Trammell Hudson"Let's put AI/LLM in everything" is the new...
Lead
Radium
Heroin
Asbestos
Poll ended at .
(Oh no you lose all your votes if you edit the poll. I changed Laudanum to Heroin since maybe it wasn't as well known)
Tobacco would have been another good option - something deadly but backed by very monied interests that prevented an honest assessment of the danger.
Heliograph
jwz
Badly-read literary snob@th laudanum was the correct one 😅
~n@th TIL: Laudanum. (And the general concept of “Antidiarrhoika”) - so it wasn’t in vain.
Skyr@nblr you must have missed that line when watching "Master and Commander" 😂
Bence Varga@th that’s what you get for dissing Laudanum
Nemo@th
ah.
it's cheap to buy, it looks like it's doing something helpful, but really it's killing you.
Really, only laudanum.
Asbestos and lead did work for what they were used for. Radium was always so rare and expensive, it only killed Marie Curie.
Abie
TheZoq2@th All of the above
DosFox@th I've always felt it was comparable to radium, but now that you mention it - asbestos feels like a better comparison
Colin
draeath
Simon ZerafaRadium is the best analogy.
Got put into everything and then suddenly found to be extremely toxic and completely useless for it's alleged uses.
Oblomov@simonzerafa @th I think asbestos is more appropriate, because we've actually managed to get rid of all the radium hogwash but we're still dealing with asbestos
Gian@oblomov @simonzerafa @th The Problem with that is, that Asbestos (and lead) are really useful if you disregard the health effects. We had to look for other stuff when replacing asbestos and lead and in some aspects those materials and compounds probably were better, except for the healt aspect.
AI the way it is being pushed currently just replaces better things for the sole reason that you don't have to pay somebody to make that better thing.
oh, that's a very good point.
But radium also had practical uses beyond the quackery that put it everywhere, and in some cases it it still used (or was until very recently, for things that fundamentally work on similar principles), so I'm still not convinced the comparison would hold either.
(Also «if you disregard the health effect» is a bit too close to «if you disregard the ethical aspects» of AI to disregard ;-).)
a fish named dog ✡️♾️@oblomov @GianH @simonzerafa @th but even if you do disregard the ethical aspects of AI, it's not gonna do much except make shitty stuff. asbestos, if you disregard the health effect, you can save people from fires with, among many other things.
Russell Garner@th reluctantly voted for the last thing here despite my own father having died from it
ByCzech@th Penicilin
Ember is so tired of people. 
@th radium, as it's only use is "ooh shiny" or bullshit that doesn't work.
lead and asbestos would actually be very good materials if they weren't incredibly toxic
lead and asbestos would actually be very good materials if they weren't incredibly toxic
C.S.Strowbridge
MonoIt's the new lead, we'll only realise the dire consequences to our children's brains when they grow up having gone through their entire education without learning how to research things, write more than a paragraph of text, synthesize information from data in their brains or think for more that 10 seconds about a specific thing in general
Paul White@th Though in retrospect, after voting for Asbestos, I prefer Lead, since prolonged AI use doesn't kill you, it just lowers your IQ.
Mercury?
Mercury?
Ozzelot 
Bryan WrightHigh fructose corn syrup
Milly@th
Yes:
Radium while it eats all your data even when not using it.
Herion if you use it.
Lead as you continue to use it.
Asbestos the day you remove it from your life/code/everything.
Yes:
Radium while it eats all your data even when not using it.
Herion if you use it.
Lead as you continue to use it.
Asbestos the day you remove it from your life/code/everything.
Radium. The other three at least had uses, if the downsides were way more significant.
Lead makes paint a lot tougher, so you won't have to do maintenance as often.
Heroin does reduce pain, but I can't think of a more addictive painkiller off the top of my head.
Asbestos saved lives by preventing the spread of fires, but not as many lives as it killed.
Radium was just a fad with no benefits, just like so-called AI.
dasgrueneblatt@csstrowbridge
I thought so too. The others work, but with side-effects. Radium doesn't work for what it was advertised for.
@th
I thought so too. The others work, but with side-effects. Radium doesn't work for what it was advertised for.
@th
Major Denis Bloodnok@csstrowbridge @th Even now we should not care if a terminal patient becomes addicted to painkillers. I went radium too, on much the same basis - ended up in everything, didn't do anything good. At least people only put asbestos in things where flammability was a concern, not in everything from face cream to inhalers.
