Right on. Sorry if I misread what was intended to be voiced from "average centrist" pov, there's been a ton of ai/tech reactionary buzz even among nominally "communist" circles recently, to the point where I'm even irked when people call generative tools "slop machines" in the same way they say "chinese goods" to insinuate cheap/bad product, when it's like, that's what you (or rather, walmart and amazon and they've monopolized and limited what alternative options you have) ordered the cheapest crap (for highest markup). Does nobody remember handmade slop content farms like 5minutecrafts? Same "market forces" (if you wanna call it that) are just ordering the same "slop" just from different sources, it's not like before genai came to wider prominence there was actually that much less "slop" and un-factual/poor quality/misleading content.
mao_dun
um. factories [physical and organizational structures of productive labor] aren't a "means of oppression". Capitalists owning them and workers not having control or ownership of the conditions, operations, product etc of them are the "means of oppression", not the factories themselves. Do we at the 'grad need a rehash of marxism/ML basics...?
I don't have personal experience here, but something I looked into for myself in the past (and don't currently have much opportunity to get into atm) as a starting point is workforwater.org -- more or less similar advice re:look at prospective career paths specific to what you're looking for. That website/org seems to have a (nation)wide but not super deep network to help connect mentors, apprenticeships/ish (depending on the role/location), and intern programs, at least for both water utilities and wastewater treatment industry. Either way, it's a leg up in terms of networking for that specific area. Many of the higher positions require engineering, although I can't recall if it's mechanical or civil or either/both.
Just thought to put it out there in case you had some interest in that field, infrastructure might be crumbling in this country but it's still sorely needed, and will be needed always... so, points for job availability and stability.
Dark factories sounds really awesome (best bet would be mechanical->robotics or electrical??) but unless you plan to leave the US I can't see heavy or innovative automation getting off the ground here unless it's under the graces of bezos or musk or their ilk, or a startup looking to eventually get acquired by venture capital (this is an extremely precarious position to be in, startups fail all the time but even when they "succeed" eg get bought out, your position may be eliminated in the acquisition process).
The tone of the quoted section is just so self-righteous! Clinical language and do-gooder spin for, in other words, "We need to find more people to identify as sick to put through the torture machine* but I prommy this is helping them for their own good"
*I'm not super active in autism community but I've seen ABA particularly for kids regarded as forcefully inducing trauma
I didn't say that "we should agitate people with petit bourgeois aspirations to side with the working class [their real class] via gen ai tools". I guess I got ahead of myself when I said there already have been efforts to convince artists that gen ai or tech in general isn't their enemy, corporate monopolization etc of tech however is because capitalists are;; (eg yes there should be said efforts, maybe better/more efforts in that regard. but anti-ai is very entrenched at this point)
However I did point out that these people are, influenced by a combination of (self-circulated and corporate) propaganda and their own petit bourgeois aspiring class interest (resisting acceptance of proletarian status), pitching their weight with our (and their own) class enemies; with gen ai/ai art as the driving wedge at this present moment but any new tech that reshapes the material landscape would be treated similarly -- my comment isn't about ai in particular, rather it's more about the art community in question.
Or, maybe I wasn't clear enough? Anti-ai art frenzy in the artist community is being funnelled towards support for harsher ip and trademark laws, by companies who would actually still be using gen ai but want to hoard and control (and expand) "their" datasets. Yes more people on the side of the working class is good but class traitors exist and if these people, after explaining that technology itself isn't their enemy but capitalists are, still want to be willing pawns then, well, for on,e I have better uses for my time and energy, and yeah I'd agree with m532 they're "dumbasses"
case in point: this is a project borne of the anti-ai craze: unvale.io ; here's a tumblr post they circulated (since there's a sizeable art/artist community on tumblr who are anti-ai) but digging into the replies, people are fully disambiguating the draconian, PG, family friendly TOS and pointing out that posting to their platform makes an oddly convenient place to harvest virgin (un-touched by gen ai tools) and corporate-friendly data. Not everyone looks through the notes however and plenty of people are still reblogging just the first post and "spreading word about an awesome new no-ai platform!!". Also, lol @ #supportourtroops shit :: no oct 7 or 9/11
*outside of this direct discussion there's also extreme ableism among the artist anti-ai crowds as well.
