i have been floated

the life and times of brad root

On a reddit thread of people freaking out over a local restaurant having an AI-generated menu...

I honestly don't care. Reddit uses a fuckton of AI and y'all show up here everyday just fine.

I've tried this line of reasoning but people don't actually care about being hypocrites, because the human mind can't deal with that much cognitive dissonance at once.

These people know, on some level, that they're using a website that exploits their emotions for engagement while selling their data to train AI products, and that they are using products and wearing clothes built by people being exploited in foreign countries, and that if they're wealthy they are wealthy in a country that was likely built on the labor and land of exploited / murdered people, and that their wealth is a representation of inequality that leaves people homeless on the streets and starves children.

But, like, what really matters is going on reddit to express outrage that a local business has an AI menu! Because they believe AI harms them directly, they don't care about harms perpetuated on other people for their benefit. That's why they will all slowly change their tune once they realize a way that AI helps them instead of harms them, while they continue to not give a shit about the systems of exploitation that props them up.

It's amazing how quickly "slop" has turned into the go-to way for anyone on the internet to insult anything they don't like, even if it isn't AI related. It's like a brain worm. I hate to be this guy but if I see you call something "slop", it's a clear signal to me that you're a complete and total moron who cannot think for themselves at all and you spend too much time on social media because you have no life. You're welcome!

I was arguing with people about AI on IRC, as I love to do, and a friend said I was “too defensive”. It wasn’t until later, in the shower, that I thought I could have said, “well, you’re too offensive.” But that’s not quite right, is it? Semantically, sure, but in actuality, it isn’t.

People who are against AI want to see it stopped, prevented, slowed down, or entirely banned. Those are all defensive actions. People who are pro-AI, on the other hand, want to see it advance, prosper, continue, etc. Those are technically goals of the offense.

So no, deep down, I am not too defensive, because I am not playing defense. I am playing offense. My position is not one of fear. I am not putting up obstacles, I am tearing them down. So, yeah, call me “too offensive,” if you want, at least then you’d be correct.

Just in case there was any doubt the LAPD and all the officers within it are complete and total pieces of shit, and that the fish rots from the head. ACAB indeed.

tfw you argue with someone online and then you poke around chat history and see that they're just some unemployed loser so you feel nicely smug about it

I find myself thinking about the way a coworker describes AI as a “force multiplier” a lot. I think it is very true. It is a force multiplier for the things already inside of us, the good and bad, the conscious and unconscious. If you're curious, it makes you more curious; if you're lazy, it makes you more lazy. There is no solution for this except vigilance, which is bad for all the people with no vigilance. There will be a lot of people with no vigilance trying to blame AI for a lot of stuff in the coming years…

But, anyway, it will be curious to see what cumulative effect this force multiplier will have on society at large. I mean, gosh, that sounds pretty scary, as a pessimist who thinks society is already pretty scary.

No one talks about how hard it is for a man to get older and to realize everyone in your spank bank is going to get old and die, or are already old or dead. Your spank bank becomes a collection of ghosts–memories of younger, more supple and elastic days–forcing you to face your own mortality, when you're just tryin' to have a wank.