Mastodawn

Hart of the Wud

Imagine that it's 1925 and I am a clever, experienced mechanical engineer. I look around at the "tech" world of the time and notice some disturbing things:

- the rising power of literally fascist CEOs like Henry Ford
- What began as an inefficient, quirky novelty toy for rich people, the automobile, has become "normal" and started to dominate public space
- rising levels of fossil pollution
- the rising monopoly power of Oil companies
- dangerous levels of stock-market speculation
- brutal exploitation of people and environmental destruction in mining and rubber producing (mostly colonial) regions
- the use of debt to get less wealthy consumers to buy cars
- scores of innocent pedestrians injured or killed by automobiles
- urban planning that increasingly favors more expensive cars over other users of the streets
- declining sense of importance of shared forms of transportation like trolleys and trains

As an engineer, I look at all those rising issues and then I say:

"What we need is an Open Source Model-T Ford with some slightly better safety features."

In retrospect, that would seem like a pretty inadequate response.

rabbit5959 Dec 30

@praxeology I'm really not intelligent... can someone explain this to me? Is it an ad for trains?

SkipfordJ Dec 31

@rabbit5959 @praxeology An ad? On the Fediverse?

some kind of orange shape Dec 31

@rabbit5959 @praxeology kind of, but really it's about "AI"

João Santos Dec 31

@rabbit5959 this is an ad against trying to solve problems caused by the torment nexus by implementing an open source torment nexus.

rabbit5959 Dec 31

@jmcs Aaaah, right, but with AI. Thanks!

jzakotnik Dec 30

@praxeology best post of today. Exactly this.

Sebastian Crane 🏳️‍⚧️Dec 30

@praxeology Slightly terrifying that there's half a dozen different things that this post could be an analogy for...

@praxeology If you weren't using that open source model-t ford right now, I wouldn't have read your message.

Everyone's gotta contribute wherever they're best able to.

mx alex tax1a - 2020 (6)Dec 30

@rimu @praxeology of all the possible responses to the OP this sure is one of them

Lightning Bjornsson*

evdonia_corner_emblem

@rimu @praxeology Explain what you mean by that. #lang_en

I think they're assuming the post is about the fediverse, an open source, slightly safer version of social media. (Or maybe the internet?)

@rimu @praxeology

Mux2000 (exfoliating)Dec 31

Inadequate would be to say »All we need is…«.

But, all other things being respectively equal, each

- a better automobile is better
- having more public transport is better
- less exploitation is better
- better regulation is better (probably include putting pedestrians' over automobiles' rights)
- etc.

It's OK to make only one thing better that you are equipped to do so. Don't burn yourself out by only running after the big picture.

The big picture is made of small things.

some kind of orange shape Dec 31

@Ardubal @praxeology I don't think it's correct to say that making the open source version is the only thing most engineers could do about it? If you can do that, you can also use some source-available but not open-source license, and deny the license to clients that are doing evil stuff

Jared White (ResistanceNet ✊)Dec 30

@praxeology I'm so glad you mention all of these issues because it drives me up a frickin' WALL when people pimp the slop machines by saying "lol, you also want to ditch the car and go back to horses huh?" and I'm like "duude, are you not aware of the long history of well-reasoned critiques of just how terrible the automobile is in many, many ways?!"

Wulfy—Speaker to the machines Jan 1

@jaredwhite @praxeology

Public transport is to Automobiles

is what

Sovereign, community owned models are to Broligarch models

(eg:https://infosec.exchange/@n_dimension/115621429575051565)

Wulfy—Speaker to the machines (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image Do you hate #broligarchs? #Billionaires? #AiSlop but still think there is merit in #AI? Here is my proposal for a stand alone. OFFGRID COMMUNITY AI SYSTEM. That's right.Your very own co-op AI The calculations are very much back of the envelope, first cut, but quite feasible. A 32billion parameters, frontier level performance compatable open source #llm model. The power requirements is that of 3AC units including cooling. Serves 15-20 concurrent users. 40 households of 4 people each (taking into account actual AI model distributed use metrics and contention ratios) 40 households, subscribing at $30/month over 2 years + power (solar). Train with your own datasets. Entire set up takes half a rack. LETS GO!!! #OpenSource #FOSS #CommunityTech #OpenHardware #EthicalAI #ResponsibleAI #AIForGood #TechForGood #Solarpunk #RegenerativeCulture #Degrowth #AppropriateTechnology #OffGrid #SelfSufficient #Homesteading #Permaculture #RightToRepair #MakerSpace #DIYTech #decentralizedtech

Infosec Exchange

ralph_himself Dec 30

@praxeology
@notjustbikes did you say that we don't need better automobiles, but as few automobiles as possible?

Not Just Bikes 🇳🇱Jan 1

@ralph_himself @praxeology that sounds like something @BrentToderian would say, but I agree with it!

Jia Tan's mom Dec 30

@praxeology what if you said instead: "we need to seize the means of production" ?

flag_genderfluid

@admin @praxeology AI companies run by their employees would still be ecocidal, colonialist, and would still be a threat to workers, so I don't see why this would be relevant.

Daniel Howard 🌻Dec 31

@praxeology you just described a bicycle?

Toni Aittoniemi Dec 31

@praxeology Everything that’s old is new again.

Also doesn’t look too good for proximity of WW3..

mahadevank Dec 31

@praxeology I agree with this post, the Open Source License is woefully inadequate in preventing exploitation and abuse. The redistribution clause needs serious updates to protect creators and code from being used unlawfully or in a manner that works against humanity

Claude LeChat Dec 31

@praxeology Thing is, most programmers aren't engineers. They don't have the training, mentality or ethics of an engineer (nor any other kind of ethics, really). They look at all those problems and see them as technical in nature because they never learned how to people. They never had to.

Uneerie 🏳️‍⚧️🦦Dec 31

@claude @praxeology you just described male privilege

Thomas A. Frederiksen Dec 31

@claude @praxeology Or indeed a license to lose. Imagine if you had to live up to professional ethical and practical standards to code professionally and could be barred from doing so again if found to not live up to the standards.

Jacqueline Dec 31

As an engineer, I look at all those rising issues and then I say:

Join the Communist Party goddamnit

DFX4509B (Joshua Mason)Jan 2

@praxeology Making steps to make the car hard for normal people to own and prioritizing improvements to public transit and walking/biking would've been an ideal response in this case.

Oh, also making things cheap enough to where they can just buy it with straight cash would go a long way as well, the credit system is kind of a giant grift if you think about it.