TechTakes

Okay, let's see what the dumbshits are trying to sell this time

(This took longer than I'd liked, because copy-paste is pretty laggy on Cloudflare's shit-ass page)

Built for the rise of agents and machines, NET Dollar will enable seamless, automated transactions without human intervention.

"Agents" are automatic data breach machines, letting them repeat that time they stole vibe-coders' crypto on a larger scale is a terrible idea

The rise of autonomous agents and connected devices is creating a new economic paradigm

Autonomous agents don't exist, and the only "new economic paradigm" being made is one where tech is completely unmoored from reality

These systems need a reliable medium of exchange that can handle high-frequency, automated transactions without human intervention.

See my previous point

Rules, triggers, and workflows can be embedded directly into payments, making them smarter and adaptable.

Went so well for Wolf Game, didn't it?

NET Dollar will work across networks and ecosystems, enabling frictionless, global commerce.

And by "frictionless, global commerce", I presume they mean "sanctions evasion and ransomware"

Every coin will be fully collateralized by a U.S. dollar, ensuring transparency, reliability, and price stability.

Just like Tether! /s

NET Dollar will be made available soon.

How about never.

I keep meaning to reread it and report back on zeerust aspects!

Do like somebody left a nice trap there:

You write "you can buy it here" but there is no link.

However, you can do better: the whole thing is available for free online. https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelerando/accelerando-intro.html on the author's website is a good place to start; it has links to various versions of the book and also a little bit of explanatory material.

(Unrelated, hope Stross's recovery is going well, sorry for being a bit parasocial relationshippy here).

I like singularity sky more as a sort of critical book about how a post scarcity singularity would be easy to mess up. Very funny that it inspired the US to give free phones to Afghans to try and combat the Taliban.

Man, knowing nothing else about your coworker, they sound like a completely joyless person. Coming up with fake titles for things is like, such a high fun-to-effort ratio. “Creativity and the essence of Human Experience” by Chat GPT. Boom, there’s one. “Cooking With Olive Oil” by Sam Altman. “IQ184” by Harukiezer Murakowsky. This is so fun and easy that it’s basically hack outside of situations where it is solicited.

God, we had so much fun doing this at my uni when creating an example DB table for an exam (only it was fake song/band combinations). Are you sure your coworker isn't a robot themselves?

Ted Chiang rules.

I have no idea about Ruby or the politics behind the scenes, but I do know who DHH is and so it seems like literally none of this would've happened if not for point 2. on the list?? Just like, don't platform the rancid toxic cesspit of a man and you're fine??

Who's left to do actual work? Who would start a new project that depends on these institutions? Does ruby just die now?

Also:

When the Advanced Custom Fields plugin was stolen by WordPress, DHH said “This is totally crazy. Like if the operators of rubygems dot org just decided to expropriate the official Rails gems, hand over control to a new team, and lock the core team out of it. We’re in uncharted and dangerous territory for open source now. What a sad sight."

lol

This article also reminded me of how when they are trying to promote AI agents they dont get further than shopping, a secretary, or help you cook with random ingredients. No real human connections

The Ai bubble has taught me that the luddites are really misunderstood.

The Luddites were a 19th century guerrilla movement that smashed textile machines, burned factories and threatened their owners. But they were not motivated by a fear of technology [...] the luddites [...] were engaged in the most science-fictional exercise imaginable – asking not what a technology does, but who it does it to and who it does it for. The Luddites, you see, were skilled weavers whose intense physical labor produced the textiles that clothed the nation. The difficulty of their trade – both in terms of esoteric knowledge and physical prowess – allowed them to command high wages and good working conditions.

All that was threatened by the advent of textile machines, which produced more fabric in less time, and required less skill. The owners of textile factories bought these machines with profits derived from the weavers' labor, and then used those machines to grind down the weavers. Their hours got longer, their pay got shorter, and many of them were maimed or killed by the new machines.

Weaving engines are ingenious and delightful machines. The Luddites had no beef with the machines – their cause was the social relations that governed those machines. By painting Luddites as mere technophobes, we strip ourselves of the ability to learn from history. The lesson of the Industrial Revolution is that merely asking what a machine does and not who it does it for and to can lead to literal genocide.

https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/04/general-ludd/

“We believe that in the near future half the people on the planet will be AI, and we are the company that’s bringing those people to life”

This quote is just... something.

Is the plan to literally create 8 billion podcasts in the near future? This company doesn't think that might be a tad excessive?