Posts by commiepinko

NASA fires up super-quiet supersonic X-59 aircraft

Dirty, Dirty Feet

Any article that discusses a technology without examining its carbon footprint is an ad.

Robots crush career opportunities for low-skilled workers

Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

The only problem with automation is our inability to imagine a post-scarcity economy where everyone has plenty. (The derisive snort+eye roll with which you just dismissed my pitiful naiveté proves my point more easily than any argument I can make.)

Begin by acknowledging that your "job" consists primarily of increasing the wealth and power of the egregiously wealthy and powerful. That's it. That's our purposeour raison d'être. Most of us spend most of our brief lives in support of people we never meet, none of whom deserve our respect, admiration, or support. Admit it. We're pawns in a game our Gods play with database entries.

Now imagine about a world where "work" is whatever pursuit you regard as worthwhile, and "job" is something no human being need stoop to. Think about how we might rid ourselves of the ruling predator parasite psychopaths who will happily kill billions rather than abandon their presumed godhead.

If your AI does the crime, you'll do the time, warns DoJ

Artificial Xenophobia

The resumé screening apps used by a large majority of US employers are trained on public data sets. Consequently, they are demonstrably and quantifiably sexist, racist, homophobic, Anti-Semitic, more, and worse. They are the codification of some of humanity's most destructive faults, and they are the first barrier anyone who wants a grownup job must cross. They're the most energetic, competent, relentless bigots the world has ever seen, committing the most heinous sorts of discrimination with a thoroughness and accuracy that's the stuff of a Klansman's wet dreams.

And every company using them is in direct, flagrant violation of a host of U.S. federal and state fair employment statutes. The speed, scale, and stealth of the assault is as devastating as it is breathtaking.

If ignorance of the law is no excuse, neither is ignorance regarding your AI. Every last one of those companies should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and the perpetrators behind the production of the software given prison terms. The production of some software must be regulated and monitored, and the costs of doing so must be paid by the producers. "To encourage the others."