This guy is the first guy that’s going to be murdered by AI, or a robot.
Look at his fucking expendable face.
Literally the gulag is a gulag. The engineers are getting paid and fed. They have never faced adversity in their lives if they think getting paid for making evil software is the same as being in a gulag. Sorry you have to work at a company that sucks, but that’s on you.
Wait they are being forced to work without pay? They’re in labor camps? They are imprisoned and cannot see their friends and family? They can’t go home?!
Oh. They’re just complaining about working for an evil corporation? Anyway…
“Working in this concentration camp is soul crushing” the Nazi complains.
Yeah, as a developer who wants to not be homeless, I’ve had to take my fair share of dubious roles that I felt didn’t add anything to humanity. I’ve been disillusioned from college where I thought my tech would help people and humanity, I know what I do.
But, I can be proud that I turned down Meta. I was desperate for a job, and I got to the offer stage. It was a tempting offer, but luckily another job rolled in. Less money, but I knew it was a moment for me. Maybe my code has been less than moral, but at least I know I can draw a hard line there.
Fun fact, I asked about work life balance and the recruiter happily told me “oh it’s great! We have onsite laundry and sleeping pods, and the cafeteria is open all the time!” Great, hard pass. Sounds like something college senior would be excited about. Me, I want to go home to my big bed with my spouse.
I mean, the hours are just crazy! And the colleagues are rude brutes 😕
“Zuckerberg is only able to build his nation-consuming spyware because they willingly take his money,” one user commented on Wired‘s reporting. “Now all of the sudden they’re persecuted because they’re being mildly inconvenienced while constructing his slop empire? Give me a break.”
“So these employees were fine with creating soul crushing AI that would be forced on other workers at other companies or that would take their jobs,” another user wrote, “as long as they felt the work was challenging in the process?”
They do have a point.
At a certain point, you have to ask yourself if the work you’re doing is something you should keep doing.
I love my job. I make a great salary, there’s a clear path to promotion, and a never-ending supply of cold brew in the office. And even though my job requires me to commit sociopathic acts of evil that directly contribute to making the world a measurably worse place from Monday through Friday, five days a week, from morning to night, outside work, I’m actually a really good person.
Let me give you an example…
I have little sympathy to be honest.
However what is interesting is this sounds like a company in it’s early death throes. They’re a social media company that’s core products are in decline to competitors like TikTok, and they’re desperately trying to diversify.
The “metaverse” was an expensive flop. Now it’s pivoting to AI by sacking employees to save costs and redirecting large numbers of the rest away from it’s core product. But Meta is way behind in the AI race and seemingly throwing everything at this while ignoring it’s core product.
Meta is becoming like IBM; it probably won’t disappear but it’ll just be another also-ran.
It can’t fail fast enough, and all these miserable assholes who helped him build his empire can also get fucked. They are burning the planet and now they are crying because the world they are helping to build is biting at them? Yeah, well, tough luck, you should have quit long ago to get my sympathy.
Meta is different from IBM in that Zuckerberg made himself god-emperor and cannot be voted out of his position. IBM’s survival took guts and re-invention, Zuckerberg showed that he is a one-trick pony that stole the one trick from the twins.
My money is on Meta ending like Sun Microsystems or Yahoo! Bought for trinkets by some bigger brand, stripped for staff and parts, and then five years later you get an email saying that Facebook is going to be discontinued come January 1st, please join us at Amanvidia.
Addiction to money is causing 95% of our problems, and I don’t just mean Zuckerberg and the other billionaires. Anyone who throws a coworker under the bus to avoid taking blame, pressures a subordinate to work an extra hour to meet a deadline, or otherwise prioritizes “work” over the mental health of those around them contributes to this dumpster fire of a society we’ve built.
We all point the finger at the top, but I think the problem is much more widespread than that.
In this case: why tf aren’t the workers refusing to build Zuck’s AI? Addiction to money.
Have you heard of the “permanent underclass”? It’s a concept that silicon valley people have become obsessed with. Silicon Valley tech workers are doing hard drugs and taking untested peptides so that they can work harder and longer all in the pursuit of escaping the permanent underclass they believe AI will create. These people believe that when AI takes all the jobs, everyone who isn’t already rich will become part of some permanently unemployable poverty class.
It’s madness, but you already have to be unwell and have no concern for humanity in order to work at these giga tech firms in the first place.
Interesting. No, I hadn’t heard about that… but I do think it’s likely to happen. I think there will come a time, within the next 20 years, where you’re either dirt poor (financially) or you’re a human-AI hybrid.
Personally, I’m preparing for life as a farmer/forager, because I have no interest in merging with AI and I know there are more important things in life than money.
I don’t believe that will ever come to pass. That future relies on the creation of a real AI and not just fancy text predictors. That real AI would also have to be actually sustainable which LLMs are not.
Not only has there been no progress on real AI, it wouldn’t be able to ruin society even if we did manage to make it. The rich and powerful are not impervious. They will inevitably make too many people too poor and then be overrun and torn to shreds. It’s happened countless times before and if we’ve learned anything from Ukraine and the Middle East this past decade, it’s impossible to bomb a large group of people into submission.
I am not sure if u have read unabomber’s manifesto “Industrial society and it’s future” but he basically calls this money addiction and such just fulfilment for power process, I can’t really type all of the things he says here but I would recommend reading his paper, also take in consideration that it’s just one of the options and there are different kinds of addictions with different reasons but I think you are talking about specifically one Unabomber is explaining, just my guess tho
You’re right about this, they are making a lot of money, you can’t argue they’re just doing it to eat.
Sorry I was with you, but I take issue with the work an extra hour to meet a deadline. I did that just this week even.
We have a deadline, we had time for us allto get it done, but one member was doing things his own pace. That’s okay, but he needs it done by this date. I start checking in more and more regularly, he says it’s fine and he’ll get it done. Well it is Friday and it’s due Monday, and he says that he guessed it was harder than it was, and he didn’t have crucial component done. To which I said I’m sorry to do this, but it’s due Monday, let me know how I can help but sounds like you’ll need to work over the weekend.
I’m huge on work life balance, but if you’re slacking at work and dragging down everyone else, damn right I’ll ask you to work late. I’m not a manager so I can’t do reviews, but as a lead it is my job to make sure things get done on time, and if I don’t push one person, the the whole team is at risk when layoff season comes around
Literally
Totes.
So tired of these parasites that think they own everyone.
Zuckerberg […] “we’ve made mistakes and will almost certainly make more.”
I read that he is not going to change things. Cheers.
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