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There's a growing sentiment among the youth that I'm calling Luddism-Nouveau. My brother is a public school teacher and he's telling me that the kids really li

There's a growing sentiment among the youth that I'm calling Luddism-Nouveau. My brother is a public school teacher and he's telling me that the kids really like talking about Ted Kaczynski... All of this to say; your opinion, while cynical, is not unique. I don't agree with any of it, by the way. I like that we have modern medicine.

LightHugger 3y ago
I'd call it Butlerian Jihadism or just Butlerism, but then again, it's kinda niche :p
- skyyler 3y ago
  It's not as niche as you'd think. The kids are talking about the unabomber's manifesto. I'm pretty concerned by that.
  - hotpotamus 3y ago
    Here's[0] an article Bill Joy wrote at the turn of the millennium wherein he quoted the unabomber and spent a lot of time thinking about the power of then emerging technologies. Kaczynski was obviously intelligent (with academic creds too) and had thought through many of the implications of tech long before most others had. His actions were insane, but his malcontentment with technology perhaps was not. [0]https://www.wired.com/2000/04/joy-2/ https://www.wired.com/2000/04/joy-2/
  - cykros 3y ago
    I'd be more concerned at any point if kids stopped taking things to extremes and missing out on the nuances of things. It's what kids do. It's more concerning when in their mid twenties, early 30s, they don't grow up. Which seems to have more to do with the general infantilization arising from a variety of factors, perhaps most notably crippling debt for which they themselves are the pledged collateral, by which of course I mean student loans, which stops them from starting families, owning homes, and generally getting the experience of actually having responsibility for various systems that require having an intimate experience with nuance.
vlunkr 3y ago
Like I say, I'm not against developing technology. Conflating AI and medicine seems nonsensical. As another example, what about nuclear weapons? Does anyone think that giving humans the ability to self-annihilate was a good development? We did it because we feared other humans would do it first. We would be better off if such weapons simply didn't exist, IMO. So I understand progress can be good, but sometimes we ought to take a step back and reflect. Unfortunately our societies haven't really developed mechanisms to do that.
- skyyler 3y ago
  >As another example, what about nuclear weapons? Mutually assured destruction have so far prevented the worst. It's yet to be seen if nuclear electricity generation is a net positive for humanity, but it could be.
- cykros 3y ago
  Except that AI is being used to develop drugs right now. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7577280/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7577280/ None of this exists in a vacuum.

LightHugger 3y ago

I'd call it Butlerian Jihadism or just Butlerism, but then again, it's kinda niche :p

skyyler 3y ago
It's not as niche as you'd think. The kids are talking about the unabomber's manifesto. I'm pretty concerned by that.
- hotpotamus 3y ago
  Here's[0] an article Bill Joy wrote at the turn of the millennium wherein he quoted the unabomber and spent a lot of time thinking about the power of then emerging technologies. Kaczynski was obviously intelligent (with academic creds too) and had thought through many of the implications of tech long before most others had. His actions were insane, but his malcontentment with technology perhaps was not. [0]https://www.wired.com/2000/04/joy-2/ https://www.wired.com/2000/04/joy-2/
- cykros 3y ago
  I'd be more concerned at any point if kids stopped taking things to extremes and missing out on the nuances of things. It's what kids do. It's more concerning when in their mid twenties, early 30s, they don't grow up. Which seems to have more to do with the general infantilization arising from a variety of factors, perhaps most notably crippling debt for which they themselves are the pledged collateral, by which of course I mean student loans, which stops them from starting families, owning homes, and generally getting the experience of actually having responsibility for various systems that require having an intimate experience with nuance.

vlunkr 3y ago

Like I say, I'm not against developing technology. Conflating AI and medicine seems nonsensical. As another example, what about nuclear weapons? Does anyone think that giving humans the ability to self-annihilate was a good development? We did it because we feared other humans would do it first. We would be better off if such weapons simply didn't exist, IMO. So I understand progress can be good, but sometimes we ought to take a step back and reflect. Unfortunately our societies haven't really developed mechanisms to do that.

skyyler 3y ago
>As another example, what about nuclear weapons? Mutually assured destruction have so far prevented the worst. It's yet to be seen if nuclear electricity generation is a net positive for humanity, but it could be.
cykros 3y ago
Except that AI is being used to develop drugs right now. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7577280/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7577280/ None of this exists in a vacuum.