vord's recent activity
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Comment on AI will likely affect administrative and operational jobs in heathcare in ~health
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Comment on AI will likely affect administrative and operational jobs in heathcare in ~health
vord Link ParentWhat you're describing though is more like saying "Boy, it really sucks having to chop off all these hands with axes. Let's use a woodchipper instead, it'll be much more efficient!" Nobody...What you're describing though is more like saying "Boy, it really sucks having to chop off all these hands with axes. Let's use a woodchipper instead, it'll be much more efficient!" Nobody considers that maybe we should stop chopping off hands. Automating with AI will not make work for doctors and nurses easier. The experience will get worse for patients. And the only people really benefiting are the managers whom are abstracted from the consequences of both, and get to have heavy bonuses for cutting headcount.
Another anecdote, but everything I've seen regarding bad bureaucracy pretty much everywhere is a misalignment of incentives, and they tend to be worse when profit incentives are paramount. It's almost like healthcare in particular should not be permitted to be for-profit, because providing good service is orthogonal to increasing profits.
Cory Doctorow has highlighted an important facet that is talked about in automation: The Centaur vs the Reverse Centaur. He used the example of AI X-Ray technicians. In the Centaur model, the same number of X-Ray technicians remain, and the AI is used to supplement their expertise and provide better service. In the Reverse Centaur model, a single X-Ray tech now just audits the machines expertise, and serves primarily as a blame sink for when the AI gets it wrong (incidentally the AI model will stop improving if there isn't a solid improving feedback loop).
Being a Reverse Centaur sucks. Because you get fired if you fuck up because you're overworked and don't notice the tiniest mistake the AI makes. And you have no job autonomy. Amazon warehouse workers are much like this.
It is an important distinction, and it is one that is at the heart of why the Luddites were right: Machines should be used as tools for artisans. They should not be a way of replacing artisans with wage slaves.
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Comment on Most parked domains now serving malicious content in ~tech
vord LinkNow...? I never remember them having anything else.Now...? I never remember them having anything else.
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Comment on AI will likely affect administrative and operational jobs in heathcare in ~health
vord (edited )Link ParentA good bureaucracy has lots of people to insure things actually get done. A bad bureaucracy has 1 person taking the blame for an AI fucking up 10,000 faster than a human. Firing the people in the...A good bureaucracy has lots of people to insure things actually get done. A bad bureaucracy has 1 person taking the blame for an AI fucking up 10,000 faster than a human. Firing the people in the loop just results in a worse bureaucracy.
Have you ever been able to resolve an edge-case problem quickly by clicking through 10 layers of phone prompts? No, you get the problem solved by talking to an actual human.
Everything service I use that has deployed AI agents to "help customers" uses it as an excuse to make the service even shittier. Because AI will handle the FAQ fine. But if your problem isn't on the FAQ you're SOL.
The proper way to improve efficiency is to murder the health insurance industry.
My doc has said he could double his patient count if he only took Medicare or cash.
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Comment on AI will likely affect administrative and operational jobs in heathcare in ~health
vord LinkAnd I'm sure that services will totally not get worse when you remove the last human in the loop from the money extraction machine that is the health insurance industry.And I'm sure that services will totally not get worse when you remove the last human in the loop from the money extraction machine that is the health insurance industry.
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Comment on Oscars shock: YouTube wins TV rights to host Academy Awards from 2029 in ~movies
vord Link ParentThe net gets wider if you don't count the 'limited release so we qualify' sceenings.The net gets wider if you don't count the 'limited release so we qualify' sceenings.
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Comment on Oscars shock: YouTube wins TV rights to host Academy Awards from 2029 in ~movies
vord Link ParentKPop Demon Hunters and Frankenstein would have a word with you.KPop Demon Hunters and Frankenstein would have a word with you.
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Comment on Proposed amendments to Denmark's laws on copyright and broadcasting would see VPNs limited for common uses under changes to combat access to illegal streaming services in ~tech
vord Link ParentSee case #1: The USA. Trump is not some weird edge case that popped up out nowhere.See case #1: The USA.
Trump is not some weird edge case that popped up out nowhere.
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Comment on Proposed amendments to Denmark's laws on copyright and broadcasting would see VPNs limited for common uses under changes to combat access to illegal streaming services in ~tech
vord Link ParentYou know what that means in actuality? It means that whatever government declares an illegal site gets to force every ISP, DNS provider, and web host to shutdown whatver they want without due...You know what that means in actuality?
It means that whatever government declares an illegal site gets to force every ISP, DNS provider, and web host to shutdown whatver they want without due process. And to ban providing any service which allows that circumvention.
Is the Great Firewall of China a good thing? Becuase that is, in essence, what you are arguing. That every country should be able to fully curate what it's population is permitted to see. In secret, with no oversight.
And that attempting to circumvent that, for any reason, should be criminalized.
