> I'm from the "information wants to be free" sort of persuasion, and now that largely makes me feel kinda old.

Me too, 100%. But that was during a moment in time when that information was more likely to be enabling a person who otherwise didn't have as many resources than enabling a billionaire to make their torment nexus 0.1% more powerful.

> I kinda had to accept that stuff I make was going to be used towards ends I didn't approve of. Something about that is in here too, I think.

Yeah, I've mostly made peace with that too.

The way I think about it is that when I make some digital thing and share it with the world, I'm (hopefully!) adding value to a bunch of people. I'm happiest if the distribution of that value lifts up people on the bottom end more than people on the top. I think inequality is one of the biggest problems in the world today and I aspire to have the web and the stuff I make chip away at it.

If my stuff ends up helping the rich and poor equally and doesn't really effect inequality one way or the other, I guess it's fine.

But in a world with AI, I worry that anything I put out there increases inequality and that gives me the heebie-jeebies. Maybe that's just the way things are now and I have to accept it.