| > But my life would be much less fun then. Reverse engineering scratches a certain itch like nothing else does! Totally, yet at the same time I'm worried that knowledge workers aren't aware enough of just how privileged they are to have been able to 'climb the ladder' to be able to do work like that, and how, unless you're 1) well off and 2) living in the global north, gaining such skills has been made nearly impossible because the ladders needed to climb up are often not available, despite humans having been gifted digital technology (and therefore a zero-marginal cost of information reproduction). As an example: I'm not technically skilled enough to reverse engineer the things I'd like to, and because of the way knowledge is controlled by big companies as trade secrets and patent claims [1], it's near impossible to gain these skills in an affordable way. I also cannot take apart the technology I already own since it is not modular, it voids the warranty or is it is damaged (since I'm not skilled because I didn't realize early enough how important technology is). So yes, it sounds super fun for you to reverse engineer this stuff, yet when are we going to seriously admit that this IP system has become a massive problem, and that the people who came before are literally 'kicking away the ladder' they used to climb up themselves? That when people say that the only thing people need to do to succeed is to 'work hard', that that is a lie, since information is made artificially scarce by human systems/institutions, and thus only available to a select few [2]. Edit: I just saw on your twitter that you are a console hacker, thanks for the awesome work! [1] https://www.ipwatchdog.com/2019/02/19/dont-fooled-patent-pur... [2] https://tribunemag.co.uk/2019/01/abolish-silicon-valley |
But I'm not sure realize where the privilege actually is. People aren't "gifted" with technology. Oftentimes it's because they were exposed to it and didn't have other obligations combined with a mixture of curiosity that was triggered by something. I knew people that had to think long and hard if it's worth saving up 150 dollars to buy a laptop or PC to MAYBE learn skills that MAY help them or if they should just continue working as a hostess. If you have to spend 12 hours a day to grind through school and after-school activity and then homework when society has decided that you can't be a productive member of society later AND then have to help you parents on the farm before you collapse of exhaustion then yes, you won't be able to acquire these skills.
I was privileged enough to have my mother sacrifice everything(her property, her life, her family and her homeland) to pull me out of a warzone to provide for me so I would be in a position to be able to build these skills. Just calling the whole thing privilege is such a disservice to all she had to sacrifice for me to be able to be in this position.
If we want to talk about privilege how about the fact that if the garbage worker wouldn't collect our garbage and the farmers wouldn't provide us with food then we wouldn't even be able to do the things we are able to do and while they feed us so we can build the things that replace them, we tell them how they should have just got to school to fill out excel charts, powerpoints and the next world change ai pipeline, or photo sharing app that nobody needs.