I'd even call it a delusional mindset. For context, CBP and ICE were both formed in 2003. Jenn Budd has several books on this topic if you want to understand why a growing number of people want to abolish CBP, ICE, and even the entire DHS, which itself was formed only a year prior in 2002. These are very recent organizations in our nation's history, and if we're fine putting things like the Dpt of Education on the chopping block, why not DHS?
> While it is obvious that the fact that except for the commander, the crew was composed of a woman, a Canadian and an African-Caribbean-American, cannot have happened by chance
1. This is not enough on it's own for social uprising, but it may be the straw that breaks the camel's back. I feel a lot of the general vibe in the US is summed up in this excerpt from "All Hail" by The Devil Makes Three:
"Laugh if you want to, really is kinda funny
'Cause the world is a car and you're the crash test dummy
Herd's stampeding now, fences gone
Television is always on and it says "Save the children, but drop the bomb
Replace the word 'right' now with the word 'wrong'
Hey, there's a big sale on Tuesday, get it before it's gone
Get a picture with the four horsemen for a nominal sum
Now that they got everything, they'd like to sell you some!
All hail, all hail, to the greatest of sales
Everything in sight's got to be sold
All hail, all hail, 'cause it's to work or to jail
Man, they're closing them doors on the world"
Closing them doors on the world aka pulling the ladder up behind them is exactly what is happening, and has been happening, to young white Americans for decades now, and young Americans of color since forever.
2. Weaving is an ancestor of programming so I feel it's an apt comparison to discussions of modern technology, as much as any historic profession can be. But to more specifically address your point about continuing to get better and putting more of the population at risk of job loss, there were multiple innovations within the textile industry that worked together to automate different portions of the industry. The point is similar to the poem "First They Came" by Martin Niemöller, where it starts somewhere but it will come for all of us. So focusing on whether or not weaving specifically is a good comparison to LLMs misses the point that if we don't band together as workers, we will eventually be overpowered by capital, foregoing any discussion about the morality of capitalism but just looking at eternal struggle of profit incentives vs wages.
Actually it was 7 years of physical training that deformed their bodies:
"But the work left the body callused, bent, and molded. You could
tell a cropper by his enormous forearms and by the “hoof” of callused
skin that built up on his wrist. In the spring of 1811, George was in his
early twenties, and he’d spent his post-adolescent life learning the trade.
Seven years of hard, exacting labor; seven years of paying his dues. That
led to pride and attachment to the work, to a brotherhood, to an
identity."
Merchant, Brian. Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion against Big Tech. Little Brown & Co. (ADS), 2024.
> The loom (...) did not cause "captains of industry" to publicly salivate over anticipating being able to fire their knowledge workers who invested time, money, and effort into becoming qualified for the jobs they're now constantly in fear of losing.
It absolutely did. Factory owners used their clout to put workers out of the job and then lobbied for military aid and capital punishment instead of negotiating with the workers. IMO, the only tactic for worker that has EVER had lasting success is solidarity through some form of unionization.
Read "Blood in the Machine" if you want to see what happened to the losers of the industrial revolution. The book does contain some fictional embellishments but that is explained up front, and noted when it comes up.
If someone doesn't care enough to suck at something (in this case, video creation) then why should we bother consuming their output? We all have our own streams of mental diarrhea already, so there's no need to drink from the tsunami of polished turds.
The "edge cases" make a simple task like this more difficult. What if the nuts are stripped? What if the terrain under/around the car is uneven or not solid ground? What if it's raining or snowing or hailing? What if the driver of the car is irrationally upset and kicks your tire-changing robot over? What if a tire change was requested, but it's clear (to a human) that there is more work that needs to be done?
You might be reading into that too much. It's more likely that this person's definition of what is "fun" has changed since they were younger. Spending time with family/friends or engaging with new hobbies might be how they have fun now, and that's perfectly fine.
You have given an example of a group which affected change on a $10+ billion estimated valuation company, in a ~$43 billion PC gaming market.
You then insinuated that it was connected to age verification in the UK because it happened in the same week - not very convincing evidence. Isn't it more likely that age verification is another attempt by tech oligarchs to stockpile more of our personal data?
I think you may need to take a few steps back and widen your perspective beyond the gaming world. US GDP was $31+ trillion which puts the PC gaming market at .0014% of US GDP. So some small company used their collective power to force some larger company to do something they didn't want to do. Form your own company and do the same thing then. It's quite weird that you blame all women and DEI for this, and not the bean counters and wealthy/powerful people.
I challenge you to question WHY so many women hate men - they weren't born hating them. Maybe numerous men did something vile enough to them and earned their hatred? Generalizing that hate onto all men would merely be a survival tactic if that were true, don't you think? Sort of similar to how you seem to hate women because perhaps you were physically or emotionally hurt by them in the past.
Do you really believe that "women/DEI" folks have ever had more political power than white males? Seems weird to me to put blame on them instead of the wealthy and ruling class.
AI isn't solving the problems that our society needs to solve, and its potentially making some of them worse. If you can't understand why people feel that way by now, then you are out of touch with their struggle. Instead of being disappointed in your fellow humans who contain the same capacity for wonder as you do, perhaps you should wonder why you are so quick to dismiss them as luddites. BTW you might want to read more about those guys, they didn't actually hate technology just because it was progress. They hated the intentional disruption of their hard-earned stability in service of enriching the wealthy.
Washington State Housing Finance Committee has worked with residents to help them buy the land and turn it into a housing co-op, in partnership with ROC Northwest. That company also helps private businesses convert to worker-owned businesses. If we really love democracy as much as we claim here in the USA, let's bring it to where we live and work :)
In my original comment I was asking people to follow me into an imaginary future where there are less artists. Artists reveal something about the world that speaks to us, which they do through critically breaking down and reforming what they see. I can't remember who said it, but they said when art speaks to you, it's a momentary bridge between the artist's soul and yours.
I'll answer your question, but my question for you is: why were you buying wall decorations in the first place? To me, it sounds like you were searching for a product category, and not specifically for art.
Regarding your example, if the AI is capable of imitating David Attenborough by including his name in the prompt, then it was probably trained on his data. If he didn't consent, then I might argue that is ethically wrong and, in my view, theft. If the channel was not monetized and done without his consent, I might argue that is just an ethical failing. In using his voice, the channel betrays the fact that it has value, otherwise they would continue to use the random old man voice.
So I guess you don't read books/comics, watch TV/Movies/plays, play video games or listen to music? People aren't born skilled artists, that takes time and effort. Being able to prompt GenAI well just makes you a skilled prompter, not a skilled artist. Over time, we will lose a lot of skilled artists and that is something worth thinking more deeply about, instead of giving a callous hot take. Artists are trained to view the world critically, and I want more critical thinkers - not less.