police when they stepped on our rights. We didn’t stop data collection when we were warned. We didn’t stop gross financial mismanagement, corporate influence, gerrymandering and all the other things that make a democracy work.

We aren’t living in a fascist takeover. That happened years ago. We are living in its aftermath. We are frogs in a simmering pot, watching the bubbles float past us and wondering how to turn off the heat. It doesn’t matter now, the damage is done. The momentum takes control.

WWII changed everything about the USA. Everywhere else in the world, manufacturing was bombed to oblivion, the populace unable to rebuild without a coordinated effort from governments and NGOs.

The US became a hub of manufacturing. We exported our culture, and our products, all over the world. Our currency and our language became the standard in business.

Everything since then has been a slow walk backwards, so that the ultrawealthy could exert more control and line their pockets. A return to the “real” American values of exploitation.

I think he’s just trying to further normalize the outsourcing/underpaying/devaluing of programmers.

I love that you took the time to make this analogy. I’d like to share another example, and then explain why I think the above analogy maybe won’t appeal to working class folks. First, a bit of history:

Years ago, I was broke and jobless. My neighbor needed an odd job or two done. So, I tightened a few screws and painted her kitchen. She loved my work. I loved working for myself. I started painting houses. Interior only, because all I needed was a tarp and a paint brush. The customer was responsible for buying the paint up front.

Eventually, I worked my way into buying a really shitty truck and a ladder and it kept snowballing. My equipment got better. The jobs kept rolling in. I had more work than I could handle.

Now…what should I do? Should I hire someone? Try to find an equal partner? Or just turn down the work? I talked it through with several friends, and decided to hire a friend of a friend. I didn’t know the guy, so it didn’t make sense to immediately offer him a partnership. The guy didn’t know me, and wasn’t about to commit to a partnership.

So, at this point, I’m the same as “Fred”, right? I’m the owner, I’m looking for an hourly employee. Why am I the bad guy? I’m just working hard. If business is good and I can pay someone who wants the money, isn’t that a good thing?

Let’s skip ahead in your story. Fred retires. Fred Jr. inherits the business and continues to make money for doing nothing. And that’s a very valid objection to the way things work - inherited wealth is poison to a fair system. Nepotism is poison to a fair system.

On the other hand, Fred built a business. Yes, he had someone else running his backhoe. Fred was responsible for other aspects of the business, though. Admin tasks, sales, etc. He worked, there’s no shame that his was a desk job instead of a field job.

The wrap up your analogy is this:

“This is the way we decide who gets the rewards of all the work humanity collectively does (under capitalist systems) and it’s resulted in a hundred or so people so insanely wealthy we can’t even conceptualize how much money they have and everyone else scraping by.”

Let’s break down that statement, there’s a lot going on.

1. “This is the way we decide who gets the rewards…” Sorry, but the system we use is SO much worse than your analogy. I buy a share of stock in the company. I never meet an employee. I never meet a customer. I never even see the business. I just get paid when the company profits. The company itself is too big to fail. The government will loan them low or no interest money to ensure that it doesn’t go under. In 30 years, I can sell my stock, or I can pass it to my children. I can take loans against the unrealized value of that stock.

2. “it’s resulted in a hundred or so people so insanely wealthy we can’t even conceptualize how much money they have…” Again, it’s SO much worse than that. The poorest person on Forbes 400 list is worth almost $4 billion. (That list is USA citizens only, btw.) A billion dollars is inconceivable wealth to most people. At a 10% return rate, that’s $400 million per year accumulated by doing nothing but investing in the Dow. Imagine that. Enough money to give 50 of your family and friends $4 million per year AND still have $100 million income for yourself AND still have $100 million to reinvest every year. Imagine how much political influence that amount of money buys.

So, yeah. I think using a small business as an analogy for capitalism - especially a single proprietor working-class business - distracts from just how bad things really are. Thanks for reading, and hope that I didn’t offend you by jumping into the comments with this rant. :)

Here’s my breakdown, numbers from Wikipedia, for estimates and purposes of discussion:

Total population: 340 million Eligible voters: 245 million Turnout: 155 million

Children can’t vote, that’s 70 million. Convicted felons and other non-eligible citizens make up another 20 million.

