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Best possible ad for Weird Al. How did we get here? Why am I, a lifelong tech enthusiast, on a tech enthusiast board championing someone for resisting technolo

Best possible ad for Weird Al. How did we get here? Why am I, a lifelong tech enthusiast, on a tech enthusiast board championing someone for resisting technology? I’ve been on HN for years but it’s starting to feel absurd ever since I’ve been out of sync with the whole AI thing. Thanks for listening to my Ted talk.

ares623 3mo ago
As is often repeated here, "technology is a force multiplier". AI has been multiplying the wrong things (for the common people) at an amazing rate, while the good things it multiplies have been few, arguable, and lagging behind. Usually to be enthusiastic about new tech, it needs to be the reverse. New tech that multiplies the "good things" first while the wrong things catch up later (see Internet, cars, commercial aviation, smartphones). Sure, fellow software engineers who spend 8+ hours a day writing code see it as the opposite, since AI _is_ seen as doing the "good things" (i.e. writing code). But eventually the bad things will catch up with us too.
- solenoid0937 3mo ago
  The general public has never been enthusiastic about new tech until well after the benefits start rolling in and are undeniably obvious. https://pessimistsarchive.org/ https://pessimistsarchive.org/ AI is no different. People like to think they have some special new insight as to why "it's bad this time!" but the average person has always reacted to change with FUD.
  - Ar-Curunir 3mo ago
    Usually this happens after the naysayers have been forcibly evicted from economic and social life
    - solenoid0937 3mo ago
      And look at how far we have come. We are all the better off for it, by nearly every objective QoL measurement there is.
      - ares623 3mo ago
        I, too, love big brother.
  - acdha 3mo ago
    The difference is that previous technology like the internet or later the web had benefits which were obvious much faster. The average person is hearing about AI from their boss saying anyone who doesn’t use it will be laid-off sooner, not from their buddy talking about how much time they saved sending email instead of postal mail or doing their shopping online instead of driving around or mail order. Not everyone instantly jumped on those, either, but the pull was attraction rather than coercion.
- justinclift 3mo ago
  > fellow software engineers who spend 8+ hours a day writing code see it as the opposite, since AI _is_ seen as doing the "good things" Dunno about that. I work in writing infrastructure code (telco space), and while we do use Claude Code (Optus 4.8/Fable 5/etc) there still needs to be extremely thorough review and a close watch kept on its output. AI generated code that's not carefully managed is not suitable for really important things. At least, not the stuff I've seen it generate so far both for my colleagues and myself.
bitwize 3mo ago
There's a meme that goes: Person A: I'm a tech enthusiast! I have the latest smartphone, smartwatch, smart car, smart TV, smart home... all networked together and automated to make my daily life easier. Person B: I work in tech. The last piece of tech I bought is a printer from 2004, and I keep a loaded gun nearby in case it starts acting funny. Once you understand how the sausage is made and what the incentives are, you become very suspicious of every hot new tech integration that comes along. But humans just don't write commercial software anymore. Don't expect to keep doing that for a living.
- altairprime 3mo ago
  Please don’t be sweepingly dismissive of people by framing like this. Printers lack mobility and firearms would only activate their defensive ink cloud reflexes, as every expert office IT worker knows (including you!). So the group B you’re describing is being portrayed as both excessively paranoid and blatantly incompetent in order to dismiss the views of tech experts that reject A.I. and support your own claim that they’re, to paraphrase your intent in last century’s terms, ‘dinosaurs’. That’s not a respectable form of rhetoric and your use of it paints both you and group A, the one whose beliefs you’re trying to promote, with a broad brush of skeptical disbelief.
  - tanseydavid 3mo ago
    Office Space: Laser Printer murder scene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjsSr3z5nVk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjsSr3z5nVk
    - altairprime 3mo ago
      Perhaps you couldn’t tell from ‘defensive ink cloud’ that I understand the joke being used to demean and dismiss group B. It was a great movie for its time and was a small but real contributing factor in my recent retirement. Doesn’t excuse the rhetorical behavior I’m objecting to, of course, but I’m sure its characters would have appreciated my pun slash half-joke* about squid ink-jet printers. * Seriously, do not shoot a toner cartridge or any object containing one with a projectile weapon; silicosis is no one’s friend and while you’d probably be fine with a 100 respirator, your lungs would still really prefer you didn’t even just once do that. (doi:10.1002/ajim.23147)
zem 3mo ago
I think cory doctorow had the best lens through which to view the issue: "who does this technology do things for and who does it do them to?" even tech enthusiasts can see that a major chunk of the populace is increasingly falling on the "to" side, so championing resistance makes a lot of sense.
somat 3mo ago
Generated content has a real duality to it. I would describe it as It feels great to use. It feels terrible to have it used on you. Very few people appear happy to receive generated content. It is fun to make however. We as a society will probably figure this out(and look back fondly on the days of real handcrafted artisanal writing) but for now there is a lot of tension between the two sides. I know I loose all interest in a thing when I learn it is generated.

