How people think AI is going to kill them: terminator robots.

How AI is actually going to kill them: by destroying their habitat and drinking all their water.

@weirdwriter @m04 @bohwaz (They are VC funded.) ;)

@m04 @bohwaz Damn, next you’ll tell me they’re VC funded.

“Choice.”

#alternatives #choice #DuckDuckGo #DDG #Qwant #ecosia #bing

Duck Duck Go is down because Bing is down.

(Also, you saw the recent AI stuff, right?)

Folks, I know… I use Duck Duck Go also but remember they have venture capital. Enjoy it while it lasts (or let’s fund and build alternatives differently that aren’t temporary businesses with profit motives and exits but commons-owned institutions working for the common good).

#DuckDuckGo #bing #microsoft #ventureCapital #DDG

@mustamakkara It’s by design: if we attribute agency to the machine, it absolves the owner of the machine of liability.

Machines aren’t taking over.
Corporations are taking over.

Worry about the right thing.

#corporatocracy #ai

How Mastodon made friends with Meta.

https://www.platformer.news/mastodon-interview-eugen-rochko-meta-bluesky-threads-federation/

🤦♂️

#mastodon #meta

@mmeier How bad? There are two tents outside the entrance of the place we just moved to bad. (When things start back up, I’m planning on getting involved locally so we can find the people there proper accommodation. You cannot call yourself a civilized society while you allow people to languish in tents in winter. It’s unconscionable.)

#ireland #CostOfLiving #homelessness

How bad is the cost of living crisis in Ireland?

“A number of staff at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin are commuting from Spain and Germany because it is more affordable than living in Ireland, according to the master of the hospital.”

https://12ft.io/https://www.irishtimes.com/health/2024/01/01/some-rotunda-staff-commuting-from-spain-due-to-cost-of-living-in-ireland-says-hospital-master/

#ireland #CostOfLiving

“I just don’t like anything which creates a lords and peasants kind of thing.”

– Elon Musk, world’s richest person, on labour unions.

What’s sad is realising you live in a world where every exaggerated analogy you used to make a point is actually happening:

Having Google in schools is like having McDonalds in nutrition class. (I find out that McDonalds does, in fact, sponsor nutrition classes in US schools.)

Having a surveillance capitalist sponsor a conference on free and open source/human rights is like having an oil company sponsor a climate conference. (Forget sponsoring, turns out head of #Cop28 runs an oil firm.)

🤬

@ninavizz @opensourcedesign @simulo @fosdem https://ar.al/2019/01/11/i-was-wrong-about-google-and-facebook-theres-nothing-wrong-with-them-so-say-we-all/

@ninavizz @opensourcedesign @simulo @fosdem So here’s the thing, I couldn’t take money from surveillance capitalists even if I wanted to because they rather dislike being called surveillance capitalists. So the only way I could take money from Google is if I said “Hey, guys, I was wrong, Google aren’t a threat to human rights or democracy.” (And actually, that would be worth *a lot* of money if I did that. But then I wouldn’t be me.)

@ninavizz @opensourcedesign @simulo @fosdem So yes, it’s hard. Damn hard. Pick between your principles and afford having a family hard. But I can’t do anything else. I’d rather starve than legitimise a bloody people farmer like Google or Meta. And we haven’t gotten a single bloody cent from the EU or grants (not for lack of trying). Going forward, my goal is to hopefully make us sustainable by being one of (hopefully many) Small Web hosts.

@ninavizz @opensourcedesign @simulo @fosdem To answer your question: we did a round of crowdfunding ten years ago (mistake; not the way to fund ongoing work), then I sold two apartments my family had in Turkey. That kept us going for a while. Then I made a tracker blocker and sold licenses to that on Apple’s platforms. Then we ran out of money so Laura started contacting so I could continue building the Small Web. And that’s where we are.

@ninavizz @opensourcedesign @simulo @fosdem But I wrote all that when Audre Lorde said it so much better and with far fewer words:

“The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.”

@bohemianchic There are no big names, just names written big :)

Seriously, though, meeting the “big names” have been some of my most disappointing experiences. Think of it this way: you know the system is fucked/corrupt; what does it take to get (& stay) “big” in such a system? At the very least, to not make waves. At the worst, to be a card carrying member of the boys’ club. Either way, I’d be very surprised if the “big names” have even half your integrity and humanity.

We call it capitalism because greedy shortsighted self-destructive shitfuckery is too much of a mouthful.

https://futurism.com/neoscope/brain-implant-removed-consent

@BrahmaBelarusian @knwmoon Yep. Here’s a good article on it: https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/09/nyc-cops-did-a-work-stop-yet-crime-dropped/