I like seeing Ubisoft getting dunked on. Especially if they get dunked on for presenting a machine-learning tool called Ghostwriter. They go out of their way to make it seem that it’s just a tool to save time on «the video game writer’s most laborious tasks» but still choose to call it after one of the ugliest practices in the literary business.
I like seeing an overall Luddite-like approach to everything the modern hi-tech industry is overexcited about. Luddites were not technophobes; they merely could see through the bullshit. We know all too well that «saving time on laborious tasks» actually means «saving money on paying people.»
Corporations would prefer machines to do all of the work. Corporations hate people. With people, they have to balance too many issues to make as much money as they can while simultaneously trying not to overwork their employees too much. They hate not just their employees, they hate their customers too. Customers have to be persuaded to buy products. They have to be appeased and milked gently, which is costly!
Corporations would prefer a humanless business, and they are obsessed with automation. They want to automate labor to not deal with people’s demands to be paid fairly. They would happily also automate consumption—a wide fixation on subscription-based services is currently the farthest they went with it, but they’ll figure out something fancier that would make it easier for consumers to part with their hard-earned money.
Technology is good—it really ought to make our life and work easier. But in the hands of the misanthropes, no wonder it becomes misanthropic. We can critique and ridicule technological flaws in recent hi-tech obsessions, but it won’t help us in the long run—eventually, tools become more and more effective.
Instead, we should weaponize the humanitarian approach. It’s okay to say that we want to consume human-made art. There is nothing wrong or technophobic in this statement. We are human—we want to hear human thoughts, entertain ourselves with human ideas, experience human hopes, fears, and fantasies. And we want those brave enough to share it all with us could make a decent living. Save their time on laborious tasks after you assure their well-being with something more than just a marketing copy.
Every initiative that potentially undermines living humans has to be stomped into the dust. Ridicule the hell out of corporations and expose the rot hidden under the veil of fancy bullshit. They are already in control of much of our lives—don’t make it easier on them!
Leave a Reply