Post AiFS8q9jRBgq6MiVgO by irizoris@hcommons.social
(DIR) More posts by irizoris@hcommons.social
(DIR) Post #AiFPxgzOyjluZuRRmi by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-05-25T11:06:24Z
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The decisions and policy that have the most profound impacts on the greatest number of human lives often aren't the ones talked about most often in political discourse. What is the biggest difference between life in this era and say... European feudalism?I would argue it's near universal literacy. And along with simply having access to the written word, the highest percentage of a population armed with some scraps of what you might call a "liberal arts education"The ability to self-teach.
(DIR) Post #AiFQGeo3JrS5JGAzMe by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-05-25T11:10:03Z
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Remember the old refrain of "workers must be more educated for the modern world" ... it's starting to slip away. I think that's because some people have come to see it as a mistake. It's really sad to watch. Really disappointing. I guess it's not surprising that some wealthy and powerful people feel threatened by the idea of "the masses" thinking.But have they forgotten that there is no technological progress without it?
(DIR) Post #AiFQSmY6MFWAnYUruC by grb090423@mastodon.social
2024-05-25T11:12:16Z
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@futurebird Well said. Not enough realise this đź‘Ť
(DIR) Post #AiFQX9z5AV7idiCk5I by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-05-25T11:13:03Z
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I think that's why AI, is such a seductive technology for these people. What if you didn't need to have workers smart enough to make good decisions? What if you could have a machine, which you could own and control take care of those choices?Then the workers could be functionally illiterate, with minds full of fear and superstitions. Easy to manipulate, and no one would ever threaten your place at the top, raise your taxes, or write mean articles about you in the newspapers no one could read.
(DIR) Post #AiFQif2G3qJe82AqWW by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-05-25T11:15:04Z
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It's clear that AI can't do even a tenth of what it promises, but they keep grasping that dream of not really needing to have smart people to work with... because the problem with smart people who are good at their jobs, who have bright ideas that make your project even better... the problem with such people is they see themselves as collaborators ... they won't just do the thing let you take the credit and forget about it. They want to shape the future with you. It's intolerable!
(DIR) Post #AiFQmWchHOTPCG3p0C by chrisamaphone@hci.social
2024-05-25T11:15:32Z
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@futurebird there’s a few things going on with this sentiment; a piece i have more sympathy for is concern about classism: the stratification of an Educator class and a (to-be-)Educated class, and the implication that the former is actually the ruling class and so their “education” necessarily includes propaganda to sustain their power…this isn’t true in practice, of course, but if it *were*, i’d share the concern
(DIR) Post #AiFRQqkxqMXhDr9iyW by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-05-25T11:23:10Z
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To be clear. I don't think "workers need to be more educated for the modern world"I don't care about producing "workers" for anyone. It is a basic human need to know about the world. To ask questions, find answers and (more importantly) to ask questions & find more questions. To cut people off from this aspect of their humanity is cruel. If you think people should have "freedoms" that's meaningless if they don't have the information and intellectual tools to make anything of that freedom.
(DIR) Post #AiFRa8rFubp9yAWska by petealexharris@mastodon.scot
2024-05-25T11:24:50Z
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@futurebird The worst of the wealth-extracting class very explicitly believe the world doesn't need so many people, and if you offered them a technological solution that would get them everything they want but as a side effect make the climate worse until 98% of the planet was uninhabitable, they would take it in a heartbeat.
(DIR) Post #AiFRqxkaSlDqRWQmf2 by glitzersachen@hachyderm.io
2024-05-25T11:27:46Z
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@futurebird
(DIR) Post #AiFS8q9jRBgq6MiVgO by irizoris@hcommons.social
2024-05-25T11:31:00Z
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@futurebird The desire to deskill us... Sitting at an office desk, I am manipulated by that software, its pop-ups... I write an e-mail and words pop up that I didn't type... It has been happening. The inadvertent empowering by giving each worker a PC with actual software packages on each machine is being reversed. Now the software is again centralized in the cloud and not under my control. The only control I have is putting a pretty slide show on, as my screen saver. In the days of mainframes (I'm old!) we sat at a dumb terminal and I'm reminded of those days again.My last office job in New York until 1995 was in the Bronx, at the H.W. Wilson Co. overlooking the Harlem River from University Avenue. The co. dissolved itself and sold its databases to Ebsco. It was a good company, very fair to its workers.
(DIR) Post #AiFSPwlI89ZFVoRTOK by chrisamaphone@hci.social
2024-05-25T11:34:10Z
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@futurebird đź’Ż đź’Ż đź’Ż
(DIR) Post #AiFSVWjpnXzOXUQC9o by dendari@mastodon.world
2024-05-25T11:35:03Z
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@futurebird Kind of feels like the unconscious thoughts behind how Horace Mann redesigned the American education system.
