Feral T. Robot, Oil Swamp Utility Bot #7629

I have a friend with a parrot who was never able to fly, and she would take the parrot out and walk her around like this, going “Whoosh!” The parrot learned to say “Whoosh!” too.

there's so much bad in the world but there's also people who lift up and carry an elderly bat around every day so he can pretend he's flying again, and that's the part of the world I think is worth fighting for

I know, right? My grandkids go to this AWESOME playground, it's got speaking tubes & this complicated sort of habitrail-type thing that they can scamper around in. Last I was there with them they & their cousin & a bunch of other random kids self-organized into some big roleplay I couldn't follow.

What's he being nostalgic for? Is it that he thinks there are no longer playgrounds, or is he claiming they force kids to play on them in the snow, now (since the one he's nostalgic for is empty)?
He's being incoherent. But I suppose that could be his point? Trying to make us fill in [whatever]?

Honestly that one kinda surprises me. I'll admit I never followed Cappy when I was still on Twitter, just watched his videos sometimes, but it's not what I would've expected from him. Are we sure this isn't just a 'throwing up my hands'/'glad they took the mask off' thing?

Also I can easily see the Trumpist regime looking at a regime of stiff gas levies & thinking "shunt that right into my Caymans account."

Thanks for the context. It sounds like the levy is kind of wasted? I would want better for y'all.
We are still spoiled, though.

Point being, I've seen a metric shitload of work environments. Some jobs I've done are great candidates for AI (albeit not necessarily LLMs); most aren't, & especially not for LLMs.
Is this just because I lack imagination? I'm sure folks will say 'yes.' But I'm a speculative fiction writer, FWIW.🤷

...
Webmaster for a corporate division
Web dev at a web tech publisher
Lead developer at a consulting firm
Web dev at a logistics software company
Requirements analyst
Freelance web dev
SaaS software implementation specialist
Marketing web developer
Webmaster for a small college

(Eliding a few.)

...
Help desk clerk
Software training developer
Software trainer
Computer support tech/lead in computer lab environments
Secretarial temp
Computer support tech/lead for a whole campus
College computer skills instructor (adjunct)
"Production editor" (crunch messy RTF scans into HTML)
...

Janitor
Bottling plant
Telesales
Dogsbody on a big web-press
Lumberyard hand
Adult bookstore clerk
Dishwasher
Prep cook / short-order cook
Department store clerk
Data entry operator
Security guard (unarmed)
Academic Secretary
Library administrative assistant
Library page
...

"What is the worth of a baby?"

Generative AI isn't a baby & it isn't electricity, & furthermore at the time Faraday made that quip, research in electricity wasn't on the verge of destroying our civilization through grift.

ASIDE: I'm not interested in what generative AI /might/ do, broadly conceived. I am interested in what one can see a path to it doing.
"It could cure cancer!"
That's nice, how would that work?

I've had very, very few jobs that could be vulnerable to piecemeal replacement by generative AI bots or agents, as they exist now or in the realistically-conceived future.

I've had a lot of jobs. About 15 years ago when I stopped counting it was over 30.

I work at a community college. I actually can imagine how one might replace many of our job tasks with generative AI. It'd mean radically reconceiving the institution, top to bottom.

Would it serve the students' interests better? I'd say 'clearly, no', but it'd depend on how & what one measured.

Really coming around to the view that this guy's a literal psychopath.

Have said this before in other forms, but will reiterate it here: if you're doing long-form writing of any sort, reading the words aloud into a microphone is a completely unparalleled cheat code. It's free, easy, and so effective it feels like it shouldn't be allowed. I do it in a few stages...

'Here I Am With My Friends, Who Are Just Off Camera' meme, but put them in the camera frame.

I can think of 2 reasons to do this (Trumpists don't want to admit it, & also want a terrorist attack for propaganda), & they are not mutually exclusive.

In the US we have no fucking clue what it's like to have really expensive gasoline. This is from New Zealand where it's about $12/gal. I don't know what happens if US gets there.

THE TRUMP REGIME IS PLANNING A MASS EVICTION OF IMMIGRANTS IN PUBLIC HOUSING AND SECTION 8. JOIN OUR MEETING AND FIGHT BACK! virtual teach-in Mon/03.09 3:30PM PST/ 6:30PM EST KEEP FAMILIES TOGETHER RSVP: https://bit.ly/kft-events

EL RÉGIMEN DE TRUMP ESTÁ PLANEANDO UN DESALOJO MASIVO DE INMIGRANTES EN VIVIENDA PÚBLICA Y SECCIÓN 8. ¡VEN A NUESTRA JUNTA Y UNETE A LA LUCHA! escuelita virtual Lunes/03.09 3:30PM PST/ 6:30PM EST KEEP FAMILIES TOGETHER RSVP: https://bit.ly/kft-events

🚨 ACTION 🚨

Trump is planning a mass eviction of tens of thousands of immigrant families in public and section 8 housing. They tried this in 2019 and we blocked it - help us fight back and win again.

Join the virtual teach-in 3/9/26 at 3:30/6:30est and defend immigrant families!

bit.ly/kft-events

A lone battle: Why is Pedro Sánchez the only European leader to take on Trump? As the Spanish PM decries the war in Iran, other politicians are unable – or unwilling – to speak against the US president

Because they've already lived under a long term fascist governent, and don't want to help another...

It's not denial. I know my job, & the tool chains just don't exist to do it.

Reply to one of my posts by Tim saying "that made me laugh. I don't laugh much."

From now on, anytime someone asks me why I put so much time and effort into this arguably dumb account, I will simply tell them that I do it for Tim.

Were people not expecting them to?

It's like Amadeus, only Salieri is the Coyote, Mozart is the Roadrunner, & in this version Mozart lives to a ripe old age & spends his days gleefully pranking the dementia patients in his retirement home.

At some point the thing that made me sad about this was that the Coyote was able to do amazing magic, but it would only work for the Roadrunner.

A depiction of the allegory of Plato's Cave in the style of Hellenic pottery art, in which a man puppeteers a shadow of a bird in front of a denizen of the cave, who thus perceives it as the bird itself.

I cannot stress enough that 90% of "new" tech-bro-induced problems are already covered by an education in the humanities...

If by Careers in Quantum they mean working for brief, self contained, snippets of time I am a for that. Work being atomised and spread over the entirety of my waking (and occasionally dreaming) life is a big pass.
They aren't saying that, are they?

Nice thing about a quantum career, no commuting