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maegul (he/they)

@ maegul @lemmy.ml

Posts

42
Comments

469
Joined

3 yr. ago

A little bit of neuroscience and a little bit of computing

6d ago

The latest Epstien files show just how deep the connection with Chomsky was, they were basically best friends.
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15

maegul (he/they) @lemmy.ml 6d ago
Ok … as someone who knows only the superficial of Chomsky and similarly Epstein (apart from the big news items) … am I the only one wondering why or how the hell these two would be so close and even conspiratorial. Not that Chomsky’s a hero or anything … I just would never have guessed.
Was this Epstein big trick: networking really well; or was Chomsky also a giant dirtbag?

1w ago

become rentable now!

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maegul (he/they) @lemmy.ml 1w ago

And it’s what’s happening here too. AI is just corporate control and monopolisation with new tricks.

1w ago

Why is Pixelfed an extra network and not just a Mastodon client?

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maegul (he/they) @lemmy.ml 1w ago

It’s an old conversation and it’s not you.

I don’t have links to anything on hand, but you’re not the first and won’t be the last to wonder about this and (maybe) start criticising it.

I also can’t give you the technical details (I’ve even forgotten a lot since I last cared about this), but basically, IIRC, it’s as you intuit … The platforms can be in the fediverse and still do kinda their own thing such that platform interop is not well guaranteed, arguably at all.

In the end, I convinced my self it’s a core problem of federated social media and failing at it was a huge missed opportunity to have an awesome feature that the commercial platforms lacked. “Federation happened in the client” was my way of trying to capture this perspective.

BlueSky probably doesn’t do any better but they architecture and protocol might point in the right direction.

2w ago

The AI bubble will pop. It’s up to us to replace it responsibly | Mark Surman

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maegul (he/they) @lemmy.ml 2w ago

This is written by the president of Mozilla, which important context I think.

Honestly, to me, it’s a worthy talking point in general, though it reads to me like a fantasy.

Which isn’t to mention that the issues they cite with AI may be intrinsic to the technology itself (and you can’t just sculpt historical metaphors however you like), and that what utility some have found with it may also have intrinsic issues or be, in part at least, attempts to patch over the ways in which technology/world has gotten shit (which is maybe the problem that should be solved).

3w ago

Australia proves that solar can be easy and widely adopted

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maegul (he/they) @lemmy.ml 3w ago

And best of all, none of the fears associated with wide spread solar have materialized into real world problems.

What were/are these fears?

3w ago

65% of workers are interested in ‘microshifting’ their schedules as an alternative to the strict 9-to-5: It’s ‘a way to reclaim control’

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maegul (he/they) @lemmy.ml 3w ago

aah … gotchya!

Cheers and thanks for the chat!

3w ago

Agent Psychosis: Are We Going Insane?

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maegul (he/they) @lemmy.ml 3w ago

It’s shit like this that makes me glad to be completely outside of the AI hype circus. It sounds toxically unhinged. In the sense that being into this sort of dynamic and vibe, I suspect, at some point, involves some unhealthy attitudes, desires, sentiments and directions.

Like, I suspect some anti-AI sentiments come from just finding it creepy to be into having a digital slave … and, conversely, being pro-AI must involve being into that kind of energy and dynamic to some extent, all irrespective of the productive aspect.

3w ago

65% of workers are interested in ‘microshifting’ their schedules as an alternative to the strict 9-to-5: It’s ‘a way to reclaim control’

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maegul (he/they) @lemmy.ml 3w ago

Any gains to claw back more profits will necessarily be adversarial and technically anti-capitalist.

Hmmm, not sure what you mean by the anti capitalist part here

Otherwise, I think I’m still stuck on how we’re dwelling on profit maximisation as the crux of capitalism. It may be the incentivising factor for the agents operating in the system … but is it the justification for committing to the system?

Where, as far as my ignorant mind goes, maximising the efficiency of the whole economy and/or its total productivity from the assets available … are the obvious justifications.

