buttstothemoon:
revretch:
foone:
animentality:
BTW, just to make sure everyone knows, this isn’t just some internet rando commenting on her observations on the internet.
They are an Assistant Professor of Media Industries at New York University and literally just finished writing The Apple II Age: How the Computer Became Personal, a book on the history of the computer industry in the 70s.
This tweet isn’t just an observation, it’s the result of years of research and study. And it’s absolutely true.
I’ve definitely noticed that when I see older tech nerds talk about open source I’m filled with a sense of camaraderie and wonder, and when I see younger nerds talk about it my bullshit scam alarms go off
I studied physics. A thing that happens sometimes when people study physics, or maybe it is truly just me, is that they might feel a kinship with the folks who invented nuclear weapons. You study their academic works, maybe read some letters, imagine their personalities in your head (most of them are weird nerds, total assholes, or both, they are physicists after all).
And so it’s very confusing, looking at the AI folks, or the programming folks, or the business folks, jesus. Because physicists have an entire generation’s worth of role models who all made the exact same mistake. Einstein, Bohr, Fermi, Feynman. They fucked up. Worse than I or you ever will and they’d be the first to tell you. And not because they were dumb. Because they were careless with knowledge. Knowing things is a responsibility.
And so I look at AI and ML projects and I just see people building the bomb. Only their bomb is shitty and lame and that makes it far more devious. They brag about their black box and how powerful it has become. Knowledge is a responsibility and they cede control of their knowledge to an impenetrable, inhuman, unfeeling process. They build a bomb and it is utterly droll.
And so I look at the internet and see the only thing worse than the bomb: pupils that have turned into dollar signs in the blinding glare of Little Boys glory. Because we didn’t stop. No no. Our greatest minds understood their mistake after Hiroshima. But our second or third or fourth or sixteenth greatest took over.
Those are the two main things people learn when they study physics, or at least that I learned. The first: do not invent the bomb, you will regret it. The second: someone nearly as clever as you, but far more ghoulish, will see the bomb only as opportunity and personal glory. Do not make their work easy.
(via edward-nb)
