4 ms·

Lots of people reporting their "I had to use up my tokens, so I burned them on worthless stuff" stories. Incredible thing to do in a climate emergency. Push har

by pjc50 6mo ago

Lots of people reporting their "I had to use up my tokens, so I burned them on worthless stuff" stories. Incredible thing to do in a climate emergency. Push harder guys, maybe we can hit 3C warming? This reminds me of the story of how the USSR nearly made whales extinct to meet a quota for whale meat that nobody wanted to eat.

lmkg 6mo ago
This is why we're clear-cutting forests to build new data centers? Not even for "real" productivity gains, but just for the sake of using the tokens.
- Lord-Jobo 6mo ago
  Bullshit work has hit escape velocity, won’t be long now before we have huge warehouses filled with people doing sudoku for their daily food allowance, and that’s just how our entire economy functions. How are we sliding face first into “snowpiercer but dumber”?
- buellerbueller 6mo ago
  Gotta scale and then IPO those startups, so the VCs can cash out profitably.
- andrekandre 6mo ago
  > just for the sake of using the tokens capital requires growth, forests be damned
- danaw 6mo ago
  don't worry they're not building many of them anyways, they're just accumulating debt and padding the pockets of all the construction companies that are sitting around idle
wolvoleo 6mo ago
Yeah but what can we do. I don't want to be punished by work either. Luckily I work in app management and I know they can only see the last date used so if I just put in one query per day I'm good. But I'm so sick and tired of this AI hype :(
jordanb 6mo ago
I've been noticing how our economy keeps getting more Soviet as it becomes more top-down. We basically have central planning now with all the pathologies inherent in that system, but unlike the soviets we just have a bunch of guys who happened to get rich or bribe the right people running our GOSPLAN.
- CaptainTaboo 6mo ago
  Things definitely feel 'Soviet' at my company. AI usage has been mandated by upper management (despite the fact that it doesn't really make sense or solve any problems in my particular job). They literally call it an "AI revolution." If you dare question the wisdom of the company's 'AI-First' policy, it's like you risk being singled out as a "counter-revolutionary."
  - andrekandre 6mo ago
    > They literally call it an "AI revolution." they are calling it "the ai era" around these parts lol... "coding in the ai era" it sounds so big and meaningful, but actually its just vapid.
  - RunningDroid 6mo ago
    > They literally call it an "AI revolution." People proclaiming an "AI revolution" seem to have inspired at least one song: https://genius.com/Worldview-ai-revolution-lyrics https://genius.com/Worldview-ai-revolution-lyrics
- throw-the-towel 6mo ago
  Yeah, the stories I've heard from Meta are very Soviet-coded. Like, trying to exceed the plan but not too much, because then the new plan would be hopelessly unachievable and you'd be punished for not meeting the insane expectations.
  - nomorewords 6mo ago
    So like Publix company earnings? You have to beat by a little so you're not just flat but beat by too much and you look incompetent/suspicious
Insimwytim 6mo ago
> USSR nearly made whales extinct USSR barely accounted for 15% of the world caught amount (with Japan as the leader). > that nobody wanted to eat unsubstantiated.
- tencentshill 6mo ago
  Whale meat is really bad, now only eaten ceremonially in most places. It was an unrationed meat in the Britain during WWII, and people still didn't go for it.
- linsomniac 6mo ago