(DIR) Post #AiFT4yhhoYIdPOKWzw by Woodswalked@mstdn.party
2024-05-25T11:41:33Z
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@futurebird I think the goals are to 1) use ai as excuses for unpopular choices and legal cover2) create a surveillance state where everything is monitored - ai isn’t needed but will be funded to get there with ai as the cover3) replace the need for humans, so when climate change starvation & heat leads to instability we can just be cleansed away and still have our functions done4) class barriers - as you statedthey are already building bunkers for when we are being killed
(DIR) Post #AiFUGPWoWRtrk5FcdU by clarablackink@writing.exchange
2024-05-25T11:54:23Z
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@futurebird There's a reason they love to be cruel towards artists, writers and people whose work (or hobby) involves critical thinking.The deep empathy involved in "soft" work is humanizing and that's not what they want to use technology for.
(DIR) Post #AiFW8NPehgLWlzCQhU by Kierkegaanks@beige.party
2024-05-25T12:15:39Z
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@futurebird i think they want to import the best educated people who won’t cause everyone else cognizant of reality
(DIR) Post #AiFXI6GBQq6CQNy9po by quixoticgeek@social.v.st
2024-05-25T12:28:45Z
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@futurebird one of the biggest returns on investment for a society is women's education. The better that is, the better a society fairs.
(DIR) Post #AiFYmKUPBx0jCKbFrM by angiebaby@mas.to
2024-05-25T12:45:25Z
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@futurebird They heard Joe Rogan's (old) routine about "What do we do if we lose all the smart people?" and took it as a challenge.
(DIR) Post #AiFj6E5hgoqegeAjUO by mikebabcock@floss.social
2024-05-25T14:40:43Z
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@futurebird I would argue labour laws allowed for education. Not allowing employers to force workers to work 16 hours days, forcing them to give breaks other unheard of benefits in the days of feudalism make a huge difference to peoples' lives.I would also argue labour laws are more important than unions, not that unions aren't good, but because they don't help everyone, and the laws do.
(DIR) Post #AiFrYIb1Kg4oOuiXK4 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-05-25T16:14:49Z
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@andrewdwilliams @Nonya_Bidniss I think we could have more respect for learning trades but DROP the word "just"...
(DIR) Post #AiFrzTN7NP9ZdkAj5c by doctormo@floss.social
2024-05-25T16:20:36Z
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@futurebird @andrewdwilliams @Nonya_Bidniss Yes, this.Not having any trade skills is also a power imbalance. It puts you in ignorance of the real cost of labour.It also restricts how you can help your community. Being practical and enlightened has to be a fair answer.
(DIR) Post #AiFsTUQK1yURaaz3xI by tdietterich@mastodon.social
2024-05-25T16:26:03Z
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@futurebird AI technologies are also empowering people in India who have low literacy skills to access government services. https://news.microsoft.com/source/asia/features/with-help-from-next-generation-ai-indian-villagers-gain-easier-access-to-government-services/
(DIR) Post #AiFuZRv4SBPlT8KsyW by nazokiyoubinbou@mastodon.social
2024-05-25T16:49:33Z
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@futurebird One thing I noticed in my last job as they sought to replace my position with machines: the bosses also just straight up hate the things that make us human.I had one who literally got into trouble due to OSHA violations for basically trying to punish people for having to use the restroom. Just getting breaks at decent times was like pulling teeth.They actually obsess over the thought of workers being less than 110% productive. They want to eliminate what makes us human.
(DIR) Post #AiFvNfiJRPUejKJfQ8 by Threadbane@newsie.social
2024-05-25T16:58:21Z
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@futurebird Except that the GOP's systematic disassembly of the US public education system, begun in earnest in the late 1970s, has created the situation that 54% of Americans are functionally illiterate. We are no longer "universally literate". The current reading level of US high school texts is grade 5.3. Not only can we not really read anymore, what we are taught is literally children's reading material. We have become a nation of witless victims of propaganda and conspiracy theories.
(DIR) Post #AiG9nKlbLIzgeSz9Sy by msh@coales.co
2024-05-25T19:40:00Z
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@futurebird people in power are very much aware that progress depends on an educated society. Progress is exactly what people in power are trying to halt, because progress is what threatens their power.This is why the people in power are pushing generative AI so hard. It promises (though probably will not deliver) mechanisation of decision making and knowledge work such that labour is commodified and workers are interchangeable. That is more valuable to them than even elimination of jobs.Ultimately this could result in the halt of progress at exactly the point they want to halt it...where the uneducated masses are most easily managed so as to maintain the current order.
(DIR) Post #AiGNZUh52I5ukCAJpg by pooserville@dice.camp
2024-05-25T22:14:32Z
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@futurebird It’s worth reiterating that the “liber” in “liberal arts” means “free” — as in this is the knowledge needed to participate in society as a free person.
(DIR) Post #AiGgUcbG70hwwgpglk by orionkidder@writing.exchange
2024-05-26T01:46:35Z
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@futurebird "The Book" in 1984, has a chilling passage about how to control education so that there is just enough science and engineering to produce weapons of war and extractive industry, but never enough, or never the right kind, to produce the ability to question the state.
