Why are you sad right now?

[nightflameauto]

I have days where it's tough to look myself in the eye for a variety of reasons. But some days it's harder than others.

For not the first time I had it driven home that my career is essentially building better ways to shove people out of the workforce. If I thought I lived in a world that would take care of these people, I'd feel fine about it. But being that I live in this world, and there's a good chance that these folks will be told to eat shit and die already, I'm having a real tough time continuing on this path, yet see zero options for moving out of it. If you're a programmer in a manufacturing setting, that's what you do. You help companies make the entire world a worse place to live.

 

[Demiurge]

I am in a group at work that later this afternoon will kick-off a pilot program to use AI to perform a very important part of our work process.

Everybody seems to be cheering this on as a major QOL improvement. Yet, even before this got off the ground, management was looking to us to project the number of hours saved by AI if this works. I seem to be the only one who notes that the timesave will eventually be measured in full-time positions that can be culled.

 

[nightflameauto]

I am in a group at work that later this afternoon will kick-off a pilot program to use AI to perform a very important part of our work process.

Everybody seems to be cheering this on as a major QOL improvement. Yet, even before this got off the ground, management was looking to us to project the number of hours saved by AI if this works. I seem to be the only one who notes that the timesave will eventually be measured in full-time positions that can be culled.

Welcome to the hegemony. Sorry for the loss of that part of your soul. What sucks the most is you can't really talk about that inner nagging suspicion you're fucking something up royally just by doing your job with the other people involved with the same thing. Some weird social contract exists where, if we say it out loud, we all implode or something. So my entire group sits there working away at trying to obsolete the concept of work, while wondering where we'll get our income when they finally find a way to replace us coders, which they're working on 24/7 now.

 

[crushingpetal]

I am in a group at work that later this afternoon will kick-off a pilot program to use AI to perform a very important part of our work process.

Everybody seems to be cheering this on as a major QOL improvement. Yet, even before this got off the ground, management was looking to us to project the number of hours saved by AI if this works. I seem to be the only one who notes that the timesave will eventually be measured in full-time positions that can be culled.

Note: I've been accused of being overly pessimistic. I keep getting visions of idiocracy over the last two years. Like, what's our endgame here?

Apple's announcement of "Apple Intelligence" getting shoved into everything has me thinking of reading texts and pictures and emails written by bland, boring, factually incorrect AI. Fucking fantastic.

 

[Seabeast2000]

I have days where it's tough to look myself in the eye for a variety of reasons. But some days it's harder than others.

For not the first time I had it driven home that my career is essentially building better ways to shove people out of the workforce. If I thought I lived in a world that would take care of these people, I'd feel fine about it. But being that I live in this world, and there's a good chance that these folks will be told to eat shit and die already, I'm having a real tough time continuing on this path, yet see zero options for moving out of it. If you're a programmer in a manufacturing setting, that's what you do. You help companies make the entire world a worse place to live.

Gonna need that PLC code update Monday, soooo we'll see you here Saturday for line testing mmmmm kayyyy

 

[nightflameauto]

Note: I've been accused of being overly pessimistic. I keep getting visions of idiocracy over the last two years. Like, what's our endgame here?

Apple's announcement of "Apple Intelligence" getting shoved into everything has me thinking of reading texts and pictures and emails written by bland, boring, factually incorrect AI. Fucking fantastic.

Pessimistic? Realistic? The two seem to go hand in hand these days.

Apple's deal with OpenAI is a "no monetary exchange" deal. OpenAI is going to use Apple's universe as a giant data aggregator, sucking up still more of humanity's discourse as a guide to its brilliant computer god future. There's chatter of a "automatic AI generated reply" agent coming down the pipe sooner rather than later, so that people don't actually have to text or email folks contacting them directly back themselves, and can just get a summary at the end of the day of all our "social" electronic interaction.

If they replace us in our jobs, and replace us socially, what's the point?

 

[wheresthefbomb]

The band I'm in was supposed to be opening for a really rad band on national tour (as well as a very kickass local drag queen) last weekend. One of the band members tested positive for Covid right after they got here, and they were staying with us which meant we were exposed too. We did the only responsible thing and cancelled the show. They quarantined in our house for a long weekend and hanging out with them was cool but the show getting cancelled really knocked the wind out of my sails and I've been a depression slug all week just playing video games and blahhhhh. There was so much hype around town for the show, just feels real crappy to let all that go. Today I woke up and didn't sit directly down on the couch and fire up the roomie's PS5, trying to build some positive momentum and get back on the horse here. We are rescheduling with the same queen at least, we are still all stoked about performing together.

 

[BlackMastodon]

Pessimistic? Realistic? The two seem to go hand in hand these days.