  > unsubstantiated Agreed for USSR, but I think the person you replied to is misremembering the country, I believe they are thinking of Japan. I heard it recently on Stuff You Should Know, which usually does a good job of researching their stories, and it sounds like it is substantiated but may be a bit more complex than presented, but literally true. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/save-the-whales/id278981407?i=1000764001253 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/save-the-whales/id2789... https://theworld.org/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/japan/130214/whaling-whalemeat-japanese-food https://theworld.org/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/japa... https://theworld.org/stories/2019/04/16/whaling-japan-2 https://theworld.org/stories/2019/04/16/whaling-japan-2 https://japantoday.com/category/national/75-of-meat-from-japans-pacific-whale-hunt-unsold https://japantoday.com/category/national/75-of-meat-from-jap... https://www.traffic.org/site/assets/files/3994/whale_meat_trade_in_japan.pdf https://www.traffic.org/site/assets/files/3994/whale_meat_tr...
- brabel 6mo ago
  Thank you for correcting that awfully incorrect factoid.
- pjc50 6mo ago
  see https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/06/history-of-soviet-whaling-greenpeace-twentieth-century.html https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/06/history-of-sovie... and https://www.i-deel.org/blog/mass-killing-for-no-reason-the-paradox-of-soviet-whaling https://www.i-deel.org/blog/mass-killing-for-no-reason-the-p...
pjmlp 6mo ago
No worries, we keep drinking from paper straws, because that is what really matters. The problem with not burning tokens is when you not meet the performance KPIs, get labelled as luddite and off you go, even before the job gets taken over by AI. I do agree with the sentiment, that and war mongers destroying the planet.
- ZeroGravitas 6mo ago
  What's the logic of dissing paper straws in a comment raging against war and AI as threats to the environment? I see it a lot and assumed it was concern trolling from plastic manufacturers or libertarians funded by them but you seem genuine. Have you just fallen for that concern trolling? Grown so cynical that nothing matters anymore? I don't understand the intention if you have a genuine desire to improve society. What would we be doing differently in a world where we were still using plastic straws? Would that have freed up enough mental energy for a revolution? Would people be blowing up private jets while sipping their diet coke?
  - paulhebert 6mo ago
    I think it's a reference to the frustrating pressure to make small personal sacrifices while those in charge burn down the world. I don't mind paper straws (though I don't really use straws in general) but it is frustrating trying really hard to be sustainable and then hearing that Amazon is encouraging people to use as much computing power as possible.
    - disgruntledphd2 6mo ago
      Paper straws really, really suck for little kids though.
  - pjmlp 6mo ago
    It is a distraction, the feel good for using paper straws instead of actions that actually make an impact, like improvements in the transport infrastructure, shutdown of factories that polluted the environment, flying people to meetings, limits of the kinds of engines that get produced, wars for profit, now AI data centers, and plenty of other examples that since covid the people big corps and governments could not care less. Nah, one gets a cocktail with paper straw and feels like they are doing their part saving the planet. Plastic straws aren't hard to find, by the way.

