grafmax

10 ms·

121.
by grafmax 1y ago
Social media should operate under open protocols, including moderation. Choosing moderation should be client-controlled. These companies burn through VC money to build systems with network effects then turn around and effectively extract re
122.
by grafmax 1y ago
How can we know that this or that example of speech is illegal if there are no charges and no trial? This rule by corporate fiat is exactly what we don’t need. It lacks democratic oversight. To say nothing of the way that disingenuous clai
123.
by grafmax 1y ago
Yeah this sort of thing is a huge time waster with LLMs.
124.
by grafmax 1y ago
There is still a speed advantage. You can look at correlated markets for example and trade at the end of the time window with 5 seconds more info than anyone trading at the start of the time window.
125.
by grafmax 1y ago
Apparently we address the climate crisis by investing entirely in new energy consumption.
126.
by grafmax 1y ago
It seems these tools are the threats.
127.
by grafmax 1y ago
Maybe the disconnect in our perspectives comes from your belief that the issue is China vs the US. So when I criticize the US government in response to your criticism of CCP, you interpret that as a contest between two authoritarian powers.
128.
by grafmax 1y ago
It’s almost like we’re trying to boil the planet.
129.
by grafmax 1y ago
> Having solidarity with the Chinese people is unrelated to criticizing their government. It’s not unrelated because the NIST demonization of China as a nation contributes to hostilities which have real impacts on the people of the US an
130.
by grafmax 1y ago
I’m not excusing China’s government but criticizing our own. The wealthy control our political process. Money buys politicians, elections, laws, media companies. It’s money and those who have it who govern our political process. Do you rea
131.
by grafmax 1y ago
You’re misunderstanding me. My point is if we were to have sincere solidarity with Chinese people against the international ruling class we would look at our domestic members of that class first. That is simply the practical approach to the
132.
by grafmax 1y ago
Not sure how it’s rational if you don’t extend the same distaste to our authoritarian government. Concentration camps, genocide, suppressing free speech, suspending due process. That’s what it’s up to these days. To say nothing of the effe
133.
by grafmax 1y ago
It really does seem like we’re simply supposed to root for one authoritarian government over another.
134.
by grafmax 1y ago
Essentially the enshittified internet is a rent-extracting one. It locks users in, often taking a loss leader, then once it has built this moat, it degrades user experience by extracting rent. Rent extraction is a form of profit that allows
135.
by grafmax 1y ago
> A recent study in Vancouver found that one of the most significant single causes of homelessness (20%) was people simply running out of money and being evicted. The direct cause of this is high rents. So any city that is building more
136.
by grafmax 1y ago
I guess it depends on our priorities as a society, doesn’t it?
137.
by grafmax 1y ago
“Phones not homes.”
138.
by grafmax 1y ago
It’s less complicated than that. Externalities are when an individual profits but others pay the price. Think of climate change. And when a small number are so rich they control the government, so there’s nothing to stop them. It’s narrow
139.
by grafmax 1y ago
Because a small number are very rich.
140.
by grafmax 1y ago
Facebook and many of these other VC companies have worked by building a moat through network effects by burning money to build something free and awesome. Then once you HAVE the network effect then it becomes hard to leave. Your history is
141.
by grafmax 1y ago
I see the point you’re making now. Interesting perspective! That is a pretty cool angle I didn’t think of before. I’ll have to mull it over. Thanks!
142.
by grafmax 1y ago
Everybody needs healthcare. It’s a clear win for society if private actors can’t make it more inefficient by parasitizing a profit. The answer is single payer on the dime of the rentier capitalists. That’s how you reinvest in your society,
143.
by grafmax 1y ago
That article is f**ing scary.
144.
by grafmax 1y ago
RAG doesn’t just mean word vectors but can include keyword search. Claude using grep is a form of RAG.
145.
by grafmax 1y ago
Yeah people look at the rise in quality of life in this period and through a simplistic view misattribute it to “factories”. Factories initially lowered living standards among workers and increased productivity . That’s because gains in
146.
by grafmax 1y ago
In Victorian England farmers were being displaced through the enclosure movement. Common land was privatized. The old way of life (farming) was taken away from them by the upper class. An economy shifting to factory labor was also a factor
147.
by grafmax 1y ago
Farming was bad, but before the labor movement, factories were generally worse. People chose to move to factories not because they were superior to farming but because their old livelihoods were taken from them.
148.
by grafmax 1y ago
Yeah actually the labor conditions of the working class were horrible as they entered factories, conditions only remedied by the spurs of the labor movement.
149.
by grafmax 1y ago
The brands we do have have declined - while their stocks have gone up drastically over this time. Consider the Amazon, Google, or Facebook of 20 years ago vs now. The reason is that they have made their moats and moved to rent extraction.
150.
by grafmax 1y ago
Maybe you are conflating authoritarianism with dictatorship but that is only one kind. We live in an oligarchy and have for many years. Trump is the latest intensification of that trend. It’s backwards to blame the faults of oligarchy on de

More ›