Post #2557755

2026-05-11 06:48 UTC

For the record, AI is a technocratic political project for the purpose of industrializing knowledge work. That industrialization of knowledge work has 2 parts. First, is mechanization. Making knowledge work dependent on some particular machine. This is already the case, with computers generally. Knowledge work is thoroughly computerized. But, those computers are small, cheap, universally available commodities. That doesn't serve the second part, so they're forcing in new layers of mechanization, and removing access to the old machines. Second, they ensure those machines can only be obtained through large investments of capital. Thus, all knowledge work can be done only at the pleasure of the capitalists who own the machines. Personal computers don't help them, there. But a black box hosted service that consumes the entire web to build and a whole country's worth of electricity to operate sure as hell does. "AI" is merely the banner under which they are organizing and justifying this project. The implementation details are just the implementation details.

Replies (12)

@jenniferplusplus@hachyderm.io 2026-05-11 06:56

So you can see how that genie is extremely prone to returning to it's bottle. It only stays out as long as they can keep shoveling an ever increasing amount of real resources into it. And it turns out the resources available are finite

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@joshuaelliott@mastodon.social 2026-05-11 07:15

@jenniferplusplus@hachyderm.io Recently called it "a social weapon masquerading as a technology" because of ALL of this and more.

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@sortius@infosec.exchange 2026-05-11 07:28

@jenniferplusplus@hachyderm.io I was thinking about this today. It's like they watched Star Trek or other sci-fi, saw the "black box" devices that relied on a central service to run, and said "I want some of that". They want us all to have dumb devices we pay them for that use their services, that we pay even more for. The saddest part is every single company seems to be onboard with this, despite them suffering greatly now because of it

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@liebach@mastodon.art 2026-05-11 07:57

@jenniferplusplus@hachyderm.io The current high prices on hardware for personal computers also help there, and I predict that even well after the AI bubble burst, we will never see hardware prices like the summer of '25. There's a song to write there I think.

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@architektdiewelt@mastodon.social 2026-05-11 07:58

@jenniferplusplus@hachyderm.io I wonder whether it will actually lead to us getting more analog in the end. Basically reverting to what it’s been like before computers became mainstream. Cause if you piss off your consumer base little too much they can decide to ditch your whole set of artificial limits all together. I see many people doing just that with social media now, we cut heavily on our use, select things like Mastodon instead of the Meta, resorting to books for entertainment etc.

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@krnlg@mastodon.social 2026-05-11 11:09

@jenniferplusplus@hachyderm.io Thanks for this, it's a very clear explanation.

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@chris@westmichigan.social 2026-05-11 12:02

@jenniferplusplus@hachyderm.io this is such a good description of what I've been thinking too, but couldn't figure out how to put into words

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@geoffcmason@universeodon.com 2026-05-11 16:06

@jenniferplusplus@hachyderm.io the arc of technology aka "Moore's law" says that these technologies will get smaller and more efficient over time. Many of these AI data centers will eventually become unemployed.

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@sosquqer@en.osm.town 2026-05-12 08:37

@jenniferplusplus@hachyderm.io so now the knowledge work gets the knowledge work https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/knowledge-workers

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@sean@mastodon.me.uk 2026-05-12 10:35

@jenniferplusplus@hachyderm.io one of the oddities that allowed computers to be relatively open with interchangeable components is the historical accident where IBM was dominant in the world of mainframes, when they were late to the PC party they accidentally created an open standard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC_compatible This was not intentional on their part - they aimed to make a closed system from the start

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@matt@toot.cafe 2026-05-12 11:08

@jenniferplusplus@hachyderm.io How are they removing access to the old machines?

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@EvoScale@c.im 2026-05-13 15:29

@jenniferplusplus@hachyderm.io The wealthiest #TechBros #oligarchy #FossilFuels oppressors are consolidating as much wealth as they can, by employing classical #DivideAndConquer strategies to squeeze from the bottom up. This means unleashing as much power as they can to siphon as much money, as they can, from the masses. They clearly helped a great deal with campaign contributions toward the current US administration, and are now congealing in China to do similar, at scale. Joining growing group movements like #NoKings, is one of the most powerful ways to counteract these #AbuseOfPower strategies. The first step is the easiest: signup electronically, get more involved locally. #resist

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