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lol, so 'We know this is crack cocaine mind-control spyware. Give us a seat in the control room'

Maybe the question should be 'should workers pay taxes'?

If a human component is required in addition to the cheaply machine-automated part, that belies the claim that 'most of the work has already been done'.

The human part, turning it from slop to polished, becomes the most important part of the work, and then (and in any case) should be paid at human rates.


This doesn't really address anything, though. The human part will be 10x more productive when they're polishing than when they're having to start with a blank page, and now nine nearly as competent, experienced people have been fired and are offering to work for less than you're being paid. Poof! It's now a minimum wage job, and has barely gotten any easier.

They can actually just hire the worst of you (who will do unpaid overtime, and let you call him a dummy when you're upset), because it's not a big deal that he's only 5x as fast as you used to be compared to your 10x as fast as you used to be. They can't even attract that much business now because the lowest end of the market completely disappeared and is doing it at home by themselves.

Prepress/typesetting work went from a highly-specialized job that you spent years mastering and could raise a family with to a still moderately difficult job that paid just above minimum wage within a single generation, just due to Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Those tools don't even generate anything resembling a final product, they just make the job digital instead of physical. In the case of copywriting, AI instantly generates something that a lazy person could ship with.


This is a crucial point. Freelancers who are asked to edit AI generated content should be charging more per hour, not less. A lot more - something that ends up with the client saving money, and ALSO them saving time and making money. If automation is implemented like this, both parties can win and somehow split the difference.

However, we live in a world where people have to compete to survive. Since a major portion of the task is automated, all of a sudden there are many available copywriting editors looking for work. The abundance tends to drive down the wage on sites like Fiverr.

And that's why unions are so important!


Indeed. In software, we're all telling ourselves that code reviewing as a skill just gained a bunch of value, so we should focus on improving our skills there. I feel like editing has always been part of professional writing, so these folks should focus on editing as a pivot.

Hmm. "Commoditize your complement".

That is, if you're selling razor blades, you want the handle and the shaving cream to be cheap. Well then, if you're turning slop into polished, then you want the slop to be cheap. And AI makes it much cheaper.


Agreed. We seem to be here:

"Gamblers generate slop, businessmen sell it as 'AI-powered.'"

Something important is missing.


Reminds me of the Hypnodrones in the Universal Papaerclips clicker game.

'car' is a bit of a stretch, but it's a cool compact go-kart.

Is the ad character inspired by, or the inspiration for, Mr Bean?


I think it was a fun PR joke that was cool and funny itself and showed they didn't take themselves too seriously.

PS: What I miss from growing up - being awoken about 7:35 am to my next door neighbor's Solar Gold LS Wankel rev shifting from 1st->2nd as he commuted to Spectra-Physics.



You can't use a 555, obviously.

You need to use two of them, or a 556, because you need one half for the 30 second monostable and the other half for the astable that drives the beeper.

Out of contrariness I'd use a CD4011 though.


You're right, but I think a 555 is maybe more than required for the buzzer.

Buzz-overkill, if you like.


Came in for this joke.

"star wars is overrated"

Star Wars (1977) and Empire strikes back are not overrated - they may not quite be cinematic masterpieces, but are certainly cultural icons. Everything else in the franchise ...

Sure, 'hero saves the galaxy' is fantasy.


I know it's the recognized term for 'officially designated authority', but 'competent authority' seems to conflate two traits that do not necessarily co-habit.


Legal competence is like a legal person — it's a subset of what we normally associate with the term.


Just read it as ”we have the competence to make decisions with authority on this issue”, though we all wish it always meant ”we have authority to make competent decisions on this issue” xD


I can see the utility of a desk clock/indicator/physical-UI/music-player, but the twisty rubik thing, the two separate screens, and mobility seem totally superfluous.

Is this an AI design?


The reasons given are all contributing factors, but the central issue is this:

Business, particularly under capitalism (where ownership is detached from operation) is about making a profit, not making great products or services

So price discrimination, corner-cutting, price gauging, vendor lock-in, planned-obsolescence, monopoly power, are all tools to increase profits.


> capitalism (where ownership is detached from operation)

That is a really eloquent way to phrase one of my main gripes with capitalist societies. Thanks, I will be stealing it.


Could this be the moment to start using ultra-capitalism?


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