by pjc50 6mo ago

lmkg 6mo ago

This is why we're clear-cutting forests to build new data centers? Not even for "real" productivity gains, but just for the sake of using the tokens.

Lord-Jobo 6mo ago
Bullshit work has hit escape velocity, won’t be long now before we have huge warehouses filled with people doing sudoku for their daily food allowance, and that’s just how our entire economy functions. How are we sliding face first into “snowpiercer but dumber”?
buellerbueller 6mo ago
Gotta scale and then IPO those startups, so the VCs can cash out profitably.
andrekandre 6mo ago
> just for the sake of using the tokens capital requires growth, forests be damned
danaw 6mo ago
don't worry they're not building many of them anyways, they're just accumulating debt and padding the pockets of all the construction companies that are sitting around idle

wolvoleo 6mo ago

Yeah but what can we do. I don't want to be punished by work either. Luckily I work in app management and I know they can only see the last date used so if I just put in one query per day I'm good. But I'm so sick and tired of this AI hype :(

jordanb 6mo ago

I've been noticing how our economy keeps getting more Soviet as it becomes more top-down. We basically have central planning now with all the pathologies inherent in that system, but unlike the soviets we just have a bunch of guys who happened to get rich or bribe the right people running our GOSPLAN.

CaptainTaboo 6mo ago
Things definitely feel 'Soviet' at my company. AI usage has been mandated by upper management (despite the fact that it doesn't really make sense or solve any problems in my particular job). They literally call it an "AI revolution." If you dare question the wisdom of the company's 'AI-First' policy, it's like you risk being singled out as a "counter-revolutionary."
- andrekandre 6mo ago
  > They literally call it an "AI revolution." they are calling it "the ai era" around these parts lol... "coding in the ai era" it sounds so big and meaningful, but actually its just vapid.
- RunningDroid 6mo ago
  > They literally call it an "AI revolution." People proclaiming an "AI revolution" seem to have inspired at least one song: https://genius.com/Worldview-ai-revolution-lyrics https://genius.com/Worldview-ai-revolution-lyrics
throw-the-towel 6mo ago
Yeah, the stories I've heard from Meta are very Soviet-coded. Like, trying to exceed the plan but not too much, because then the new plan would be hopelessly unachievable and you'd be punished for not meeting the insane expectations.
- nomorewords 6mo ago
  So like Publix company earnings? You have to beat by a little so you're not just flat but beat by too much and you look incompetent/suspicious

Insimwytim 6mo ago

> USSR nearly made whales extinct USSR barely accounted for 15% of the world caught amount (with Japan as the leader). > that nobody wanted to eat unsubstantiated.

tencentshill 6mo ago
Whale meat is really bad, now only eaten ceremonially in most places. It was an unrationed meat in the Britain during WWII, and people still didn't go for it.
linsomniac 6mo ago
> unsubstantiated Agreed for USSR, but I think the person you replied to is misremembering the country, I believe they are thinking of Japan. I heard it recently on Stuff You Should Know, which usually does a good job of researching their stories, and it sounds like it is substantiated but may be a bit more complex than presented, but literally true. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/save-the-whales/id278981407?i=1000764001253 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/save-the-whales/id2789... https://theworld.org/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/japan/130214/whaling-whalemeat-japanese-food https://theworld.org/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/japa... https://theworld.org/stories/2019/04/16/whaling-japan-2 https://theworld.org/stories/2019/04/16/whaling-japan-2 https://japantoday.com/category/national/75-of-meat-from-japans-pacific-whale-hunt-unsold https://japantoday.com/category/national/75-of-meat-from-jap... https://www.traffic.org/site/assets/files/3994/whale_meat_trade_in_japan.pdf https://www.traffic.org/site/assets/files/3994/whale_meat_tr...
brabel 6mo ago
Thank you for correcting that awfully incorrect factoid.
pjc50 6mo ago
see https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/06/history-of-soviet-whaling-greenpeace-twentieth-century.html https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/06/history-of-sovie... and https://www.i-deel.org/blog/mass-killing-for-no-reason-the-paradox-of-soviet-whaling https://www.i-deel.org/blog/mass-killing-for-no-reason-the-p...

pjmlp 6mo ago

No worries, we keep drinking from paper straws, because that is what really matters. The problem with not burning tokens is when you not meet the performance KPIs, get labelled as luddite and off you go, even before the job gets taken over by AI. I do agree with the sentiment, that and war mongers destroying the planet.

ZeroGravitas 6mo ago
What's the logic of dissing paper straws in a comment raging against war and AI as threats to the environment? I see it a lot and assumed it was concern trolling from plastic manufacturers or libertarians funded by them but you seem genuine. Have you just fallen for that concern trolling? Grown so cynical that nothing matters anymore? I don't understand the intention if you have a genuine desire to improve society. What would we be doing differently in a world where we were still using plastic straws? Would that have freed up enough mental energy for a revolution? Would people be blowing up private jets while sipping their diet coke?
- paulhebert 6mo ago
  I think it's a reference to the frustrating pressure to make small personal sacrifices while those in charge burn down the world. I don't mind paper straws (though I don't really use straws in general) but it is frustrating trying really hard to be sustainable and then hearing that Amazon is encouraging people to use as much computing power as possible.
  - disgruntledphd2 6mo ago
    Paper straws really, really suck for little kids though.
- pjmlp 6mo ago
  It is a distraction, the feel good for using paper straws instead of actions that actually make an impact, like improvements in the transport infrastructure, shutdown of factories that polluted the environment, flying people to meetings, limits of the kinds of engines that get produced, wars for profit, now AI data centers, and plenty of other examples that since covid the people big corps and governments could not care less. Nah, one gets a cocktail with paper straw and feels like they are doing their part saving the planet. Plastic straws aren't hard to find, by the way.