Are you suggesting that children should vote? (I do believe that convicts should have the right to vote, but that’s only 20 million.)

despite the downsides which we should be doing a better job of mitigating.

This is the part where I lose faith. We have failed to mitigate the downsides. In fact, we have encouraged the monetization of the downsides.

Seems to me that this is a great argument for getting rid of the death penalty. It’s a win-win. No more pardons for the guilty, no more executions for the innocent.

It seems a LOT easier to just take away pardons entirely. They are abused more often than not.

Yeah, it sucks for innocent folks. But their sentence can still be commuted.

https://youtu.be/tsAZ0RweVxk?t=22

O Brother Where Art Thou, a movie like none other

What is the “right” side, in your opinion? What if both sides are wrong? What if there are more than 2 sides?

Human beings have been outputting incorrect information for years. Get a high school textbook in literally any subject (except possibly math) from the 1970s. You’ll be amazed at how much of it is oversimplified or politicized or just plain wrong.

I do agree that AI has compounded the problem. There’s a limit to how much inaccuracy/incompetence a given system can tolerate. An organization that relies on AI for critical processes better have a way to monitor and intervene.

It’s not ready for commercial use by the general public.

We see this ALL the time in America - a new disruptive technology emerges. We jump all over the benefits and the profits without regard to consequences or expense. We suffer.

New cheap pesticide? Hell yeah, spray that DDT everywhere, it’s super effective! (Insert other endless examples here, from microplastics to asbestos.)

AI (and information technology in general) has shown itself to be a danger to human beings. Its effects are not felt so much in the short term (5 or 10 years) but generationally. We’ve seen that information technology has already impacted quality of life. It’s used as spyware, as a tool to collect and correlate massive amounts of data. It’s used to shape our media experience, our purchasing, our social circles. There are great things, like online banking. But they seem more and more to be outweighed by a loss of humanity. So much misinformation that I question my own reality some days.

What we call “AI” is the evolution of these obtrusive, coercive practices. It exists purely to replace human thinking skills. I’ve spent a bit of time in r/teachers over the last 15 years, and the stories keep getting worse. The rise of AI means that detecting plagiarism/cheating is exponentially more difficult. But, more importantly, the kids don’t have any stress when it comes to cheating. They don’t have to find a friend or know the bare minimum. They can just…cheat. And they never learn to problem solve or overcome adversity.

None of this matters, though. Ready or not, here we are. A new kind of slavery for a new world order.

You just described everyone in DC

I don’t see anyone cheering. I see people debating the ethics and morality of the situation.

Your feelings about your daughter are valid. You are more than welcome to use every tool at your disposal to ensure that she doesn’t date older men. This is expected; you are there to protect her. But don’t expect everyone to feel the same way. Many younger women look for an older, financially stable man. Many older men are willing to enter long-term committed relationships and financially provide for a younger woman.

If you want your daughter to avoid this situation, make sure she’s well-educated and independent. Instead of coddling her, challenge her to achieve her goals and excel in her field.

JFC. Pedophiles are people who rape children.

These are two consenting adults. ADULTS. What fucking use is adulthood if your every action is judged as if you are still a child?

So, let’s keep things in perspective. Yes, there is a power imbalance when the age gap is almost 50%. No, this is not even close to pedophilia. Yes, she should reconsider dating an older man or take things very slow. No, he is not a rapist. No, she is not a child.

By all means, let’s you and I decide to hate each other, instead of trying to reclaim our country back from our corporate overlords.

Poorly executed military action is 100% an American institution. We expect it - from the Bay of Pigs to “Mission Accomplished” in Iraq to the twenty year campaign in Afghanistan, our executive branch has a habit of making itself look incompetent.

But guess what? Nobody’s asking about Epstein, so VICTORY!