JP19h ago
"class traitor technologies" is a useful concept to install into your worldview: anything that invites you to think of yourself as a little dauphin, a temporary aristocrat reclining on a chaise of screaming human bones, languorous finger directing some new marvel of labor, anything that discourages you from thinking of that labor as the product of other humans' hands and minds, product of a real place with soil and air and human community. technology to invisibilize & obliterate all that.
Show threadRichard Cantzler

@jplebreton I dunno, it's pretty relative.

Then: Water carriers
Now: Indoor plumbing. Repaired by plumbers

Then: Chimney Sweeps
Now: Central HVAC. Repaired by HVAC technicians

Then: Lamplighters
Now: Electric lighting. Repaired by electrician

Then: Coachmen
Recently: Taxi drivers
Now: Uber/Lyft drivers
Future: autonomous cab. Repaired by gigtricians

Then: Tabulating clerks
Recently: Computers (people)
Now: Computers. Repaired by smart family members or Geek Squad

Then: Bookkeepers
Recently: CPAs
Now: QuickBooks

Civilization advances. We UpSkill. Let's acknowledge that what we consider menial tasks (and perceive as traitor to a class) shifts drastically over time, and as human beings we'd really love to spend a majority of time enjoying life and the pursuit of happiness, not collecting water, lighting lamps, steering horses, balancing the books by hand, writing boilerplate code, etc.

There's a ton of bad intent out there, but it's not all bad out there.

Apr 11 at 4:57pmWeb
Show threadJP16h ago
@cantzler it sounds like you have thought at least a little about labor and where it comes from, which is good!
what you must not accept is what we currently call the tech industry's ongoing argument that every new thing they put before you is part of a natural inevitable process whereby human burdens are eased, labor relations become more equitable, and less human life is wasted.
we would be living in a dramatically different world if that were actually true.
Show threadJP16h ago
@cantzler sometimes a new product is simply asbestos. sometimes a new form of labor creates more precarity than it eliminates. it is morally imperative you look beyond your own comfort.
Show threadRichard Cantzler16h ago
@jplebreton I agree we have to look deep and consider the implications. DDT has taught us this. Plastic will teach us this.
Show threadeclexic16h ago

@cantzler

In a book I read a while back, called "The Abundance Of Less" a woman who was interviewed for the book had a take on the shinkansen. Heavily paraphrased.

It use to be the trip from Osaka to Tokyo would take a few weeks. You would go once in a while, because you had a few weeks. Today, the trip from Osaka to Tokyo can be done in an afternoon, but you don't have the afternoon.

In my opinion, much work hasn't been properly automated, it's been outsourced to the clients.

@jplebreton