ares623 3mo ago

As is often repeated here, "technology is a force multiplier". AI has been multiplying the wrong things (for the common people) at an amazing rate, while the good things it multiplies have been few, arguable, and lagging behind. Usually to be enthusiastic about new tech, it needs to be the reverse. New tech that multiplies the "good things" first while the wrong things catch up later (see Internet, cars, commercial aviation, smartphones). Sure, fellow software engineers who spend 8+ hours a day writing code see it as the opposite, since AI _is_ seen as doing the "good things" (i.e. writing code). But eventually the bad things will catch up with us too.

solenoid0937 3mo ago
The general public has never been enthusiastic about new tech until well after the benefits start rolling in and are undeniably obvious. https://pessimistsarchive.org/ https://pessimistsarchive.org/ AI is no different. People like to think they have some special new insight as to why "it's bad this time!" but the average person has always reacted to change with FUD.
- Ar-Curunir 3mo ago
  Usually this happens after the naysayers have been forcibly evicted from economic and social life
  - solenoid0937 3mo ago
    And look at how far we have come. We are all the better off for it, by nearly every objective QoL measurement there is.
    - ares623 3mo ago
      I, too, love big brother.
- acdha 3mo ago
  The difference is that previous technology like the internet or later the web had benefits which were obvious much faster. The average person is hearing about AI from their boss saying anyone who doesn’t use it will be laid-off sooner, not from their buddy talking about how much time they saved sending email instead of postal mail or doing their shopping online instead of driving around or mail order. Not everyone instantly jumped on those, either, but the pull was attraction rather than coercion.
justinclift 3mo ago
> fellow software engineers who spend 8+ hours a day writing code see it as the opposite, since AI _is_ seen as doing the "good things" Dunno about that. I work in writing infrastructure code (telco space), and while we do use Claude Code (Optus 4.8/Fable 5/etc) there still needs to be extremely thorough review and a close watch kept on its output. AI generated code that's not carefully managed is not suitable for really important things. At least, not the stuff I've seen it generate so far both for my colleagues and myself.

bitwize 3mo ago

There's a meme that goes: Person A: I'm a tech enthusiast! I have the latest smartphone, smartwatch, smart car, smart TV, smart home... all networked together and automated to make my daily life easier. Person B: I work in tech. The last piece of tech I bought is a printer from 2004, and I keep a loaded gun nearby in case it starts acting funny. Once you understand how the sausage is made and what the incentives are, you become very suspicious of every hot new tech integration that comes along. But humans just don't write commercial software anymore. Don't expect to keep doing that for a living.

altairprime 3mo ago
Please don’t be sweepingly dismissive of people by framing like this. Printers lack mobility and firearms would only activate their defensive ink cloud reflexes, as every expert office IT worker knows (including you!). So the group B you’re describing is being portrayed as both excessively paranoid and blatantly incompetent in order to dismiss the views of tech experts that reject A.I. and support your own claim that they’re, to paraphrase your intent in last century’s terms, ‘dinosaurs’. That’s not a respectable form of rhetoric and your use of it paints both you and group A, the one whose beliefs you’re trying to promote, with a broad brush of skeptical disbelief.
- tanseydavid 3mo ago
  Office Space: Laser Printer murder scene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjsSr3z5nVk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjsSr3z5nVk
  - altairprime 3mo ago
    Perhaps you couldn’t tell from ‘defensive ink cloud’ that I understand the joke being used to demean and dismiss group B. It was a great movie for its time and was a small but real contributing factor in my recent retirement. Doesn’t excuse the rhetorical behavior I’m objecting to, of course, but I’m sure its characters would have appreciated my pun slash half-joke* about squid ink-jet printers. * Seriously, do not shoot a toner cartridge or any object containing one with a projectile weapon; silicosis is no one’s friend and while you’d probably be fine with a 100 respirator, your lungs would still really prefer you didn’t even just once do that. (doi:10.1002/ajim.23147)

zem 3mo ago

I think cory doctorow had the best lens through which to view the issue: "who does this technology do things for and who does it do them to?" even tech enthusiasts can see that a major chunk of the populace is increasingly falling on the "to" side, so championing resistance makes a lot of sense.

somat 3mo ago

Generated content has a real duality to it. I would describe it as It feels great to use. It feels terrible to have it used on you. Very few people appear happy to receive generated content. It is fun to make however. We as a society will probably figure this out(and look back fondly on the days of real handcrafted artisanal writing) but for now there is a lot of tension between the two sides. I know I loose all interest in a thing when I learn it is generated.