this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2026
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Fuck AI
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A place for all those who loathe AI to discuss things, post articles, and ridicule the AI hype. Proud supporter of working people. And proud booer of SXSW 2024.
AI, in this case, refers to LLMs, GPT technology, and anything listed as "AI" meant to increase market valuations.
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I will admit to having a cynical view of education, and of modern society in general. But I do hope for it to improve, which is why I like Star Trek so much. I don't really see anyone tackling the root problems of modern education as essentially a tool for capitalists to generate laborers, though, which is why I'm sympathetic to using AI in these situations.
One of the major problems I have society is the near impossibility of finding meaning or community. Survival takes up so much effort and energy, even for high earners like doctors and engineers, that there's little time for things which are actually important for humans, like building community, gaining education for its own sake, or otherwise bettering oneself outside of a career. My optimistic views of humanity in general lead me to think that, if you take away this problem of survival like Star Trek attempts to show, more people would engage with their communities and it would be easier for them to find meaning or do something they find engaging, so not as many people would be content just sitting around doing nothing. The stereotype of the lazy basement dweller living in their mom's house at 35 or whatever (I'm just drawing imagery out of a hat) is a symptom of modern society in my opinion, and in an idealistic world these people would be much less likely to be content in this situation.
I do agree re: racism though. I did enjoy my time in college as well, but it wasn't because I was learning or getting a degree, it was because I was part of a tight-knit community of my peers in an environment where we had freedom to explore, think, and hang out.
I talk about survivability because it's easy to grasp, but I'm really referring to any kind of incentive structure. Success, for instance, while similar to survival, is not actually the same thing. Prestige can be something that motivates somebody to be a great artist.
The kinds of lazy basement dwellers I'm talking about are more like people with social anxiety refusing to take phone calls in place of texts. Or, people with executive disfunction watching YouTube instead of getting any work done, which I can speak to personally because I hated doing homework and would watch YouTube instead until the anxiety of deadline failure pushed me into finally getting something done. But that homework was useful.
I obviously believe in the human ability to rise above yesterday's achievements. I am an example of such. I used to have the social anxiety that would have prevented me from talking to you now. I overcame that by having a very insisting personality.
But even so, there are people today who could, even through the tiresome hustle of working day to day, learn to play piano and want to but never do. My concern is leaving people like this to their own devices. To a person who willingly shucks all of life's goals, I think that giving them goals is actually better for them.
There is one particular way in which I think a Star Trek utopia might be overly optimistic, putting it in the realm of hopeful fantasy, and it's that it overlooks the very biological urge to hibernate. The principle of least action, at least as far as education goes, would be not to.