Dr. Andy Farnell on a "Technology Plan B"
Last night Dr. Andy Farnell wrote about having an alternative plan, which is based around Free software. Or a "Technology Plan B" as he put it. Some excerpts:
In 2020 I taught a cohort of eighty South Indian students. They were delightful, and mostly very capable, but also terrified of failure and would do anything to succeed including openly cheating and offering bribes. That encounter caused me to re-evaluate my morality coming from a place of privilege - the privilege of growing up in more or less a real meritocracy - give or take the obscene British class system we still cling to. I saw that these kids were victims of a new colonialism, their lives ruined by the disease of US-style capitalism which says "unless you get ahead at any cost you are nothing!"The British so-called 'university' I taught at sold the illusion of meritocratic reputation for large sums of money to overseas students. I got the impression they came from relatively wealthy families who'd bet the farm on a son or daughter, and were told they'd be beaten or disgraced if they came home without a degree. In other words the institution had less morals than the students it hypocritically demanded not "cheat". I did what little I could to help them succeed and save their dignity and morality.
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Neither Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg finished their computer science degrees. Why do that when a shortcut to wealth presents itself? Billionaires make money by speculation and manipulation. For the Silicon Valley bro getting rich because you did some work or gained some knowledge is second rate. That's just geeky. Nobody gets ahead that way! It's about grift, deception, shortcuts, and bets. They imagine themselves 'clever' but are operating under completely different social assumptions than the genuine innovator of the previous century. However, the children of developing countries are still sold Capitalism 1.0 and they don't know the rules changed.
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In all likelihood "AI" is not going to cut it, despite the bubble of relentless propaganda many of us are in. No doubt more trillions will be sunk into doomed projects out of sheer stubbornness.
"AI" is a giant gamble. It is an existential gamble on which the entire world economy is being bet, for the amusement of less than 100 people. Those people making the bet have no plan-B. For them it is glory or scorched earth. For religious reasons many of them are hoping for the latter.
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"AI" is an unsustainable ponzi scheme in which the last billionaires are fighting the ultimate battles amongst themselves.
The truth is that auto-generated code quality is terrible. The cybersecurity implications are beyond unacceptable. The success rate of businesses adopting "AI" are less than five percent. The entire project is unsustainable due to energy needs and model collapse. Push-back due to social upheaval, environmental costs, and metal illness is powerful and growing.
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Come and join the resistance. Be part of the Software Freedom movement.
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As commercial software becomes more enshitified and people figure out that it's hostile and useless, there's going to be a growing demand for simpler, functional software made by real humans, by a verifiable "hand-crafted" process that is trustworthy. Its relative simplicity, robustness and design by people who understand technology as a tool will ensure its triumph. It won't matter how much governments back failing corporations if their catastrophically over-complex and insecure stuff just doesn't work. No amount of pretending is going to fix it.
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