Cowboy Who?@th heroine now, asbestos in about 20 years time
Tane Piper ⁂@th all of them? In each case I can see how you could abstract it to the different scenarios. We will have AI crises in many areas - in some sense all the 4 elements polluted - inner and outer reality broken by systems that bring us a step closers to any number of crisis points.
Modern humanity (the western one at least) only discovered the universe existed 100 years ago - and only just invented television - and accelerated from there ever since - barely time to adapt and understand our impact
Gabs@th it has to be Radium - something that wasn't understood by even the experts got added to everything just because it was new and cool.
All the others had actual function - yes, tetraethyl lead in gasoline to reduce knocking engines was basically cosmetic, but Heroin is a really good painkiller and say what you want about asbestos, but those houses simply won't burn down.
All the others had actual function - yes, tetraethyl lead in gasoline to reduce knocking engines was basically cosmetic, but Heroin is a really good painkiller and say what you want about asbestos, but those houses simply won't burn down.
@Gabs @th Lead is really soft and moldable, but once you get it how you want it to be, it's nice and firm, which makes it honestly amazing. I think we still use it in stained glass windows because it's basically the only thing that meets the criteria. It would be really great if it weren't, y'know, toxic.
@FishNamedDog @th I have no issues with lead in solder or other applications - putting it in paint because it makes a slightly cheaper white pigment than titanium oxide and putting it in gasoline were the really bad ideas.
@FishNamedDog @th even the whole "Romans used lead piping and that's why they all had lead poisoning" is bullshit - most of those pipes were covered in calcium deposits and the lead barely got into the water.
But adding powdered lead to your wine made it oh so much sweeter. Stupidity is always the most dangerous thing in the world.
But adding powdered lead to your wine made it oh so much sweeter. Stupidity is always the most dangerous thing in the world.
@Gabs @th I've heard lead paint is actually highly durable and water resistant. you can put it on and just kind of forget about it. it also dries quicker and allegedly creates better colors, not just white. and according to wikipedia, "Effects of engine knocking range from inconsequential to completely destructive." so probably a good thing to stop.
@FishNamedDog @th we eventually fixed knocking engines with less toxic additives and better engineering and the "highly durable" aspect of lead paint might have led to overuse in cases where water resistance and bright colours were not really needed. If you paint your classroom in lead, maybe repaint it before the kids learn how sweet paint flakes can taste...
Like I said - lead has its uses, but within reason and maybe only if it's the best alternative.
But I feel we are having an argument about nothing here.
Like I said - lead has its uses, but within reason and maybe only if it's the best alternative.
But I feel we are having an argument about nothing here.
Ivan 🇪🇸@th i... i get the hate for AI but isn't this comparison a bit of a stretch. 😭
Lars Stitz@th I went with Lead, because it's toxic to the human brain, there's no safe threshold for exposure to it, and at some point it's going to make everyone fucking aggro.
Kevin Karhan 
Dentaku (Thomas Renger)@th Digital Clock
Syulang@th
"Let's put AI/LLM in everything" is the new...
Dutch tulip.
piofthings@th teflon would probably be the winning option but will settle for asbestos!
Jay@th lead because hundreds of years from now there'll still be obscure bits of infrastructure getting poisoned by it
Weston 🥃@th Lead because we will be paying for the brain damage caused by it for the next 50 years.
RejZoR@th Lead. It's sweet tasting, but is actually very toxic. Just like all the Ai bullshit.
@th Radium. Shiny and cool-looking but gonna poison you eventually.
Packets From The Void@th
Lead, Heroin, and Asbestos are all *really good* for their respective uses, Radium is the best answer here because it is the only one that was pointless for most of the things it got put in.
Lead, Heroin, and Asbestos are all *really good* for their respective uses, Radium is the best answer here because it is the only one that was pointless for most of the things it got put in.
Leendaal@th all of the above
Willow :bhjflag_bisexual::anarchy_punk_demiboy:@th all answers are correct.
Keith@th there should be an all of the above option
otto@th all of the above
Gemma ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 🎐@th None of the other choices have had anywhere near the level of public health impacts as the inclusion of tetraethyl lead in gasoline. Like, the scale isn’t even close. Lead exposure in early childhood was a major factor in violent crime rates, and 18-20 years after we started phasing out lead in gasoline, the violent crime rates suddenly started falling. We poisoned entire generations, literally billions of people. Very few, by comparison, ever had contact with radium, heroin, or asbestos.