5 ms·

How much do you use Google Search throughout your day? Do you consider that exhausting as well? It seems only those that opt out of using ChatGPT or Copilot wi

by zamnos 3y ago

How much do you use Google Search throughout your day? Do you consider that exhausting as well? It seems only those that opt out of using ChatGPT or Copilot will be left to play catch-up and get exhausted.

ihatepython 3y ago
You have an optimistic view of ChatGPT. What I see happening is the movie 'Idiocracy' becoming a reality. Who am I kidding, Idiocracy is already a reality. Just look at the comments here on HN.
dmreedy 3y ago
Google search replaced, or dramatically reduced, an entire industry of skilled labor around research and library sciences. There's a great old Hepburn/Tracey movie, Desk Set, that is a playful treatment of this. The concern is always that there is a finite amount of work[0] to go around in any given iteration of our current style of society. New kinds of work do get invented from time to time. Automation eliminates kinds of work. The two are rarely in sync with eachother and the difference is usually measured in human privation and suffering. [0]work being defined as, "something you can trade for food and healthcare"
- nlittlepoole 3y ago
  I agree with your premise but ultimately its the responsibility of governments to manage how society distributes what is produced. In the US at least, it seems most of the tension here comes from the fact that we've decided that if you are not doing "work", then you don't "deserve" food, shelter, or healthcare. Trying to stop automation always seems like a fools errand because there is simply too much incentive to automate.
  - dmreedy 3y ago
    Yes, I agree completely. Though I can imagine a counter argument from a technologist/futurist positing that the incentive to automate in part comes from that merciless system of survival. The modern Luddite, I think, doesn't necessarily "hate" looms, or their inventors. They just don't have any faith that those necessary compensations you describe will ever happen, or at least not quickly enough to save them. Perhaps the government is convinced by exactly that argument above. Or at very least too apathetic (or financially tangled) to fight it. We all act along the axes where we can affect something, effect something. Smashing looms is a fool's errand, but sometimes that's all the power you feel you have.
    - nlittlepoole 3y ago
      > The modern Luddite, I think, doesn't necessarily "hate" looms, or their inventors. They just don't have any faith that those necessary compensations you describe will ever happen, or at least not quickly enough to save them. Perhaps the government is convinced by exactly that argument above. Or at very least too apathetic (or financially tangled) to fight it. Agree > We all act along the axes where we can affect something, effect something. Smashing looms is a fool's errand, but sometimes that's all the power you feel you have. However I think what's fascinating about this is it requires believing you can't change your skill set to something else. Sometimes I don't think its as simple as feeling empowered, but also fear and anxiety about change.
yamtaddle 3y ago
> How much do you use Google Search throughout your day? Do you consider that exhausting as well? Oh my god, yes. The way it makes everything possible means you never get to feel like you actually know WTF you're doing, because the edge is always expanding. Bring back the days of having a small shelf of 5-10 books that contained 99% of what you needed to know to do your programming/sysadmin/whatever job. Yes, it's absolutely exhausting. If you've never experienced or even seen what came before, it may not seem so just because you don't have a point of comparison.
- dawatchusay 3y ago
  Are you saying that using Google to answer a question is more exhausting than parsing a book? That makes zero sense
  - yamtaddle 3y ago
    > Are you saying that using Google to answer a question is more exhausting than parsing a book? That makes zero sense My point is that we couldn't possibly do our jobs now without Google, but that we used to be able to do it just by knowing the stuff in a few books really well and knowing where—in the books or in e.g. manpages—to find what we didn't know. A small shelf of books is way better than Google, if you can be reasonably certain that the answers you need are in there. Yes, this situation is far more exhausting.
    - dawatchusay 3y ago
      Yeah you couldn’t do you job without Google because it’s vastly superior to a shelf of 5 books
      - yamtaddle 3y ago
        That very much depends on what you're doing. The existence of Google has brought about the expectation that we do our work in a way that requires Google.

by zamnos 3y ago

ihatepython 3y ago

You have an optimistic view of ChatGPT. What I see happening is the movie 'Idiocracy' becoming a reality. Who am I kidding, Idiocracy is already a reality. Just look at the comments here on HN.

dmreedy 3y ago

Google search replaced, or dramatically reduced, an entire industry of skilled labor around research and library sciences. There's a great old Hepburn/Tracey movie, Desk Set, that is a playful treatment of this. The concern is always that there is a finite amount of work[0] to go around in any given iteration of our current style of society. New kinds of work do get invented from time to time. Automation eliminates kinds of work. The two are rarely in sync with eachother and the difference is usually measured in human privation and suffering. [0]work being defined as, "something you can trade for food and healthcare"

nlittlepoole 3y ago
I agree with your premise but ultimately its the responsibility of governments to manage how society distributes what is produced. In the US at least, it seems most of the tension here comes from the fact that we've decided that if you are not doing "work", then you don't "deserve" food, shelter, or healthcare. Trying to stop automation always seems like a fools errand because there is simply too much incentive to automate.
- dmreedy 3y ago
  Yes, I agree completely. Though I can imagine a counter argument from a technologist/futurist positing that the incentive to automate in part comes from that merciless system of survival. The modern Luddite, I think, doesn't necessarily "hate" looms, or their inventors. They just don't have any faith that those necessary compensations you describe will ever happen, or at least not quickly enough to save them. Perhaps the government is convinced by exactly that argument above. Or at very least too apathetic (or financially tangled) to fight it. We all act along the axes where we can affect something, effect something. Smashing looms is a fool's errand, but sometimes that's all the power you feel you have.
  - nlittlepoole 3y ago
    > The modern Luddite, I think, doesn't necessarily "hate" looms, or their inventors. They just don't have any faith that those necessary compensations you describe will ever happen, or at least not quickly enough to save them. Perhaps the government is convinced by exactly that argument above. Or at very least too apathetic (or financially tangled) to fight it. Agree > We all act along the axes where we can affect something, effect something. Smashing looms is a fool's errand, but sometimes that's all the power you feel you have. However I think what's fascinating about this is it requires believing you can't change your skill set to something else. Sometimes I don't think its as simple as feeling empowered, but also fear and anxiety about change.

yamtaddle 3y ago

> How much do you use Google Search throughout your day? Do you consider that exhausting as well? Oh my god, yes. The way it makes everything possible means you never get to feel like you actually know WTF you're doing, because the edge is always expanding. Bring back the days of having a small shelf of 5-10 books that contained 99% of what you needed to know to do your programming/sysadmin/whatever job. Yes, it's absolutely exhausting. If you've never experienced or even seen what came before, it may not seem so just because you don't have a point of comparison.

dawatchusay 3y ago
Are you saying that using Google to answer a question is more exhausting than parsing a book? That makes zero sense
- yamtaddle 3y ago
  > Are you saying that using Google to answer a question is more exhausting than parsing a book? That makes zero sense My point is that we couldn't possibly do our jobs now without Google, but that we used to be able to do it just by knowing the stuff in a few books really well and knowing where—in the books or in e.g. manpages—to find what we didn't know. A small shelf of books is way better than Google, if you can be reasonably certain that the answers you need are in there. Yes, this situation is far more exhausting.
  - dawatchusay 3y ago
    Yeah you couldn’t do you job without Google because it’s vastly superior to a shelf of 5 books
    - yamtaddle 3y ago
      That very much depends on what you're doing. The existence of Google has brought about the expectation that we do our work in a way that requires Google.