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Does science as published help us end capitalism? I think it doesn't. I think on the balance, science benefits capitalism and prolongs its systemic destruction
by barfbagginus 2y ago
Does science as published help us end capitalism? I think it doesn't. I think on the balance, science benefits capitalism and prolongs its systemic destruction of human dignity and the planet.
The knowledge collapse is the AI driven degradation of knowledge production systems. This is caused by a flood of AI junk, which reduces the amount and discoverability of high quality knowledge.
Assuming that science entrenches and prolongs capitalist abuses, then there's an upside to the knowledge collapse: we can use it as a weapon to help collapse capitalist knowledge production loops while making knowledge more accessible to anticapital efforts.
Ways we can contribute:
1. Refuse to build capitalist solutions to knowledge collapse. If you know how to build a non-collapsing RAG system, you can build it for a worker owned commune. But refuse to do it for a capitalist or state organization.
2. Contribute to open source knowledge collapse systems that can help people create fake science, and generally contribute towards knowledge collapse.
3. Contribute to the library Genesis, the world's #1 source of equally available knowledge for all, and one of humanity's most important communal resources
4. Contribute towards open source tools that are good at creating anti capitalist knowledge and organization, but hurt corporations due to their openness and freedom
- tacitusarc 2y agoIt's always surprising to run across unusual worldviews that just espouse it as if it is normative. Is the hope that people will be fooled into thinking it is a commonly held belief, and then take some sort of action from that? Or perhaps the commenter is genuinely oblivious to the oddity of their sentiments?
- barfbagginus 2y agoI am partly oblivious to the fact that it should be considered odd, and I'm not trying to peer pressure folks, but provoke and inspire them. My arguments are there for anyone who wants to consider them. You might choose to ignore them and characterize me as naive or deceptive instead. That doesn't dismiss them. There's still a major conflict where science, states, and corporations are working together in a system that harms people. Analyzing and opposing that conflict is important. As Scientists and software developers, we have a unique call to take a stand. If you don't feel that call now, maybe you'll feel it in the future! Good luck with your work, and thanks for your response!