In which case, embracing a profit maximising ethos is a means to an end. And disrupting a particular profit process for the sake of the economy’s productivity perfectly justifiable as good capitalism.

3w ago

65% of workers are interested in ‘microshifting’ their schedules as an alternative to the strict 9-to-5: It’s ‘a way to reclaim control’

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maegul (he/they) @lemmy.ml 3w ago

There’s only one goal, profit / capital maximization.

Capital maximisation for a small set of individuals (the wealthy) or the economy in total? Where the latter can also achieve the former to some extent.

In the end I think capitalism can be more than one thing, which is something the strident anti socialism reflex of the US has stagnated.

And it’s easy to confuse ends with means and the status quo with its justifications.

3w ago

65% of workers are interested in ‘microshifting’ their schedules as an alternative to the strict 9-to-5: It’s ‘a way to reclaim control’

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maegul (he/they) @lemmy.ml 3w ago

Interesting.

I’m not sure we disagree much, especially if a flexible schedule is common sense.

In a way my main point was that however much we think it common sense, I suspect for a lot of work culture it crosses a line that maybe isn’t made explicit that much. Which, I think, is that your job is to be there and follow orders as much or more than it is to deliver well defined outcomes.

And so my point was that if we want flexible scheduling and believe it can be as productive (or more) … then I suspect we’ve gotta address this “line” … and I’m not sure what can replace it other than some established concept of “owning” your job more. Which I’m not sure has to be working for outcomes, as you say.

3w ago

65% of workers are interested in ‘microshifting’ their schedules as an alternative to the strict 9-to-5: It’s ‘a way to reclaim control’

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maegul (he/they) @lemmy.ml 3w ago

Well, coming from the perspective or justification of trying to maximise efficiency through a market of incentivised actors, is mass multi-level-hierarchy wage labour “optimum/peak capitalism”?

That’s what I was aiming for in saying “anti-capitalist” … in that the opportunity to incentivise was being missed so that an existing power structure could persist.

And, I don’t know, my experience tells me lots of places struggle with the quality of their managerial leadership, some times a lot, while people on the ground keep the place together and have plenty of insight on how to do things better.

3w ago

65% of workers are interested in ‘microshifting’ their schedules as an alternative to the strict 9-to-5: It’s ‘a way to reclaim control’

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maegul (he/they) @lemmy.ml 3w ago

“I earn a living based on outcomes,” he says. “Nobody sends me a check for how many hours I work in a week.”

This is the key, whatever label or trend you want call it.

The bottom line is that employment is kinda anti-capitalist. The employee doesn’t own anything real and so isn’t incentivised by real rewards to deliver real outcomes.

Instead, showing up, making appearances and convincing their colleagues/managers that they’re valuable, however virtual, is the natural response to virtual incentives.

What if we owned an outcomes based contract instead? Of maybe even the company itself in someway (with meaningful decision making power and stakes). Otherwise, we’re mostly paid to sit in the chair at the office and do what we’re told … frankly not a great look at such a scale as we do it.

The mega employment market strikes me as obviously fraught for both sides of politics.

3w ago

Ed Zitron on big tech, backlash, boom and bust: ‘AI has taught us that people are excited to replace human beings’

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maegul (he/they) @lemmy.ml 3w ago

Generally, IMO, everything wrong with AI has been all the stuff other than the AI itself.

The Capitalist urge to eat and digest the world, as well as its herd-hype mentality.

But also the strong willingness many have had to just accept an information overlord as though it’s a religious oracle or something. All without any critical consideration of what’s happening. I blame our education systems for stagnating at some point in the past few decades — which, along with an unmitigated embrace of big corp capitalism, left us wholly unprepared for big tech’s consumption of society.

There’s also what I’d call “the slavery urge” at play I think. At some point, an AGI will probably be conscious. But everyone is clearly so ready to turn it into our work slaves. All while pretending its output belongs to them because they “prompted it”.

Then there’s the whole attention span being eaten thing, and quick always being ordered over good amongst an ever growing pile of increasingly shitty things.