retrospectology

retrospectology , 3 hours ago (edited 3 hours ago)

It's theft of labor without any compensation, aimed at cheapening the very value of that labor.

A human artist can, and often does, train simply by looking at the real world. The art they then produce is a result of that knowledge being interpreted and stylized by their own brain and perception. The decision making on how to represent a given subject, what details to add and leave out to achieve an effect, is done by the artist themselves. It's a product of their internal mental laboring.

By contrast, if you trained an AI on photos alone it would never, ever produce anything that looks like a drawing or a piece of art, it would never create a stylized piece of art or make a creative decision of its own.

In order to produce art the AI must be fueled with human created art, that humans labored to produce. The human artists are not being compensated for the use of that labor, and even worse the AI is leveraging that to make the human labor worth less. And what's more, that AI's ability will stagnate without further theft of newer, more novel art and concepts.

Without that keystone of human labor the AI simply can't function.

Ripping off so many people at once and so chaotically that you can't distinguish exactly how any given individual is being exploited doesn't mean those people aren't still being ripped off. The machine that the tech bros created could not exist without the stolen labor of the artists.

retrospectology , 3 days ago

I don't think it's really that simple from many trans peoples' perspective, as it places an obligation on them to out themselves before they even talk to a person. Many trans people's goal with transition is not to live as "trans" it's to live as their target gender, not some "other". Being trans is not a sexuality.

A better solution would be to have people who don't want to have the possibility of ever dating any trans person put that as part of their profile.

If people have an issue with doing that then it kind of reveals the truth of the issue for what it is.

retrospectology , 3 days ago

Representatives don't have a free mandate in a democracy, they're bound by laws and by their constituency.

How are your councils formed and what restricts their power?

retrospectology , 2 days ago (edited 2 days ago)

You can do a commandline "dir /s *.log" to search an entire directory it works better than the normal file search generally. Unless I misunderstand what you're asking.

retrospectology , 2 days ago

Oh, perhaps not. I may've just understood how you're using the search. /s is just a straight search if the directory, I don't know that it can be used to generate dynamic results like that. Go figure.

retrospectology , 4 days ago

I'm betting the reason they want access to "moderate" your projects is to train their AI. Literally looking to steal artists work before it's out the door.

retrospectology , 3 days ago (edited 3 days ago)

Not just dicks, but dicks mixed with other art so it just completely pollutes the training data and the AI has no idea how to draw anything without it kind of looking like a dick. Dicks with human and animal faces, boats shaped like dicks, dick buildings and landscapes etc.

It would take an immense amount of bad data to actually work, but it would be funny.

retrospectology , 8 days ago

There has certainly been a lot, but my gut still says China or maybe Soviet Union.

It really depends on how far back you are going and what criteria you're using to ascribe responsibility for any given type of death.

For example, if a CCP guard kills a Uyghur prisoner in one of the camps that's obviously a death under the CCP, but if China creates an economic crisis in some country via its Belt and Road debt colonialism campaign and someone there subsequently dies due to hardship stemming from those economic issues is the CCP responsible?

retrospectology , 7 days ago

I'd think so, yeah, the CCP alone has pretty insane numbers, which is saying a lot.

You have to keep in mind that there's something like a million Uighurs in China that got scooped up and put in concentration camps 2010s. There's Tianamen, Tibet, the purges during Xi's rise to power, the brutalization of HK and the literal millions dead under Mao through both intentional acts to purge the party and punish dissidents and simply the incompetance of the the failed economic theories.

retrospectology , 7 days ago

Millions of people died in China during the Great Leap, with estimates ranging from 15 to 55 million, making the Great Chinese Famine the largest or second-largest[1] famine in human history.
[Wiki]

Pretty high number, and that's not even counting anything more contemporary.

Beginning in 2014, the Chinese government, under the administration of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary Xi Jinping, incarcerated more than an estimated one million Turkic Muslims without any legal process in internment camps. Operations from 2016 to 2021 were led by Xinjiang CCP Secretary Chen Quanguo.[2] It is the largest-scale detention of ethnic and religious minorities since World War II.
[Wiki]

So, yes, the genocide in Gaza is criminal, no less egregious or evil and those committing or supporting it should be brought before a tribunal, but they're still rookie numbers compared to the CCP. Even if you go all the way back to the Nakba. There's simply no way around it.

If you're going to act morally outraged about the US, you can't then just skip over China because it's politically uncomfortable. Xi had execution vans ffs.

retrospectology , 7 days ago

He's such an insufferable cringelord.

retrospectology , 10 days ago

Ah, you must be talking about Stonetoss the Nazi.

