I am surprised (and also kind of not) to see this kind of tech hate on HN of all places.

Would you prefer we heat our homes by burning wood, carry water from the nearby spring, and ride horses to visit relatives?

Progress is progress, and has always changed things. Its funny that apparently, "progressive" left-leaning people are actually so conservative at the core.

So far, in my book, the advancements in the last 100 or even more years have mostly always brought us things I wouldn't want to miss these days. But maybe some people would be happier to go back to the dark ages...

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seu 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> Progress is progress, and has always changed things. Its funny that apparently, "progressive" left-leaning people are actually so conservative at the core.

I am surprised (and also kind of not) to see this lack of critical reflection on HN of all places.

Saying "progress is progress" serves nobody, except those who drive "progress" in directions that benefits them. All you do by saying "has always changed things" is taking "change" at face value, assuming it's something completely out of your control, and to be accepted without any questioning it's source, it's ways or its effects.

> So far, in my book, the advancements in the last 100 or even more years have mostly always brought us things I wouldn't want to miss these days. But maybe some people would be happier to go back to the dark ages...

Amazing depiction of extremes as the only possible outcomes. Either take everything that is thrown at us, or go back into a supposed "dark age" (which, BTW, is nowadays understood to not have been that "dark" at all) . This, again, doesn't help have a proper discussion about the effects of technology and how it comes to be the way it is.

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Glemkloksdjf 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Dark age was dark. Human rights, female! rights, hunger, thirst, no progress at all, hard lifes.

So are you able, realisticly, to stop progress around a whole planet? Tbh. getting an alignment across the planet to slow down or stop AI would be the equivilent of stoping capitalism and actually building a holistic planet for us.

I think ai will force the hand of capitalism but i don't think we will be able to create a star trek universe without getting forced

	▲	trashb an hour ago \| parent [-]
		> Dark age was dark. Human rights, female! rights, hunger, thirst, no progress at all, hard lifes. There was progress in the Middle Ages, hence the difference between the early and late Middle Ages. Most information was mouth to mouth instead of written down. "The term employs traditional light-versus-darkness imagery to contrast the era's supposed darkness (ignorance and error) with earlier and later periods of light (knowledge and understanding)." "Others, however, have used the term to denote the relative scarcity of written records regarding at least the early part of the Middle Ages" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Ages_(historiography)

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lm28469 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Would you prefer we heat our homes by burning wood, carry water from the nearby spring, and ride horses to visit relatives?

I'm more surprised that seemingly educated people have such simplistic views as "technology = progress, progress = good hence technology = good". Vaccines and running water are tech, megacorps owned "AI" being weaponised by surveillance obsessed governments is also tech.

If you don't push back on "tech" you're just blindingly accepting whatever someone else decided for you. Keep in mind the benefits of tech since the 80s have mostly been pocketed by the top 10%, the pleb still work as much, retire as old, &c. despite what politicians and technophiles have been saying

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andrepd 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

"You don't like $instance_of_X? You must want to get rid of all $X" has got to be one of the most intellectually lazy things you could say.

You don't like leaded gasoline? You must want us to walk everywhere. Come on...

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lynx97 4 hours ago | parent [-]

A tool is a tool. These AI critics sound to me like people who have hit their finger with a hammer, and now advocate against using them altogether. Yes, tech has always had two sides. Our "job" as humans is to pick the good parts, and avoid the bad. Nothing new, nothing exceptional.

	▲	lm28469 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> A tool is a tool. These AI critics sound to me like people who have hit their finger with a hammer, and now advocate against using them altogether. Speaking of wonky analogies, have you considered that other people have access to these hammers and are aiming for your head ? And that some people might not want to be hit on the head by a hammer
	▲	andrepd 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		More lazy analogies... Yes a hammer is a tool, so is a machine gun, a nuke, or the guy with his killdozer. So what are you gonna do? Nothing to see here, discussion closed. This is not an interesting conversation.