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by optymizer 120 days ago
"why won't other people make sacrifices for me?"

Because the society in US is arranged as a competition with no safety net and where your employer has a disproportionate amount of influence on your well being and the happiness of your kids.

I'm not going to give up $1M in total comp and excellent insurance for my family because you and I don't like where AI is going.
1 comments
appreciatorBus 120 days ago
Just having the option of giving up $1 million in compensation put one far far far above meaningful worries about your well-being and the happiness of your kids.
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optymizer 120 days ago
Not really. We would have to downsize our life.

I'll have to explain it to the wife: "well, you see, we cant live in this house anymore because AI in Notepad was just too much".

I'll dial up my ethical and moral stance on software up to 11 when I see a proper social safety net in this country, with free healthcare and free education.

And if we cant all agree on having even those vital things for free, then relying on collective agreement on software issues will never work in practice so my sacrifice would be for nothing. I would just end up being the dumb idealist.

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appreciatorBus 120 days ago
I posed my comment poorly and trollishly.

I don't think you should make any change you don't want to, I'm not arguing for collective agreement on anything, and I'm not convinced there's a big ethical case for or against AI, even in Notepad.exe. If you can make $1M, go nuts, I just think it's not a great example of dealing with ethics & tradeoffs.

I was more just reacting to your the contrast between ideas early in this thread, and your implication of a $1M comp. Early in the thread there was implication that poor/exploited/low-level workers with few other options were either being blamed for AI in notepad, or should not be blamed. Then you casually drop the $1M comp line. Maybe that's real, maybe it's not but regardless, it felt silly to compare the earlier population with people who can or have made $1M. Of course we all face challenges, and the hedonic treadmill calls for us equally at $1K/year and $1M/year, I just think people in the latter have objectively more options, even if the wife complains, than people in the former, and it's tough to take the latter seriously when they talk about lifestyle adjustments.

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