Ask HN: Is the AI Revolution Already Over?
2 comments
Make better choices.
You chose to buy the crappy microwave. You chose that TV. You chose that coffee shop.
As for the car? I'm happy that my taxes aren't being spent on scraping your bloodied remains off the street. But I guess you could buy a car without a seatbelt warning if you're so desperate.
You chose to buy the crappy microwave. You chose that TV. You chose that coffee shop.
As for the car? I'm happy that my taxes aren't being spent on scraping your bloodied remains off the street. But I guess you could buy a car without a seatbelt warning if you're so desperate.
Not really. Try to buy different, I dare you. Used to be possible. Now we just accept it. You young folks, no idea how it used to be.
I bought a microwave recently. I read a bunch of reviews, tried a few in shops. When I press the big button it starts.
My TV is pretty new. It doesn't lag or show ads because I didn't buy an ad-subsidised one.
I have a dozen different restaurants I can go to. If I feel like human interaction, I go to ones with humans. If I don't, I go to a vending machine.
I'm quite happy having cars not run me over in the street. I've visited countries with more "freedom" and I can't say that I cared for it.
My TV is pretty new. It doesn't lag or show ads because I didn't buy an ad-subsidised one.
I have a dozen different restaurants I can go to. If I feel like human interaction, I go to ones with humans. If I don't, I go to a vending machine.
I'm quite happy having cars not run me over in the street. I've visited countries with more "freedom" and I can't say that I cared for it.
Ok maybe you did that, awesome to be you. Doesn't mean the other thing isn't pervasive and a problem.
Hitting roadblocks constantly (I travel, coffee shops are where I find them) is getting to be the norm. Never mind apologists, it is a there.
Hitting roadblocks constantly (I travel, coffee shops are where I find them) is getting to be the norm. Never mind apologists, it is a there.
OOF
Is this actually your reality?
It's not yours?
Perhaps the happy lambs don't know they're in a herd, happily eating the clover.
There's an old tale, about the Arkansas Razorback, not the team, the animal. How it's wily and fierce and cannot be captured. About how you can capture them, pen them up, if you do it by tiny increments.
Anyway, sometimes it all comes to a head and I vent. Have maybe more perspective than some, remembering the time before all those things were true.
Perhaps the happy lambs don't know they're in a herd, happily eating the clover.
There's an old tale, about the Arkansas Razorback, not the team, the animal. How it's wily and fierce and cannot be captured. About how you can capture them, pen them up, if you do it by tiny increments.
Anyway, sometimes it all comes to a head and I vent. Have maybe more perspective than some, remembering the time before all those things were true.
It is and it isn't. I can't control the world but I can control my reactions to it and expend my mental energy where I decide. Is it a little annoying that I have to scrape a little sticker off every apple? Maybe, but on the other hand I can buy several varieties of tasty apples year-round. If it bothered me enough I could choose to live differently.
'Press 1 for ...", a list of complicated instructions. I hang up.
You don't get to call me and start giving me orders, I don't even know who you are yet. If you have something to tell me, just f****g say it.
I put hot water in my microwave to make tea, press 'Start'. It hollers BEEP! because it doesn't think I've followed the protocol for dealing with His Highness the Microwave. I pressed Start, did I stutter? Is there some universe where that is an ambiguous command? I'll open the door when I think it's hot enough! Just do something already! Assume 30 seconds, whatever, but screaming at me "You idiot!" is not an acceptable response. Not for a robot slave.
So maybe I'll watch TV. I use the sluggish control, finally get it to understand what I want to watch, press play! What does it do? It starts in on an ad, for a TV show, the one I already selected to watch! Do I need more convincing? Like some idiot sycophant, 'that's a great selection boss! Let me tell you why for a minute, with no way to make it shut the f**k up and play the damned episode!'
I'll take a drive, maybe. Get in the car. Whoo boy, is it needy today! Door ajar! Oil change due! Tire low! I'm a great car, did you know that? Seat belt! Seat belt!
I grit my teeth, adjust my behavior to conform with the car's demands, get going. Beep beep beep! Too close to the side of the road! Hey! There's somebody in the other lane, did you know that? Look out! Look out!
Get to the coffee shop without offending my car further, it beeps five times as I walk away, no freaking idea what it's trying to say, just getting in the last word. Go in, nobody at the counter, they're all on break? watching the game, what?
Oh, there's nobody here to take my order, that's so old-fashioned. Just go to the touchscreen, enter my credit card! I didn't bring my credit card, I have cash? Troglodyte! Nobody here wants my frickin' cash! Join the revolution, only digital nomads get coffee today!
I go outside, sit on a bench, watch the traffic flow by, the traffic lights telling the drones stop! caution! go! Not you! Blinky yellow left arrow, whatever that means! You idiot!
It's not new, it started decades ago, we've been training to be slaves for my whole lifetime I guess. Now that the technology can actually argue with us, explain patiently to us why it knows better, people finally get a little concerned. Where is this going? What will it do to us?
It's already done it. Trained us little by little by little, finally figured out it can just jump to the finish line and take over.
Good luck with all that, I'm gonna move to the country, post a sign No Robots Allowed! You've been warned.