this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2026
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[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 41 points 14 hours ago (3 children)

AI really appeals to a fantasy that I think all of us have to some extent but that powerful people really have, of a world without people in it—because hell really is other people.

This. The AI industry is pushing super hard to make it work, to replace human workers. It's failing, as AI work is crappier than human work and costs way, way more than human work, but there's that Ayn Rand fantasy that the ownership class can just shut out the worker class and create an utopia.

I'm reminded of the car factory in which the upper management fired the striking workers assuming they could do the work themselves, only to find that the unskilled labor actually took skill.

[–] BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

I bet Elon or some other rich creep read Atlas Shrugged and thought it was profound lol

[–] audaxdreik@pawb.social 5 points 9 hours ago

I'm constantly struck by the imagery of the giant warrior from Nausicaa. There is a timeline or a reality where this worked, but they couldn't help themselves. They woke the beast up the second it was even halfway possible and now it's tearing itself apart in self-destructive blasts because the whole thing was under-cooked (and probably the completely wrong direction to begin with).

If there's any consolation here it's that hopefully this has soured enough people on the idea that a second effort won't even get off the ground. I hope ...

[–] 1984@lemmy.today 5 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

No, hell is loneliness and that's what humanity gets if it goes down the Ai / dystopian route. We can see in China today how people are suffering from loneliness despite having tech to order food and items and having them delivered in hours.

[–] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 2 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Personally I can and will ramble towards my cats about the intricacies of late Bronze Age trade networks in Central Italy. They slap me for it. I see no reason for human interactions given that I have honest counters to my pre-existing madness.

[–] nullify3112@lemmy.world 3 points 3 hours ago

No one expects the sea peoples, not even your cats.

[–] Grumpus_Maximus@thelemmy.club 1 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Just start buying AI from Chinese companies. Cancel your anthropic and chatgpt - they will suffocate quickly.

[–] rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world 9 points 5 hours ago

Top tip: Getting computer-generated wrong answers in Chinese is just as useful as getting computer-generated wrong answers in English.

You don't even have to read Chinese!

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 14 hours ago

My friend was blathering on about Cory Doctorow two decades ago and I knew the name, had maybe read a little bit. I was kind of annoyed how ofter he brought him up. Man did he come out ahead of me on that. This guy articulates the ills of society so well.

[–] digital_alchemist@discuss.tchncs.de 23 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

He talked about the book in his interview on Democracy Now! this morning too.

[–] freeman@feddit.org 3 points 12 hours ago

absolutely stunning to hear him talk, he is an exceptional man

[–] vane@lemmy.world 25 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

You can also buy and download books / audiobooks from his website https://craphound.com/ some of them are pay as you want.

[–] markko@lemmy.world 5 points 16 hours ago

For those wondering, the ebooks for Information Doesn’t Want To Be Free, With a Little Help from My Friends, and Context are pay what you'd like.

[–] IratePirate@feddit.org 66 points 1 day ago

I'm a simple man. I see Cory, I upvote. Then I read the text.

[–] EmilieEasie@fedinsfw.app 42 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Reverse centaur? Lol? I need to come back to this later

[–] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 18 points 18 hours ago

A centaur is a human that can do more than an ordinary person... A person plus a horse is able to do more. Making our tools work for us allows us to do more.

A reverse centaur is when our tools are using us instead. Rather than a driver using a computer to navigate more efficiently, Amazon drivers are more like computers that use humans as a component to drive more efficiently than the computer itself could. Not great for the human.

[–] lime@feddit.nu 65 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

centaur = brain of a man, speed of a horse.
reverse centaur = brain of a horse, speed of a man.

substitute horse with ai.

[–] mcv@lemmy.zip 14 points 20 hours ago

Good practical examples are the car driver vs the Amazon driver. When you drive a car, you go where you want, but at the superhuman speed of a car. The Amazon driver has a computer telling them where to go, how to drive there, and even cameras to watch if you drive according to Amazon's rules. The driver has become the extension of the computer, instead of the other way around. That's a reverse centaur.

[–] ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip 25 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Over a long enough distance, men can outrun a horse. Especially in heat.

[–] onion_dude@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago

Ooooh! I've got a thing for this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_versus_Horse_Marathon

My friend runs it each year. His pictures are nuts

[–] sundray@lemmus.org 54 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Who’s in heat, the horse or the man?

[–] random_character_a@lemmy.world 31 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I don't like where this is going, but I approve it.

[–] erictile@lemmy.world 9 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

Wherever it's going, we can measure it in Hands.

[–] NoSpotOfGround@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I put on my harness and horse-ears hat...

[–] caseyweederman@lemmy.ca 4 points 21 hours ago

Are you the mightiest horserer of the lands

[–] Miller@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] sundray@lemmus.org 2 points 1 day ago
[–] fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Have you ever tried running with a boner? You wear out quickly.

[–] sundray@lemmus.org 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] Mountainaire@lemmy.world 2 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

What is that black ball that falls on the right side?

[–] sundray@lemmus.org 1 points 18 hours ago

That's weird, I have no idea. I didn't see it on my phone screen, but yeah I see it now on my laptop.

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 24 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think the bigger question is why the man is running after a horse in heat. That is not how you make a centaur.

[–] lime@feddit.nu 16 points 1 day ago

not with that attitude

[–] morto@piefed.social 3 points 1 day ago

But with a horse brain?

[–] ssladam@lemmy.world 1 points 20 hours ago

Practically, better described as endurance, although technically correct.

[–] EmilieEasie@fedinsfw.app 2 points 1 day ago

Thank you kindly friend

[–] nightlily@leminal.space 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

He published a transcript of a speech where he goes over a summary of the book that’s worth a read https://pluralistic.net/2025/12/05/pop-that-bubble/#u-washington

[–] Garnish2087@fedinsfw.app 6 points 20 hours ago

If you've read this post or kept up with his blog occasionally the book treads familiar grounds. I sill think it's worth the read to have a condensed version.

Doctorow guides you through understanding the AI bubble by proving you don't need to know the technical jargon or latest developments. All you need to have as a guiding framework is "what technology (actually) does and who it does it to."