The open web is under pressure from AI companies and large platforms, but its troubles did not start with AI. We also chose convenience over control, and we will have to change that if we want a better web.
I won’t talk about purpose or similar, but… yes, that’s a good point. You’re right — the author should have talked about this; now thinking, the “cultural choice” he talks about is simply alienation, it’s a consequence of the capitalist system, and the whole thing about corporations creating pressure against the open web they rely on is a typical contradiction of the system.
He (and I, too) focused too much on the small picture, but not in the big one.
Thanks for the intelligent reply. I was definitely venting some personal frustration and came off unhelpful in some ways on a reread.
I guess I would criticize myself by saying; small picture stuff is a good place to focus action, but when it is working within a system that will remove you at the first sign of your work challenging that system that’s an unwinnable battle. I think a lot of people get stuck in that place maintaining their position while “doing the most good” (or often times these days “the least evil”)
Actual change will happen from individuals doing small parts within a structure that actually is built to create change. No Azure For Apartheid is a part of current and past Microsoft employees working for that pressure. Just an example from my personal experience. I shouldn’t make the mistake of criticizing without offering solutions for change.
It’s obviously a bit beyond the scope of the article in terms of activism. But, it is this type of organized structure that needs to be built to create change. And with the use of AI in warfare tech companies are becoming the new Lockheed Martin and Boeing. I don’t think an “open web” is possible when these incentives of state power are so strongly aligned.
We are forced to the fringes of Lemmy and the like because we are not organized and do not have power. Hoping that migration of the masses will happen through “willpower” alone is misunderstanding how platforms like Reddit maintain the masses to begin with.
I won’t talk about purpose or similar, but… yes, that’s a good point. You’re right — the author should have talked about this; now thinking, the “cultural choice” he talks about is simply alienation, it’s a consequence of the capitalist system, and the whole thing about corporations creating pressure against the open web they rely on is a typical contradiction of the system.
He (and I, too) focused too much on the small picture, but not in the big one.
Thanks for the intelligent reply. I was definitely venting some personal frustration and came off unhelpful in some ways on a reread.
I guess I would criticize myself by saying; small picture stuff is a good place to focus action, but when it is working within a system that will remove you at the first sign of your work challenging that system that’s an unwinnable battle. I think a lot of people get stuck in that place maintaining their position while “doing the most good” (or often times these days “the least evil”)
Actual change will happen from individuals doing small parts within a structure that actually is built to create change. No Azure For Apartheid is a part of current and past Microsoft employees working for that pressure. Just an example from my personal experience. I shouldn’t make the mistake of criticizing without offering solutions for change.
It’s obviously a bit beyond the scope of the article in terms of activism. But, it is this type of organized structure that needs to be built to create change. And with the use of AI in warfare tech companies are becoming the new Lockheed Martin and Boeing. I don’t think an “open web” is possible when these incentives of state power are so strongly aligned.
We are forced to the fringes of Lemmy and the like because we are not organized and do not have power. Hoping that migration of the masses will happen through “willpower” alone is misunderstanding how platforms like Reddit maintain the masses to begin with.