@farseen@fedi.nptr.xyz @reformed_content_marketer@mastodon.social If you are from the US, I strongly suggest you read _A People's History of the United States_. If you don't want to read the whole thing, the cotton gin might be a good place to start. I'm not sure what books to recommend to a European. Maybe something by Graber? I couldn't get started on Pickety, and I don't want to suggest a book that I wouldn't read.... Marx gets at this, but is quite dated... When people start getting a sense of class conflict, this sometimes turns to worker-ism, which is an idea where labour is kind of glorified in its own right. But people have human rights by virtue of being human, not by virtue of their work. A certain amount of labour is required so that everyone can prosper. A fair way of dividing this is by asking people to contribute what they can, for some maximum number of hours per day/week, for some maximum number of years. And to ensure that they have enough leisure time to rest and pursue other interests and a personal/family life. Also, people should have access to what they need, including food, housing, and so forth. Productivity gains help us reach the goal of having adequate resources for all. Capital does not need to be in private hands. It does not need to be oppositional to most people. Computers are/were a productivity gain. Job categories like typist and typesetters were lost, but new job categories became available, like programmer and so forth. These job changes can be difficult for individuals and a fair system allows for retraining or even early retirement. The problems with LLMs are that they are inherently extractive to produce a statistical mean. That's hard to put aside because that's what they are. If you take away the carbon output, the mineral input, the invisibilisation of labour and the bias magnification of the statistical process, what's left? They are a technological dead end. It's as if all the car companies decided to hype flying cars and sell them at a loss despite their tremendous unsuitability. The capitalist case for LLMs is not the LLM but rather dumping the stock before it collapses. Think tulip bulbs, but harmful.