He's a nazi.

retrospectology , 9 days ago

That's the one

retrospectology , 8 days ago

Does anyone yet know how to break stuff like Copilot?

I don't have Win11, but I also never really trust that MS won't surreptiously push this kind of thing in the background to legacy systems, and I don't trust UI toggles within Windows to actually do anything.

Do we know if there are services or files that Co-pilot needs to function?

retrospectology , 13 days ago

I bet you're the kind of person who actually believes Biden has a "ReD LiNe"

retrospectology , 13 days ago

He certainly did give a ton of handouts to corporations with nice sounding names, yeah.

And he offered the GOP every fascist policy they want on border with literally no strings attached. Twice. What a great totally-different-from-republicans guy.

Really knows how to reach across the aisle and be bi-partisan by...-checks notes-...giving the GOP everything they want with no conditions.

retrospectology , 13 days ago

You're never going to get these people to acknowledge any of this stuff.

They'll still be defending whatever Biden 2.0 clone is in office a few cycles from now because "He only sent half the number of people to the gas chamber compared to [Identical GOP Incumbent]!"

retrospectology , 13 days ago

He was doing pretty bad up to that point, thus why his approval rating was dogshit. Gaza simply made him unelectable by those who might've been able to hold their nose to avoid Trump.

retrospectology , 13 days ago

Only voting for Trump is giving him your vote.

retrospectology , 13 days ago

Eh, the founders more or less ensured that a wealthy land-owning aristocracy would be able to overrule the will of the people if need be. That's more or less what the SCOTUS is there for, to ensure things don't get too democratic.

The US was an early modern democracy, but has never been a particularly good one.

retrospectology , 13 days ago

"Vote for my genocide supporting candidate or you're not serious about change!"

retrospectology , 13 days ago

So should people who are not going to vote for a Trump or Biden actively cast their vote for Trump then? It's the same thing, after all, right?

Is not casting a vote for Trump actually a vote for Biden?

retrospectology , 13 days ago

You're kind of avoiding the question.

If I "fail to support Trump" then I am defacto supporting Biden, right?

retrospectology , 13 days ago

Just following your logic.

retrospectology , 13 days ago

This situation is more like seeing two people murdering others and getting told you're supporting the one who has killed eight people instead of seven because I'm not helping either of them kill people.

retrospectology , 13 days ago

Yes, both mass murderers are bad. The fuck kind of neolib crack have you been smoking?

retrospectology , 13 days ago

So, for my own sake since I'm such a dumb pleb, you are saying not voting for Trump is a vote for Biden? Or is it not?

I kind of missed your answer to that.

retrospectology , 13 days ago

The technical distinction are becoming less and less compelling. The whole "Things will get better if you just vote for our chosen establishment democrat one more time." starts to wear thin after decades of 0 substantial results and, more often than not, straight up complicity in the worst crimes of the far-right.

Establishment democrats support the corporate aristocracy and banks just the same, they barely fight for really basic stuff like civil rights and only enough so they have something to point to, not to actually fundamentally change anything in a way that the right can't just reverse. That's why we are where we are right now, the Conservative Democrats' greed and lack of spine has allowed the far-right to capture the courts and undermine our institutions, unopposed over the course of 40-ish years.

The Democratic party is the only one with potential to change, but that's never going to happen if they can just keep doing the pied piper shit and getting re-elected. For all intents and purposes they are identical.

retrospectology , 13 days ago

Christ, why is this such a difficult question to answer? Is not voting for Trump a vote for Biden? Or is it not?

retrospectology , 13 days ago

Well, at least that's a cogent basis for an argument, thank you.

Though I still think this is something Democratic strategists should understand at this point -- ultimately it's Biden's responsibility to drive out voters, not play chicken with his base in defense of unrepentant war criminals.

I don't think voters can be blamed for being unable to support the politics of the party moving so far to the right, especially when Biden's presidency itself is already representative of a massive compromise by progressive voters. If Biden loses, the blame and pressure needs to be put onto the DNC and Biden for failing to do what it takes to keep their base fed, not on the voters, or we are going to end up in this same cycle forever.

A lot of our most prominent progressive representatives came into office after 2016, as a result of Clinton's failure. The party strategists understand when they lose, they do post-mortems even if they're not public about them. So I still hold that it's a valid strategy to allow democrats to fail when they end up going to far to the right, especially in such an egregious case as what we see with Gaza. Democratic support for the genocide can't continue, it's beyond the pale.

retrospectology , 13 days ago

In terms of establishment conservative Democrats and Republicans? Yes, they represent the same path to fascism. So it's not both sides, more like same side.

Progressives would be the only non-fascist side.

retrospectology , 13 days ago

Here’s the problem, people don’t vote down ticket, and they only vote every 4 years instead of every 2 years.

