Hi Dianne, Thank you for your honesty, it's always appreciated, especially when it elicits more laughter than sighs, but you're so right. As someone who is perceived as having been born a couple of years ago, I am very concerned about the same. I really do not want tech entering the creative fields (some delineation between fashion design and garment creation, why can't clothes sew themselves at this point?) but I would love for AI to be able to actually write a useful SQL program. Anyway, programming and AI is a whole rabbit hole of its own. I see some of the "right" collaboration between people and technology in gardening and agriculture - where farmers of different kinds are benefitted in certain ways, and able to keep up with the demand by using technologies to bolster, rather than replace. I identify as a gardener. :) Thanks for your wisdom, Katie ________________________________ From: Dianne Skoll <dianne [ at ] skoll [ dot ] ca> Sent: 08 August 2023 11:59 To: Linux-Ottawa <linux [ at ] linux-ottawa [ dot ] org> Subject: Re: [linux] canadian news funding, maybe a free open source news aggregator app as part of a funding model solution? Attention : courriel externe | external email WARNING: This post will contain NSFW language. Do not read further if that bothers you. :) On Tue, 8 Aug 2023 02:17:05 -0400 Michael Goguen <michael [ dot ] goguen [ at ] gmail [ dot ] com> wrote: [...] > > 2/ could opt in to pay a small fee for 'enhanced' library news > > access, whereby people can select to some extent where they prefer > > some of that fee to go, which media outlets, and maybe track usage, > > maybe especially to help out smaller media with some consistent > > income... Here's the problem. Google and Facebook and other tech giants have conditioned us to receive content "for free" by hiding the *actual* costs, namely: Loss of privacy, massive data collection, and scorched-earth policies to destroy businesses that used to charge for content. You can't compete with "free". So now that they've gone and destroyed journalism, Facebook and Google can do whatever they want. They have truly fucked us over. Don't think it will end there. AI will mean virtually the end of jobs for actors, writers, animators and other creative jobs. We always assumed automation would eliminate dull and repetitive jobs, but actually it's coming for creative jobs. The hardest jobs to automate, ironically, are the low-end ones like garment work, cooking, etc. Greed has enshittified the Internet and allowed tech giants to become more powerful than nation-states. Without breaking up tech giants and severely regulating their actions, we're all royally fucked. I'm very pessimistic about the future and really glad I'm an older person no longer working in tech, and not a young person starting out. :( Well, have a nice day, everyone. :) Regards, Dianne. To unsubscribe send a blank message to linux+unsubscribe [ at ] linux-ottawa [ dot ] org To get help send a blank message to linux+help [ at ] linux-ottawa [ dot ] org To visit the archives: https://lists.linux-ottawa.org