That there is no perfect defense. There is no protection. Being alive means being exposed; it’s the nature of life to be hazardous—it’s the stuff of living.

  • 21 Posts
  • 27 Comments
Joined 10 months ago
Cake day: June 9th, 2024
  • Alphane Moon@lemmy.worldtoTechnology@lemmy.world•Sergey Brin: We need you working 60 hours a week so we can replace you as soon as possibleEnglish
    13·
    4 days ago

    The irony with all these oligarch statements is that if an employee applies their economic philosophy in a direct manner, the outcome would be that the employees’ sole goal should be to work as little as possible to gain as much money as possible while not getting fired.

    You want to optimize your return per hour if you are salaried. It would make logical sense that you need to lower the amount of hours worked to get the highest possible return on a per hour basis.

    You would also want to focus on approaches that make it difficult to fire you as opposed to focusing on organizational goals.

    I am not saying I agree or disagree with this approach, there are clearly many issues with what I am saying (other poor souls will have to pick up the slack for your laziness), just highlighting the inherent contradictions of oligarch propaganda.

  • Alphane Moon@lemmy.worldtoTechnology@lemmy.world•Why Marissa Mayer wants you to spend less time tapping your phone screenEnglish
    2·
    12 days ago

    Recently, she’s been tackling a new challenge at Sunshine, her AI-driven startup focused on making everyday tasks more seamless, starting with managing users’ phone contacts and reminding them about birthdays. The company’s latest AI-powered photo sharing app reflects Mayer’s broader vision for how technology can enhance personal connections and interactions.

    What a bunch of PR word salad.

    I skimmed through most of the article, it reads like an oligarch propaganda piece. But in the BBC’s defense they did ask some relevant questions.

    In particular, Mayer’s framing of “pessimists” and “optimists” is almost beautiful in an abstract kind of way.

    It is not a matter of being pessimistic or optimistic about ML powered services, it’s a matter of not trusting a bunch of vapid, corrupt, dishonest ghouls like Mayer and her ilk.

    Only a complete fool would believe the word salad about wanting to make the world a better place and leveraging technology to help develop human connections. It reads like a parody or satire.

  • Alphane Moon@lemmy.worldtoTechnology@lemmy.world•Former Apple designer Sir Jony Ive has said he feels “responsible” for the “not so positive consequences” of the iPhone.English
    4·
    30 days ago

    I am old enough to remember not have mobile phones (not even smartphones) or even having a desktop PC that wasn’t connected to the internet (although we did get dialup about 6 months after buying the PC, parents thought might as well do that).

    I don’t deny the utility of a smartphone or PCs for that matter. My issue is with framing a techology device as a sort of metaphysical source of “liberty” and “empowerment”. Any tool can be used for bad or for good, it’s all up to us. There are pro/cons to digital hardware and services.

    It’s like with industrialization, it clearly led to empowerment of wider society. Collapse of regressive feudal models, increased education among “commoners”, rise of democracy and so on. But all of this didn’t happen in a vacuum. It required global revolutionary movement that scared the oligarchs of the time into giving consessions to commoners (because at high level they realized things could have worked out really bad for them).

    Then there is the propaganda line, an almost communist-like veneration around Ivey (even though in the global context it is most definitely not iOS devices that are having most impact) and some bullshit about Ivey caring.

    “I care and shit about you plebs … ugh … yeah, the negative effects bother me … Not sure how something I was involved in can have negatives, but yeah I really care! See I am even saying I care on this random BBC musical program! That’s how much I care!”