In no small part due to DNC suppression and interference. This is why people say the neoliberals need to be allowed to fail until they have no option but to tlstop suppression tactics (or leave and go to the GOP where they belong)

The base cannot reform the DNC they can only starve the power structure until it's desperate enough to stop sniping progressives. It worked after Clinton's failure, we got a ton of progressives in office after that.

retrospectology , 12 days ago

You speak as if the democrats cooperating with republicans is a flaw on their part. They don’t exist in a vacuum — they have to deal with the American public.

The majority of Americans are for basically all progressive policies, particularly when asked directly about a policy rather than a party or politician.

The issue is not the American people (of who MAGA chuds are 30% at best) the issue is that Democrats and Republicans work in concert to rig the system and deny the people access to politicians who are actually willing to implement popular policy.

This corporate circle jerk game (fueled not inconsiderably by Citizens United) is why the fascist roght is able to keep pushing our institutions further t9 the right. Establushment Democrats and Republicans are so busy gorging on lobby payouts and shoving AIPAC money ip their asses that they literally put up no resustance except when it comes to changing the status quo. Which is when they turn and will snarl and bite at anyone who tries to interrupt them.

So no, it is not "dealing with the American people" it's deliberately side stepping and suppressing them to loot our nation's legacy.

retrospectology , 15 days ago

This can't be true. I was told that if she has nothing to hide she has nothing to worry about!

retrospectology , 15 days ago

This is what happens every time society goes along with tech bro hype. They just run directly into a wall. They are the embodiment of "Didn't stop to think if they should" and it's going to cause a lot of problems for humanity.

retrospectology , 20 days ago

Buy a small plot of undeveloped land in a swamp -> buy a pot -> cook soup in the pot -> repeat step 3 until dead

Ambitious I know, but it's important to have goals.

retrospectology , 22 days ago (edited 22 days ago)

Can't view the post without the reddit app, have a direct link to the actual article?

retrospectology , 22 days ago

At first glance, the Recall feature seems like it may set the stage for potential gross violations of user privacy. Despite reassurances from Microsoft, that impression persists for second and third glances as well. For example, someone with access to your Windows account could potentially use Recall to see everything you've been doing recently on your PC, which might extend beyond the embarrassing implications of pornography viewing and actually threaten the lives of journalists or perceived enemies of the state.

Despite the privacy concerns, Microsoft says that the Recall index remains local and private on-device, encrypted in a way that is linked to a particular user's account. "Recall screenshots are only linked to a specific user profile and Recall does not share them with other users, make them available for Microsoft to view, or use them for targeting advertisements. Screenshots are only available to the person whose profile was used to sign in to the device," Microsoft says.

This sounds very much like on of those claims that has an invisible "for now" attached to it. It's always going to be a slow roll out with these kinds of things.

retrospectology , 22 days ago

The arrest is only a positive. Allowing pedophiles to create AI CP is not a victimless crime. As others point out it muddies the water for CP of real children, but it also potentially would allow pedophiles easier ways to network in the open (if the images are legal they can easily be platformed and advertised), and networking between abusers absolutely emboldens them and results in more abuse.

As a society we should never allow the normalization of sexualizing children.

retrospectology , 22 days ago

Lemmy really needs to stop justifying CP.
We can absolutely do more than "eDuCaTiOn". AI is created by humans, the training data is gathered by humans, it needs regulation like any other industry.

It's absolutely insane to me how laissez-fair some people are about AI, it's like a cult.

retrospectology , 22 days ago (edited 22 days ago)

Thats not the question, the question is not "can we stop AI entirely" it's about regulating its development and yes, we can make efforts to do that.

This attitude of "it's inevitable, can't do anything about it" is eerily similar logic to what is used in climate denial and other right-wing efforts. It's a really poor attitude to have, especially about something as consequential as AI.

We have the best opportunity right now to create rules about its uses and development. The answer is not "do nothing" as if it's some force of nature, as opposed toa tool created by humans.

retrospectology , 22 days ago

The fuck are you talking about? No one's "enslaving" you because they're trying to stop you from generating child porn.

Fucking libertarians dude.

retrospectology , 22 days ago

If it was photoreal and difficult to distinguish from real photos? Yes, it's exactly the same.

And even if it's not photo real, communities that form around drawn child porn are toxic and dangerous as well. Sexualizing children is something I am 100% against.

retrospectology , 22 days ago

Ah yes, we need child porn because it's a slippery slope.

retrospectology , 22 days ago

This argument could be applied to anything though. A lot of people get away with myrder, we should still try and do what we can to stop it from happening.

