this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2023
195 points (100.0% liked)

the_dunk_tank

15915 readers
1 users here now

It's the dunk tank.

This is where you come to post big-brained hot takes by chuds, libs, or even fellow leftists, and tear them to itty-bitty pieces with precision dunkstrikes.

Rule 1: All posts must include links to the subject matter, and no identifying information should be redacted.

Rule 2: If your source is a reactionary website, please use archive.is instead of linking directly.

Rule 3: No sectarianism.

Rule 4: TERF/SWERFs Not Welcome

Rule 5: No ableism of any kind (that includes stuff like libt*rd)

Rule 6: Do not post fellow hexbears.

Rule 7: Do not individually target other instances' admins or moderators.

Rule 8: The subject of a post cannot be low hanging fruit, that is comments/posts made by a private person that have low amount of upvotes/likes/views. Comments/Posts made on other instances that are accessible from hexbear are an exception to this. Posts that do not meet this requirement can be posted to [email protected]

Rule 9: if you post ironic rage bait im going to make a personal visit to your house to make sure you never make this mistake again

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
 

There are lots of other galaxy-brain moments there.

"Single payer economies leads to bad things like Bolshevism and Stalin"

@[email protected] Let's hear your rant

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 42 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I've read a couple of his books and he's got serious brainworms which is a shame because he's gotta really good insight into what VR is capable of doing to our minds, but he's been anti-socialism since the days when most hackers were largely anti-capitalist robin hood archetypes. He knows and sees all the horrible shit capitalism and silicon valley does and is going to do, but just sticks his head in the sand and doubles down.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

This is from an interview he did with Ezra Klein in 2018. https://www.vox.com/2018/1/16/16897738/jaron-lanier-interview

Jaron Lanier: The first thing I want to do is just confirm the degree of problem that exists... I still kinda have my meal card in Silicon Valley despite of all the things I say and so I'm in these conversations sometimes and I hear people who have done extremely well and have a lot of influence in Silicon Valley say things that just... send me reeling. Because they're just so appalling. And so a fairly typical line of conversation lately has gone something like this:

Lanier: Well you know, um automation is coming and a whole lot of people are going to be thrown out of work. Many many millions of people, many hundreds of millions because they won't be driving anymore, they won't be doing so many other things. We think we can have our algorithms be better teachers, better nurses. All, even the sort of supposedly human-centric "safe" things. Or in the worst case, we'll only need a little bit of human labor to cover the rough spots of the algorithms. But the question is what to do with all these people and a lot of them have been saying, "Ya know, this Opioid addiction crisis has come up at just the right time because actually it will be easier for everybody if a lot of the people that aren't needed are just sedated all the time." Like this is actually positive.

Ezra: Do people actually say that to you?

Lanier: Yeah, I've heard that a number of times, it's sort of an internal talking point that comes up. Yeah I've heard that. Yeah um. I mean, I always fight it, but yeah sure, I've heard it. And I'm not saying everybody says it, but I'm saying there's... it's the sort of thing that one hears. And one definitely hears that...

Ezra: I'm completely flabbergasted.

LAnier: Yeah, I know, I know.

Ezra: That another human being would make this comment to another human being.

Lanier: Yeah, I don't want to name the specific people who have done it, but they're known names, you know? And uh, similarly with the idea of technology being addicted, of using the different techniques like noisy feedback which is what's used in gambling to make gambling addictive. Of using these things to addict people to information systems, it's a very similar argument. That we need to have the people in some sort of a "spot" where they're not going to just burn everything down when they don't have jobs. And then um, the basic income model is thought of as a kind of a ma.. It's kind of like in the matrix movies, ya know? It's just this way to maintain this population of people who aren't doing anything and aren't needed.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, I don't want to name the specific people who have done it, but they're known names, you know?

Coward

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago

Totally. In his book Who Owns the Future he warns of the danger of data collection by what he calls Siren Servers (aka monopolies) but his answer to it is that we should instead tokenize all our data and each individual could make money by spending their days managing their data to the highest bidder. He knows what the fucking problems are but he's got a giagantic brainworms 'SOCIALISM BAD' button that if you get anywhere near it he loses a considerable amount of his cognitive abilities. Like in that same Ezra Klein interview he's called out for how unsustainable that would be and how people would just find themselves forced to give up their data in order to access services anyway and he just umms his way out of addressing it.