> "These students have spent their whole lives being taught, cajoled, entertained, and surveilled by computers and algorithms -- in and out of the classroom. (But importantly, in.) But they recognize now -- if they hadn't already -- as rejection letter after rejection letter hits their email inbox, that they're being spurned by this same machinery that they’re supposedly most in tune with. “Those who live by electronics, die by electronics. Sic semper tyrannis,” as Kurt Vonnegut wrote in Player Piano..."
It occurs to me, sourly, that maybe we are entering a cyberpunk dystopia envisioned by Neuromancer, The Diamond Age, or Cyberpunk 2077, but only the boring, pedestrian parts of cyberpunk. No cyberspace with flashy visual effects to hack in, no people with exotic neural implants or modifications wandering around. No, instead it's a cyberpunk world where we all exist primarily (almost entirely) in a digital parallel world, reduced to merely a set of digital records of our activity in corporate and governmental databases for hundreds of algorithms to act upon with the actual flesh and blood human being almost an afterthought.
The mistake is university choosing commencement speakers that are completely out of touch with what students about to enter the workforce need. Unless of course the university itself is choosing speakers based on their contribution to the university bottom line.
Big tech executives, no matter what their previous accomplishments were, eventually become sales people. Their job, as they see it, is to push a narrative that benefits the businesses or industries their wealth is tied too.
Students don't want to hear what billionaires want. They want to hear what will enable them to survive in a newly chaotic job market that seems ever more weighted against job seekers.
> if i was going to give a college commencement speech i would make sure to start with something the students could rally behind. something like "we will mechanically suck the youth from your bones to feed a mechanical eschaton, which my generation will use to climb heaven and become new gods"
> "These students have spent their whole lives being taught, cajoled, entertained, and surveilled by computers and algorithms -- in and out of the classroom. (But importantly, in.) But they recognize now -- if they hadn't already -- as rejection letter after rejection letter hits their email inbox, that they're being spurned by this same machinery that they’re supposedly most in tune with. “Those who live by electronics, die by electronics. Sic semper tyrannis,” as Kurt Vonnegut wrote in Player Piano..."
It occurs to me, sourly, that maybe we are entering a cyberpunk dystopia envisioned by Neuromancer, The Diamond Age, or Cyberpunk 2077, but only the boring, pedestrian parts of cyberpunk. No cyberspace with flashy visual effects to hack in, no people with exotic neural implants or modifications wandering around. No, instead it's a cyberpunk world where we all exist primarily (almost entirely) in a digital parallel world, reduced to merely a set of digital records of our activity in corporate and governmental databases for hundreds of algorithms to act upon with the actual flesh and blood human being almost an afterthought.
There is a subreddit called A Boring Dystopia. I think they nailed the feeling.
I'm also seeing elements of Fall or Dodge In Hell.
Who 'booed' thoug. From the brief crowd shots in the video, it certainly did not seem to be the majority.
The mistake is university choosing commencement speakers that are completely out of touch with what students about to enter the workforce need. Unless of course the university itself is choosing speakers based on their contribution to the university bottom line.
Big tech executives, no matter what their previous accomplishments were, eventually become sales people. Their job, as they see it, is to push a narrative that benefits the businesses or industries their wealth is tied too.
Students don't want to hear what billionaires want. They want to hear what will enable them to survive in a newly chaotic job market that seems ever more weighted against job seekers.
The writing felt fun but the final message escapes me.
Is the conclusion that growing anti-AI sentiment is a good opportunity for political organization?
Laurels quote in the middle is fantastic,
> if i was going to give a college commencement speech i would make sure to start with something the students could rally behind. something like "we will mechanically suck the youth from your bones to feed a mechanical eschaton, which my generation will use to climb heaven and become new gods"
https://bsky.app/profile/lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com/post/...