@thestrangelet

I think they exist, but they are tiny, not numerous, and widely dispersed. If you happen to find a #nonprofit or #QUANGO or co-operative that needs tech assistance, I think you could have a good chance of finding your skills put to use #ethically, possibly even helping make other peoples' lives better.

The #income is not going to be in the same league with working for Big Tech's extraction machines and misery production lines, though.

I used to do independent consulting for many years, before being lured back into an employee role for the last 4-5 years (spread across 2 companies/periods) before I was laid off, just before the "AI" boom kicked off in earnest. I would love to get back into that, even short-term engagements helping tiny orgs and sole proprietorships who happen to be doing things that meet my ethical standards. I haven't had much luck finding anything.

My industry used to make things, things that people wanted, things that people used for work, for commerce, for fun, for joy. Now it seems the only things that pay are rent-extraction, people-exploitation, and financial scams like gambling and "innovative financial product".

Sorry I can't be more positive about this. How about this: I've been #volunteering with my local Repair Cafe for ~6 months, and after each one of those I feel I have accomplished more good than in my last 5 years of paid work.

#RepairCafe #lament #IT #software #CoOp #BigTech #AI #LLM