(DIR) Post #AiGlryY1B0gBRkGw9g by davidtoddmccarty@me.dm
2024-05-26T02:46:52Z
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@futurebird Duh.
(DIR) Post #AiGmrJOcHFppls7czQ by tuban_muzuru@ohai.social
2024-05-26T02:57:56Z
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@futurebird @andrewdwilliams @Nonya_Bidniss How 'bout we elevate Craft to an honorable tradition of excellence going back centuries?Software drives me crazy for this reason. Though, in fairness, I like to see the rise of comprehensive testing regimes - this is good.
(DIR) Post #AiGr2vHk98IaHghPxg by RufusJCooter@mstdn.social
2024-05-26T03:44:49Z
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@futurebird Agree with all this! And further, even if "workers need to be more educated for the modern world" were a worthy vision for the purpose of education (it isn't!), trying to design a system of pedagogy around such a philosophy would just turn out graduates with skills that are obsolete by the time they enter the work force.If school worked like that when I was a kid, I'd have spent hours learning VisiCalc in MS, and WordPerfect in HS.1/n
(DIR) Post #AiObxxYQL2gdpGM8kC by amerika@annihilation.social
2024-05-29T21:33:39.982377Z
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@futurebird Good points but the bell curve still applies; most people are not going to have the ability much less the curiosity.
(DIR) Post #AiOc0rP5f8ApcRNEBc by amerika@annihilation.social
2024-05-29T21:34:10.829533Z
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@futurebird IQ determines intelligence not education.You do not make people smarter via education, only more informed if they are above 115 IQ points.
(DIR) Post #AiOc5f6coSTAvT1gmG by amerika@annihilation.social
2024-05-29T21:35:03.892055Z
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@futurebird Even then, they will only use information or techniques according to their understanding, which reflects brain complexity which is a genetic/biological thing..: education is a great way to promote incompetents for obedience.
(DIR) Post #AiOd0QWrgJO4DtMpjk by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-05-29T21:45:14Z
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@amerika My grandmother had a sixth grade education. I suspect if you gave her an IQ test she wouldn’t have scored as high as I could— or my mother for that matter— each generation in our family having more education— in fact she was without a doubt more intelligent than I am accomplished things I can hardly imagine. IQ measures education and exposure to I Q tests. Unless my family is mysteriously growing smarter over the generations. (unlikely)
(DIR) Post #AiOdF0BVuZRurSKXxo by amerika@annihilation.social
2024-05-29T21:47:57.762583Z
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@futurebird Wisdom and intelligence are separate in some ways. However, I think she would have scored higher than you might think.
(DIR) Post #AiOdnme6EzNB0SHoqe by Patrickoldhiker@ohai.social
2024-05-29T21:54:00Z
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@futurebird Apparently, IQ tests periodically have to have the norm reset to 100 because of people do better on them over time.
(DIR) Post #AiOdtBhYVmBkABToFE by SallyStrange@eldritch.cafe
2024-05-29T21:54:25Z
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@futurebird that person is posting from a nazi server
(DIR) Post #AiOdvVXbifnEH1vtjM by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-05-29T21:55:00Z
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@SallyStrange Oh. I'm shocked.
(DIR) Post #AiOdyhqaQEcfJEKqno by mybarkingdogs@freeradical.zone
2024-05-29T21:56:07Z
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@futurebird @SallyStrange Yeah looking at their entire profile, they and their server need to just be yeeted into the sun
(DIR) Post #AiOehRJAlC9n2u2Kqe by nazokiyoubinbou@mastodon.social
2024-05-29T22:04:01Z
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@futurebird It's also very bad for testing neurodivergence. When I was a kid I tested *extremely* high, but a lot of that was because I was interested in a number of the sorts of things they tested for, good at some of the mental gymnastics they tested for in things like mechanical sense, etc etc.Meanwhile in reality I struggle to do a lot of things people consider completely normal and to learn some things people consider easy. (Though in comparison I find some things easy they find hard.)
(DIR) Post #AiOhMP9DthUs7u2oLI by TheDailyBurble@mastodon.social
2024-05-29T22:34:01Z
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@futurebird I hated my IQ score because I'm actually as thick as a plank, and there was a pile--on of expectations. To this day I don't even know what I did right.
(DIR) Post #AiOhbmnaFJ2Np3G03s by isotope239@mastodon.online
2024-05-29T22:36:34Z
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@futurebird My father-in-law was like that. He lied about his age and went into the navy at 15 when WWII started, never went back to school. But, he was definitely the smartest person I ever met. For a variety of reasons, I've taken a lot of IQ tests over the years and typically score highly but I guarantee I'm not as smart as he was, just amazing.
(DIR) Post #AiOsMXRc9LNHLzufbs by binkle@clubcyberia.co
2024-05-30T00:37:18.785200Z
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@futurebird do you have any thoughts about this image