I remade. I'm back hello hello 同志们
I think the anti- "anti ai artist" sentiment at least online is (or rather should?) be more directed towards the semi-hobbyist to small-business-petit-bourgeois types that pitch their weight with our class enemies, eg will side with stricter intellectual property laws to the point of agreeing that "art style" should be included in trademark/ip law. They also happen to be the loudest crowd when it comes to anti-ai art noise, to the point of also attacking and brigading professional artists who use ai tools. In my observation, the "small business owner" type artists are the most resistant to being proletarianized and act accordingly; in any case, many wage laborer artists also have self-biz hustles like online stores for periodic sketchbook/artbooks/prints (I point this out in a neutral manner not to detract from their primary[assuming] wage income but to color the discussion of petit bourgeois aspirations among the "[digital] artist" community).
I have seen efforts to "convert"/"deprogram" parts of the artist community away from supporting harsher ip laws and explain why Disney or record companies etc benefit the most and supporting harsher ip/etc does not benefit them, and in fact works to empower exploitative schemes of capitalists, but these efforts have a harder time gaining foothold amongst the typical anti-ai/ai art black-and-white views entrenched in the community, especially as call-out and cancellation brigades roll out regularly in those circles.
edit: I dunno if yall were around from deviantart to [idk what platforms certain art communities use anymore][idk artstation?] era but the absolute EASE that online "artists" throw the word "steal/theft" to apply to whatever they didn't like (petit capitalist mindset where "inspiration" becomes "mimickery" becomes "copying" becomes "stealing" eg "actually deprived me of money") has been around for decades at this point. I think there are still circles who treat tracing(for practice) and even referencing as untouchable/sacrilege.
I'm not fully versed on TCM but as chinese diaspora/being casually exposed to parts of it, I know it's some serious stuff (as in, definitely has effects. that I have personally experienced..) and it's not "Just" "traditional" (connotation: some ancient rites that have never changed or evolved in use/practice). Also my layman understanding is that TCM and general culture regarding health/healthcare is that TCM is more preventative in nature, while attitudes about western ("modern") medicine is that it's for ailments/conditions that require immediate attention or reactive in nature... Additionally it's important to note that TCM and western medicine aren't in conflict, or at least it's discouraged for people to believe that TCM is superior or should be the sole mode of healthcare to follow, if that makes sense (I have to note this because in the west I believe it's very common for pseudoscientific/cultish "alternative medicine" to purport that all of modern medicine is bogus or unreliable while their alternative practice is superior).
Also I don't have links on hand but iirc there have been modern scientific medical research into aspects of TCM, such as acupuncture being better than placebo for specific conditions... oh, and my personal observation that dermarolling and microneedling have an odd resemblance to guasha (tho I also see influencers/beauty bloggers telling people to use both/all. two comments: beauty industry has been ramping into skincare/dermatology territory for a while now... also the facial version of guasha popularized by beauty industry/influencers both eastern and western is Different from TCM guasha, which leaves marks that should fade relatively quickly).
Lastly I'll die on this hill: TCM is [mostly]* real medicine while chiropractice is full-on quackery. *moxibustion spooks me and I have the least confidence about that. also cupping
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writing this post made me actually look up cupping, even if only briefly, which I thought was a TCM-only thing, but I learned that cupping and different variants are used in health practices associated with other non-sinosphere cultures, specifically wet cupping which I had never heard of until today. also learned that cupping wasn't prevalent in TCM until 1950s ??
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//not really TCM related but recently I saw a post floating on rednote that was like "[foreign visitor posting]: I noticed yall don't really use pain medications even ibuprofen, what's up with that" and many cn responses being something to the tune of "don't need to mask the pain in order to keep going, we try to find and treat the cause not the symptom eg pain. only use pain medications when it's very hard/impossible to cure the cause such as chronic conditions"