i had dinner with my older neighbors for the 4th and they were talking about various economic issues and hoping the US would “get better again”. I told them I don’t think the US has much of a chance, China is taking the lead in everything, especially in manufacturing where they have “dark factories” that have no people in them. Two of them spit their food out and started laughing.
I guess that just sounded ridiculous to the boomer generation.
These people have no idea how much the world has changed, but it’s not just boomers either. A lot of people in tech still think that the US is ahead, and that China is just stealing from the west. There has been so much propaganda that it’s really hard for people to readjust their views. Also notable how the US just bans advanced Chinese tech like electric cars, phones, etc. So, a lot of time people don’t even have any frame of reference because they don’t see products from Chinese companies they can use. I suspect this is in part why there’s a bit of a panic over Chinese LLMs now because they show that China isn’t actually behind technologically.
I really hope they go look up the dark factories… they’ll feel like assholes. But I’m pretty sure they won’t because boomers don’t like to explore the things they already know generally.
i had dinner with my older neighbors for the 4th and they were talking about various economic issues and hoping the US would “get better again”. I told them I don’t think the US has much of a chance, China is taking the lead in everything, especially in manufacturing where they have “dark factories” that have no people in them. Two of them spit their food out and started laughing.
I guess that just sounded ridiculous to the boomer generation.
These people have no idea how much the world has changed, but it’s not just boomers either. A lot of people in tech still think that the US is ahead, and that China is just stealing from the west. There has been so much propaganda that it’s really hard for people to readjust their views. Also notable how the US just bans advanced Chinese tech like electric cars, phones, etc. So, a lot of time people don’t even have any frame of reference because they don’t see products from Chinese companies they can use. I suspect this is in part why there’s a bit of a panic over Chinese LLMs now because they show that China isn’t actually behind technologically.
Centuries of western superiority complex driven by colonial military policy is a hell of a drug.
I really hope they go look up the dark factories… they’ll feel like assholes. But I’m pretty sure they won’t because boomers don’t like to explore the things they already know generally.
We can hope. You tried to plant the seed, never know, maybe it’ll go somewhere.