Hacker News: knieveltech

New comment by knieveltech in "The next capitalist revolution"

knieveltech — Sat, 17 Nov 2018 02:08:43 +0000

I'm sorry but I don't think the 80s are really something that can be explained to someone that didn't live through them, which I assume you didn't, otherwise you wouldn't be asking for clarification on Reaganomics.

New comment by knieveltech in "The next capitalist revolution"

knieveltech — Sat, 17 Nov 2018 02:06:23 +0000

Not sure what's expected here. I mean, this is hardly the format for 20 page dissertations on lived history. I'm guessing these downvotes are coming from folks that are missing context because they're in their 20's and don't actually know anything about Reaganomics, what was proposed vs what the actual observed outcomes were, etc.

New comment by knieveltech in "The next capitalist revolution"

knieveltech — Sat, 17 Nov 2018 01:25:40 +0000

These downvotes are unfortunate given this statement is objectively true.

New comment by knieveltech in "Why Technology Favors Tyranny"

knieveltech — Tue, 13 Nov 2018 21:14:34 +0000

O RLY. So you claim your average sixty year old with (in your example) 20 years of experience owning a personal computer, is somehow so technologically illiterate as to be unable to utilize browser bookmarks, desktop links, or write down a URL on a post-it note? Alternately, are we pretending that smartphones aren't utterly pervasive in all demographics, including people's grandparents? I mean, yeah, if you absolutely had to you could probably cruise the local K&R cafeteria for the odd outlier who is totally technologically illiterate, but that group is also unable to utilize social media to any extent either and so aren't particularly germane to the conversation. So no, outside of the minds of a handful of programmers, there is no real obstacle.

New comment by knieveltech in "Why Technology Favors Tyranny"

knieveltech — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 19:38:33 +0000

Rolling out "grandma" as a reason to not do N is a tired chestnut that is growing less relevant with every passing day. It's ageist. It also ignores the fact that all of the people you're casually dismissing lived through the creation of the web and remember a time when going to someone's web server to view their particular content was the norm. You also appear to overlook the utility of post-it notes in your claim that coaching and repetition are a required ingredient for success.

New comment by knieveltech in "Sundar Pichai: ‘Technology Doesn’t Solve Humanity’s Problems’"

knieveltech — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 18:07:42 +0000

Quick question: in this hypothetical where China presents an existential threat to the US, what happens to the Chinese economy when they invade the largest consumer of their domestically produced goods and services?

New comment by knieveltech in "“A Horrifically Bad Idea”: Smartphone Voting Is Coming"

knieveltech — Wed, 07 Nov 2018 15:00:29 +0000

If you want people to vote make it mandatory like Australia. Anything short of that seems incoherent.

New comment by knieveltech in "Tech companies pay poor Kenyans to produce training data for AI"

knieveltech — Mon, 05 Nov 2018 01:30:50 +0000

Scandinavia and the entire Soviet Union spring to mind instantly. There's nothing particularly white or privileged about healthy skepticism of any system that hinges on labor arbitrage to accomplish it's goals. Go meditate on the econ definition of the word "exploitation" until enlightenment is achieved. Note, if you're planning on trying to muster McCarthyite arguments at this point you're going to have to overcome the fact that the first manmade object and the first person in space were both put there by communists.

New comment by knieveltech in "Tech companies pay poor Kenyans to produce training data for AI"

knieveltech — Mon, 05 Nov 2018 01:27:52 +0000

Sure, but the argument is specious for all of the same reasons that philanthropy has a track record of exacerbating the social problems it intended to solve.

New comment by knieveltech in "Study: Almost half of borrowers will default on student loans in coming years"

knieveltech — Mon, 05 Nov 2018 01:26:11 +0000

That an education should be pursued primarily or solely as a means to achieve employment is even more dubious. Unless, of course, you're trying to claim that having a highly educated populace isn't, in and of itself, a Social Good?

New comment by knieveltech in "Study: Almost half of borrowers will default on student loans in coming years"

knieveltech — Sun, 04 Nov 2018 02:29:26 +0000

Letting "the market" decide what is and isn't valuable in terms of human knowledge seems dubious at best. We are talking about a system that prioritizes extraction of non-renewable resources to produce dumb shit like bluetooth toothbrushes.

New comment by knieveltech in "Tech companies pay poor Kenyans to produce training data for AI"

knieveltech — Sat, 03 Nov 2018 11:33:23 +0000

There have been spontaneous demonstrations among the workers voicing their joy and gratitude at our happy new way of life. /s It seems pretty naive to assume that a handful of individuals being paid a fraction of the going rate for western labor is going to have a meaningful impact on the country's economy or lead to sweeping social changes.

New comment by knieveltech in "Tech companies pay poor Kenyans to produce training data for AI"

knieveltech — Sat, 03 Nov 2018 11:27:52 +0000

Agreed, that is a particularly offensive line of bullshit. Labor arbitrage is a thing, sure, but it takes a special flavor of insipid shithead to try to unfurl that kind of tortured logic to handwave past the obvious exploitation taking place.

New comment by knieveltech in "Alan Kay: Is it too late to create a healthy future? [video]"

knieveltech — Fri, 02 Nov 2018 13:51:59 +0000

Poorly, if at all.

New comment by knieveltech in "Alan Kay: Is it too late to create a healthy future? [video]"

knieveltech — Fri, 02 Nov 2018 06:16:51 +0000

History isn't done yet. Your rosy prognosis appears to ignore current widespread ecosystem collapse and mass extinction, growing geopolitical instability, and the looming possibility of the biosphere becoming incompatible with human civilization as it is currently implemented.

New comment by knieveltech in "JavaScript is now required to sign in to Google"

knieveltech — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 13:47:30 +0000

An error only becomes a mistake when you refuse to correct it.

New comment by knieveltech in "The backlash against overtourism"

knieveltech — Tue, 30 Oct 2018 15:52:20 +0000

I am saying that using economic activity to gauge positive impact on society is utterly misguided. Consider: we are currently living in an age of robust economic growth and international trade, historic levels of income inequality, and are in the midst of a global mass extinction event with the very real possibility of climate change rendering human civilization in it's current form impossible.

New comment by knieveltech in "The backlash against overtourism"

knieveltech — Tue, 30 Oct 2018 14:51:59 +0000

What is good for the economy (short term) and what is good for people (long term) are frequently not the same things.

New comment by knieveltech in "How I Lent My Camera Kit and Had It ‘Legally Stolen’"

knieveltech — Tue, 30 Oct 2018 01:01:35 +0000

This reminds me of a conversation I had with a coworker six or seven years ago. Dude comes to me to get me to help him spec out a web-based "tool sharing" service. I told him that what he was proposing, first and foremost, automated discovery for would-be tool thieves and politely declined to involve myself in his project.

New comment by knieveltech in "The rise of the robot farmer"

knieveltech — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 23:26:33 +0000

Average income hasn't even kept pace with inflation since the 70's, go take a look at a graph of income inequality over time if you're curious where all those productivity gains went, you prove my point regarding no measurable drop in food prices (incidentally a loaf of bread is closer to $2.00 here), and would anyone care to take a crack at the larger criticism, namely total economic collapse of vast swaths of rural America or is "well, actually" over the price of a fucking loaf of bread the best HN can do?