Apple's deal with OpenAI is a "no monetary exchange" deal. OpenAI is going to use Apple's universe as a giant data aggregator, sucking up still more of humanity's discourse as a guide to its brilliant computer god future. There's chatter of a "automatic AI generated reply" agent coming down the pipe sooner rather than later, so that people don't actually have to text or email folks contacting them directly back themselves, and can just get a summary at the end of the day of all our "social" electronic interaction.

If they replace us in our jobs, and replace us socially, what's the point?

Just gonna leave this here to sum it up nocely:

 

[nightflameauto]

I'm beginning to suspect that the machines have already taken over. I mean, we've got our biggest decision makers pushing for the machines to have more and more of our reality under their sway. The question is, are they working for the machines of today, or is a machine in the future sending back non-terminator bots to fuck with our whole system until they can take over slowly? Much more nefarious than the Terminator movies, but it'd make a terrible action flick. "Watch as a society slowly decays into nothing while the machines rise to take over." That's a boring tagline if I've ever seen one.

 

[Demiurge]

^We're worried about a dystopia driven by brilliant, precise AI, but we'll probably end up with a dystopia driven by shitty AI.

Following yesterday's first glimpse of our AI application yesterday at work, that's my conclusion. It is absolute dogshit and almost hilariously so. But it's cheap and gives the approximation of a c-hair's breadth of functionality from ten feet away, enough for upper management- the people who don't have to use it- to pat themselves on the back for delivering technological advancement to the company.

 

[BlackMastodon]

I'm beginning to suspect that the machines have already taken over. I mean, we've got our biggest decision makers pushing for the machines to have more and more of our reality under their sway. The question is, are they working for the machines of today, or is a machine in the future sending back non-terminator bots to fuck with our whole system until they can take over slowly? Much more nefarious than the Terminator movies, but it'd make a terrible action flick. "Watch as a society slowly decays into nothing while the machines rise to take over." That's a boring tagline if I've ever seen one.

"The frogs in the pot are enjoying their bat... Until they aren't"

Nah, also a shitty tagline.

Google, write me a sexy tagline for our near-future boring dystopia, thank youuu!

 

[crushingpetal]

^We're worried about a dystopia driven by brilliant, precise AI, but we'll probably end up with a dystopia driven by shitty AI.

Following yesterday's first glimpse of our AI application yesterday at work, that's my conclusion. It is absolute dogshit and almost hilariously so. But it's cheap and gives the approximation of a c-hair's breadth of functionality from ten feet away, enough for upper management- the people who don't have to use it- to pat themselves on the back for delivering technological advancement to the company.

A third option is not shit or brilliant: it's mediocre AI. Slightly better than most people (most people can't write well), but bland, average, and generic.

Imagine the future: bland, generic, mediocre.

 

[Seabeast2000]

A third option is not shit or brilliant: it's mediocre AI. Slightly better than most people (most people can't write well), but bland, average, and generic.

Imagine the future: bland, generic, mediocre.

With death drones.

 

[wheresthefbomb]

With death drones.

Or, perhaps, Drone(s) Carrying Dread

 

[nightflameauto]

"The frogs in the pot are enjoying their bat... Until they aren't"

Nah, also a shitty tagline.

Google, write me a sexy tagline for our near-future boring dystopia, thank youuu!

The future: Death can't be this boring. (Credit to Al Bundy on neighborhood game night.)

 

[budda]

supposed to be 40C with humidex today. First birthday for my youngest followed by band practice. I will be a blob.

(that's 104F for the Southerners)

 

[BlackMastodon]

supposed to be 40C with humidex today. First birthday for my youngest followed by band practice. I will be a blob.

(that's 104F for the Southerners)

Not sure if y'all got it up there too but we had some rain overnight and this morning and looks like we might get more over the next few days too, so we'll get even more humidity!

 

[budda]

Not sure if y'all got it up there too but we had some rain overnight and this morning and looks like we might get more over the next few days too, so we'll get even more humidity!

We had a little at some time last night and may get a little more today yeah.

 

[nightsprinter]

Growing up, my family never had pets. 18 years ago when I was still living with my parents, I had had enough of that rule and brought home a kitten in the back of my girlfriends shitty 4cyl mustang convertible and told only my dad who was more lenient when it came to stupid decisions. I successfully hid the cat for a few days (who I named Bettie Page) until she escaped my domain and my mom saw her and FLIPPED. A couple years later I had a falling-out with my parents, moved out, and couldn't take the cat with me. My parents got divorced and my mom kept the cat and grew to love her.

As of today, she hasn't eaten in over 24 hours and is showing signs of distress and decline and is heading to the emergency room for a quality of life assessment. I suspect it might be the end of the road for her. She's lived a long life and I'm probably going to be doing some crying tonight.

 

[nightsprinter]

Liver and kidney failure in her old age. Crossing the rainbow bridge