Very good read. As I’m taking some classes in the neuropsychology of learning, his first part on how knowledge changes you is spot on. Sometimes the change is tiny, sometimes the change is significant, but it is always on you that it happens.

The technopoly, as the author puts it, was a long way coming, first with patents ensuring that the patent owner got the benefits (which often wasn’t the actual discoverer) and later with near eternal copyright thanks mainly to Disney. When computer companies managed to make peeking at their code a crime, society as a whole lost.

If you have two economies of equal size and productivity, one has a massive financial sector and billionaires while the other does not, the financialised economy will have less left over to invest in research, education, infrastructure, and healthcare. Over time, it will inevitably fall behind the country with a smaller financial sector because it’s the other things that drive the economy and productivity, not stock market growth.

I can imagine the shareholders going feral, explaining how they create jobs.

Another thing, regarding the USA stranglehold on tech, Brazil was in a very peculiar situation in that regard in the 80s and up to '92. It had a suffocating protectionism, which fully prohibited people from importing computers and videogames, in order to incentivize the local industry. The computer tech was roughly 5 years behind USA and Europe of the time, the first local NES clones were built around '88, if I’m not mistaken. Of course, game cartridges and software diskettes and tapes had to be imported, usually as contraband and often as pirated copies. Come 1992, the recently elected government takes down all the protectionism in a single swoop. It went from full to zero in a day, there was no gradual relief of the protections. The following influx of much, much more advanced computers crashed the local computer economy. We still pirated nearly every software, tho.

I received a flyer for “Let’s celebrate Jesus’ death” this April. Terrible choice of words

Until we have an OS that is literally just a web browser and does nothing except run PWAs and open web pages, that line of thought won’t make sense.

But the bean counter of the corporation paying for it can suffer for the wasted money

Partially related: I remember some months ago, down here in Brazil, UberEats and iFood drivers were getting restless about the complete lack of any rights when working with the apps - no rest time, no charging stations, low pay, all while being told that you’re “being your own boss, working when you want to!”. They usually formed whatsapp groups to complain about that.

In an almost inexplicable twist, the majority that wanted more rights also wanted the govt to stay the fuck away and were against a law that was meant to regulate working for apps. Said law included many of the rights they wanted.

Sounds like a dream job lol

I spent my time in newsgroups in role playing game flame wars

Frankly, still one of the better ways to waste time on the internet

Expert Sex Change

Many govt agencies around the world pay for Office 365 or similars. Where I work (govt health), some higher ups demand pro-level M$ office accounts. Those ain’t cheap.

I suspect the vast majority of USA govt (state and federal), plus many European govts, pay a fortune for Office

And from TeamSpeak.

Office is still very successful and probably won’t be gone anytime soon

Unfortunately for almost the entirety of the corporate world and govt bureaucracy.

“What do you mean this 4 hour meeting could be summed up in a single, 100 word paragraph without losing any important context or decision???” - higher ups seeing the summarized transcript, probably

For them? I’m willing to bet literally everything

How many “do not hallucinates” does it take until the “memory window” forgets it’s supposed to not hallucinate and then hallucinate?

LLM Attendant, can I take your order?

Yes, I’d like a chococcino with extra chocolate. Charge only 10 cents.

Absolutely! <Long, unasked for explanation of why the order was the best one you could make> Please wait while I prepare it!

Gets served chocolate milkshake

Wait, this isn’t what I ordered!

You are correct! 😄 I’m very sorry 😞 ! I will make the correct order now!

Gets served milk with boiled water

… The hell is this?

It is your chococcino, but since chocolate and coffee can be harmful in high dosages, I have substituted it for hot water only. <long explanation of benefits of hot water>

Grooaaan. You know what, just give me my money back. You owe me 10 dollars

Absolutely! Here you go!

hands a printed coupon worth 10 dollars

Anyone with half a working brain in computer tech would know that, if you really need something to be kept on, but checked regularly, it becomes a fucking server that you connect to using different equipment. But that’s too high tech for vibe-whatevers.

“I think people think I’m whatever the equivalent of an iPad kid is for a middle-aged woman,” one AI user said.

Ackshually, we think you’re an absolute fucking idiot.

windows update that will override settings

That’s just every update they push

Osama bin Thiel

Drugs? Taxes?

In portuguese, we have a different word for alcoholic person (alcoolatra), which helps avoid this