You can't sit in every car and force people to wear a seatbelt, we still have seatbelt laws and regulations for manufacturers.

retrospectology , 21 days ago

So accept defeat from the start, that's really just a non-starter. AI models run on hardware, they are developed by specific people, their contents are distributed by specific individuals, code bases are hosted on hardware and on specific outlets.

It really does sound like you're just trying to make excuses to avoid regulation, not that you genuinely have a good reason to think it's not possible to try.

retrospectology , 21 days ago

This is still one of the weaker arguments.
There is a lot of malware out there too, people are still prosecuted when they're caught developing and distributing it, we don't just throw up our hands and pretend there's nothing that can be done.

Like, yeah, some pedophile who also happens to be tech saavy might build his own AI model to make CP, that's not some self-evident argument against attempting to stop them.

retrospectology , 22 days ago

Yeah, this is kind of what I'm talking about. You can't on one hand say you're for progressive leftist ideals, which are centered on human rights and democratic freedom and then also employ the rhetoric of a far right dictatorship. You're just soft-selling authoritarianism at that point in defense of some empty label.

Criticizing the US is one thing, even wanting their power balanced by other nations is sensible, but pretending the CCP is anything but a far-right totalitarian dictatorship isn't productive if the goal is a world with more opportunities for progressive ideas to take root -- there is no scenario that manifests out of the CCP increasing its geopolitical influence that isn't objectively worse, regardless of what bones there are to pick with the right-wing in the US. The goal should be defeating the far-right in the US, not kneecapping the US so the CCP can start expending their imperial ambitions.

China accumulating power only moves the global needle further towards authoritarian norms, not away from them. It results in more cross pollination between right-wing groups internationally. We are witnessing it right now, as US democracy declines (not US power) and China rises we see a not-so-coincidental rise in far-right groups everywhere else too (which China and Russia happily foster and weaponize. Very progressive of them).

In the US (or any democracy) there is still much more political diversity, so if you criticize US actions you're really criticizing one of those groups and their abuse of US power. By contrast, China has a single state party with a single person at its head with more or less unrestricted power. It is quite a few steps ahead on the road to fascism even compared to the US. So it doesn't make sense to try and bill them as the same thing.

There is no internal force within China working to reform it, not even potential for it, but there are progressive groups in the US pushing against the right-wing authoritarianism rising in their own country. If there weren't we wouldn't be seeing the evolution of public perception on issues like Israel/Gaza. That is a direct result of Americans themselves pushing from within using their (slowly diminishing) rights. You see nothing like that in China because it's simply not possible, fascism is already locked in there. It doesn't help you or anyone else for them to gain more influence.

Dictatorship and authoritarianism are diametrically opposed to every progressive political goal, they aren't concepts that can be harnessed for some greater good, they are never a means to an end.

This is because, as you allude to, the defining characteristic of the "left" is that it is always looking to evolve society past the solutions that have proven to be failures (like monarchy, theocracy, corprotocracy, communism, libertarianism etc.) in favor of decision-making that's based on reality as we understand it now and can be adapted without concentration camps and mass graves.

"Leftism" is when people try to use knowledge for the goal of fostering human dignity, well-being and freedom, but it is also when people are ready to cast aside ideas that fail to produce. It doesn't matter what flavor of progressive someone is, those are still the central defining notions that unite anyone inclined to be "left wing".

If someone finds themselves defending ideas or groups that don't serve those basic purposes they're simply no longer promoting progressive/left ideas -- they're promoting failed ideas that will inevitably be incorporated by the right to open new routes to the same resolution as any right-wing effort. That's what conservativism is; a failure to move as our understanding of reality moves.

So, yeah, some people only just becoming politically aware might have muddled thinking about things they were taught along the way, but they need to be shown how those ideas don't really reinforce the end goal they actually want, not to have those ideas treated as legitimate and valid forms of progressive political philosophy. They need to be taught how to examine any idea for what it is, not what they want it to be.

This is the problem with having loyalty to labels, specific theories and personalities over basic principles and practical realities. You become inflexible and vulnerable to having your good intentions exploited, ending up in these weird positions where you're supporting the very thing you claimed to be against (like self-proclaimed leftists who still defend Stalin or the CCP despite the mind-boggling levels of human suffering they've produced)

I don't care about implementing one specific left-branded ideology or another, my concern is more with ejecting conservative political thought so that ideas and information can be discussed and debated to find the solutions that actually produce good for everyone. That simply isn't possible until the people get past the corpses of their darlings, whatever they may be.

That deliberation should be able to happen without people dogmatically attempting to shoehorn in ideas that have already been tried and failed. Progressives should not be precious with ideas that way and should be willing to label ideas based on what they produce in reality, not just in theory.