I don’t think I’ve experienced any other societal backlash against a new tech quite at the level of what we’ve seen with datacentres and AI. It’s quite extraordinary, and impressive, although part of me thinks that we’ve been building up to this for centuries, and that it represents a backlash against capitalist institutions more than anything else.
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Because we can all think of examples where we as people have been required by a company to behave or act in a companies interests, but against the interests of ourselves or our communities or our planet. But a company doesn’t care. Not really. Its only care is to grow and to generate returns for its investors.
We’ve all been a part of these giant robotic non-living creatures as either employees or customers for centuries. We’ve been inside of them. Seen their voracious appetites.
@pauljrobinson did you ever read “The Corporation”? Good book that explores the same idea, particularly that corporations are obligate sociopaths.
@Floppy oh I haven’t. But that sounds very much my wavelength. Who is the author?
I’ve often thought about how publicly listed and traded companies, as well as other limited liability companies, behave as non-living creatures just like robots and AI.
They require fuel, generally from investors, process it, generate output in the form of products and services, as well as excreting waste. And they’re self-aware too, but this is outsourced to their employees to perform that function on their behalf. And that last part is the creepy bit that reminds me of AI.