sunset's gemlog

The "Technological Futures" Letter

I've been part of a group that put together an open letter regarding technocapitalism and AI. You may have seen it.

Technological Futures: A Letter to the Smolnet (Gemini)

Technological Futures: A Letter to the Smolnet (Gopher)

This has been worked on for about three months, and I'm pretty happy with the end result. The final text was very much a consensus effort, and isn't particularly my perspective or anyone else's perspective but rather a common baseline we all agree on. I'd like to add on to it a little bit here with my own angle.

Going back to 2010-2012, I was new in the industry, and I was so, so proud to be a programmer. In a time where a lot of rough things were going on in my life, I latched on to being a software hotshot as a core part of my identity and my self-worth.

At the time, I think I wasn't as willing to see the harms caused by the tech industry, but I also think it was perhaps less actively - or at least less overtly - dangerous than it is now.

The core of what motivates me on this stuff is that I don't really think this industry is a positive force anymore, and I'm not sure it ever was. It consumes, it grows, it repeats. People get hurt, and societies get distorted, in the process. The senior-leadership cliques in the valley don't have to care, though - they can assuage their consciences with vague platitudes about "progress" and ignore the damage they're doing. This goes way beyond AI, and even beyond the tech industry - the problem is the entire growth-capitalist system. Unfortunately, the tech industry is currently the most visible face of constant rapid growth at any cost. I don't want to live in the future they're building, and while I'm normally not very good at public activism of any sort, I felt I needed to do what I could to contribute to the letter.

It's all fucked up. I don't want to live in the future that Microsoft/Alphabet/OpenAI/Meta are selling, and I'm scared that many people will be badly hurt by it. Those companies are trying to push a narrative of inevitability so they can manufacture public consent for developing and releasing these things. I don't really know what I can do about it, but ever since I first read the small things manifesto, I've felt strongly like I need to do something. The truth is, I'm badly disillusioned by computing in general, and I'd like to accomplish at least something toward making computing work for people, not just companies. I'm just a person, not terribly bright and with a large number of regrets, but if I can, I'd really like to help work toward the right thing.