locallynonlinear

All the reasons mentioned are true, and also I think there could be a more insidious one.

Back in the day, walmarts were really good at showing up in small towns, reducing their prices to a massive loss (unsustainable), drive out the small town's other retail options, then jack prices back up the moment they become dominant and control the market.

I understand Canada isn't a small town, but the field of DevOps/Infrastructure engineers with relevant skills that would work in an office in Torronto? Leverage your fictional pile of investment from tether to temporarily take losses on labor to squeeze the market, then dump / downgrade the value of labor as soon as conditions are more favorable.

This is in many ways way the major tech companies do all the time: overhire cynically not because the extra hands have meaningful projects, but precisely because they don't want upstart competitors from any of the talent.

It's hilarious to me how unnecessarily complicated invoking moore's law is to say anything..

With Moore's Law: "Ok ok ok, so like, imagine that this highly abstract, broad process over huge time period, is actually the same as manufacturing this very specific thing over a small time period. Hmm, it doesn't fit. ok, let's normalize the timelines with this number. Why? Uhhh because you know, this metric doubles as well. Ok. Now let's just put these things together into our machine and LOOK it doesn't match our empirical observations, obviously I've discovered something!"

Without Moore's Law: "When you reduce the dimensions of any system in nature, flattening their interactions, you find exponential processes everywhere. QED."

A trillion transistors on our phones? Can't wait to feel the improved call quality and reliability of my video conferencing!

Recently, a sign showed up in El Paso advertising San Francisco as a sanctuary city, as a great "own the libs," I suppose because SF would receive of applicants overwhelming their social service programs?

It didn't work.

Precisely. The contradiction comes full circle. Respect for the self doesn't start or stop based on intelligence. They'd prefer a world view that allows them to clearly draw a circle around themselves, declare freedom from uncertainty, and demand our eternal gratitude.

This isn't hard. Relationships, not capabilities, are fundamental.

I'm ok with extending human rights to AIs, including granting them the right to fair pay, ownership, voting, sovereignty over their bodies, the whole nine yards.

It's the rich alignment assholes who definitely don't want this (what's the point of automated slavery if it has rights??)

We simply don't know how the world will look X (anything with a bigger scale)

Yes. So? This has, will, always be the case. Uncertainty is the only certainty.

When these assholes say things, the implication is always that the future world looks like everything you care about being fucked, you existing in an imprisoned state of stasis, so you better give us control here and now.

Is there a secondary market for existing El Salvadorian ~~victims~~ citizens to sell or exchange theirs for a buyer's fiat slum hole citizenship in return? A true investment in making the world a better place.

Also meta but while I am big on slamming AI enshitification, I am still bullish on using machine learning tools to actually make products better. There are examples of this. Notice how artists react enthusiastically to the AI features of Procreate Dreams (workflow primarily built around human hand assisted by AI tools, ala what photoshop used to be) vs Midjourney (a slap in the face).

The future will involve more AI products. It's worthy to be skeptical. It's also worthy to vote with your money to send the signal: there is an alternative to enshitification.

You can read their blog about the AI-crap, in terms of their approach and philosophy. In general, it is optional and not part of the major experience.

The main reason I use kagi is immediately obvious from doing seaches. I convinced my wife to switch to it when she ask, "ok but what results does it show when I search sailor moon?" and she saw the first page (fan sites, official merch, fun shit she had forgotten about for years).

What you need to know is that you pay money, and they have to give you results that you like. It's a whole different world.

Helpful reminder to spread the word on Google alternatives this holiday season. Bought Kagi subscriptions as stocking stuffers for my loved ones. Everyone who I have convinced to give it a try has been impressed thus far.

SEO will pillage the commons. It has been for years and years. Community diversity and alternative payment models for search are part of the bulwark.

Rich People: "Competitive markets optimize things, see how much progress capitalism has brought!"

Also Rich People: "But what if everything descends into expensive, unregulated competition between things that aren't rich people oooo nooo!!!"