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bogzzyesterday at 5:17 PM1 replyview on HN

Thank you for correcting my misunderstanding! Let me pivot then-- I still argue that it is a fundamentally different case when it comes to LLMs.

1. Threatening young and educated people with not being able to realize the potential that they believed they were building for themselves is toying with social uprising.

2. Weaving is an apt example of redundancy on account of technological innovation but it's a poor comparison to LLMs where the narrative is that they will continue to get better until they approach a general intelligence level which would put a much much higher percentage of the population at risk of losing their jobs. Again, the segment of the population that has invested most into their skills, and will be the most angry and capable of organizing should that come to pass.

Weaving doesn't as aptly represent the core of what we as a species are good at and excel at, as knowledge work does.


Replies

thankyoufriendyesterday at 7:21 PM

1. This is not enough on it's own for social uprising, but it may be the straw that breaks the camel's back. I feel a lot of the general vibe in the US is summed up in this excerpt from "All Hail" by The Devil Makes Three:

"Laugh if you want to, really is kinda funny

'Cause the world is a car and you're the crash test dummy

Herd's stampeding now, fences gone

Television is always on and it says "Save the children, but drop the bomb

Replace the word 'right' now with the word 'wrong'

Hey, there's a big sale on Tuesday, get it before it's gone

Get a picture with the four horsemen for a nominal sum

Now that they got everything, they'd like to sell you some!

All hail, all hail, to the greatest of sales

Everything in sight's got to be sold

All hail, all hail, 'cause it's to work or to jail

Man, they're closing them doors on the world"

Closing them doors on the world aka pulling the ladder up behind them is exactly what is happening, and has been happening, to young white Americans for decades now, and young Americans of color since forever.

2. Weaving is an ancestor of programming so I feel it's an apt comparison to discussions of modern technology, as much as any historic profession can be. But to more specifically address your point about continuing to get better and putting more of the population at risk of job loss, there were multiple innovations within the textile industry that worked together to automate different portions of the industry. The point is similar to the poem "First They Came" by Martin Niemöller, where it starts somewhere but it will come for all of us. So focusing on whether or not weaving specifically is a good comparison to LLMs misses the point that if we don't band together as workers, we will eventually be overpowered by capital, foregoing any discussion about the morality of capitalism but just looking at eternal struggle of profit incentives vs wages.