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Comment on Proposed amendments to Denmark's laws on copyright and broadcasting would see VPNs limited for common uses under changes to combat access to illegal streaming services in ~tech
vord Link ParentThe best movie, music, and tv archives are all pirate sites with draconian rules about quality. The have better search engines and usually near-perfect metadata....often even for music releases...The best movie, music, and tv archives are all pirate sites with draconian rules about quality. The have better search engines and usually near-perfect metadata....often even for music releases that don't even exist in discogs or musicbrainz.
You will find arguements about whether tv episodes should be named based on air date or dvd ordering.
You'll see movies get trumped because somebody was able to encode the source at a marginally better quality.
You'll find musicians that have less than 1k followers. You'll find vinyl rips of recordings that would otherwise be lost to the sands of time. You want an immaculately digitized copy of the quadrophic release of Dark Side of the Moon? You'll find it. You want the UK release of a random vinyl album from 1988 that had a marginally differerent audio mastering on it's third pressing than it's CD release? You'll find it.
My father inlaw had been hunting for some random record from his teen years for decades, online and off. Found it in 30 seconds on a few choice sites.
You want a copy of Daria with the original music when it aired on TV? It's there.
Videogames that have been wiped from existence because their music licensing ran out? They're there.
Pirates are archiving and making available pretty much all content better than any of the legal rightsholders.
You want to experience what TV was like in 1998? Download a ripped VHS with the tag 'woc' (with original commercials).
There are old episodes of Doctor Who that we only have copies of because some bootlegger was distributing them illegally.
Fix the wanton destruction of our culture by the companies that own it, and then we can argue about the peanuts that they're trying to claw from the people who are doing the work that the companies should have been doing from the start.
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Comment on Proposed amendments to Denmark's laws on copyright and broadcasting would see VPNs limited for common uses under changes to combat access to illegal streaming services in ~tech
vord (edited )Link ParentI forget exactly where I picked up this truism, but it's a good one: The laws are completely different for the rich and famous. At a certain point, wealth means you are allowed to do illegal drugs...I forget exactly where I picked up this truism, but it's a good one:
The laws are completely different for the rich and famous. At a certain point, wealth means you are allowed to do illegal drugs and brag about it. Molest kids without repurcussion. So on and so forth. Your punishments no longer are relevant to the scale your crimes, unless you are caught by the plebs.
A corner pirate peddling illegal DVDs does a rounding error of a fraction of a penny damage to the local economy, while bankers that ahnillate the world economy periodically get bonuses.
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Comment on Proposed amendments to Denmark's laws on copyright and broadcasting would see VPNs limited for common uses under changes to combat access to illegal streaming services in ~tech
vord Link ParentMe standing over my 17 year old monitoring their every action is not trust. It is surveilance which prevents them from developing into a full human being. Trust is throwing your car keys to a...Me standing over my 17 year old monitoring their every action is not trust. It is surveilance which prevents them from developing into a full human being. Trust is throwing your car keys to a teenager and saying 'be back by 10.'
You punish them if they violate the trust. Not surviel them so that they don't even have a chance to build it.
I'm not OK with the whole planet being studied 24/7 so that some crimes can theoretically be prevented.
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Comment on Proposed amendments to Denmark's laws on copyright and broadcasting would see VPNs limited for common uses under changes to combat access to illegal streaming services in ~tech
vord Link ParentThe ideal amount of crime is not 0. It sounds insane, but being able to break laws is utterly critical to advancing society. Without the ability to commit crimes, you are unable to fight a system...The ideal amount of crime is not 0. It sounds insane, but being able to break laws is utterly critical to advancing society.
Without the ability to commit crimes, you are unable to fight a system that makes dissidence illegal.
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Comment on Proposed amendments to Denmark's laws on copyright and broadcasting would see VPNs limited for common uses under changes to combat access to illegal streaming services in ~tech
vord Link ParentAnybody claiming that piracy is funding terrorists and traffiking has fallen for a bald-faced lie. Those actors can make about 10000x more money more easily by smuggling some drugs or providing...Anybody claiming that piracy is funding terrorists and traffiking has fallen for a bald-faced lie. Those actors can make about 10000x more money more easily by smuggling some drugs or providing slaves.
The CIA probably provides more money to terrorists than all pirate activity combined.
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Comment on The Windows 11 crisis in ~tech
vord Link ParentThe big crowds I see are anti-ad and becoming more privacy aware as it gets worse. TBH you put an average user in front of a KDE desktop with Chrome on it and I'll bet 99.9% don't notice.The big crowds I see are anti-ad and becoming more privacy aware as it gets worse.
TBH you put an average user in front of a KDE desktop with Chrome on it and I'll bet 99.9% don't notice.
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Comment on The Windows 11 crisis in ~tech
vord Link ParentI mean, is that really worse than the screenshot of a pdf embedded into a powerpoint then emailed to the entire org by mistake?I mean, is that really worse than the screenshot of a pdf embedded into a powerpoint then emailed to the entire org by mistake?
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Comment on The Windows 11 crisis in ~tech
vord (edited )Link ParentIt's basically boiling down to 4 paths I see Whatever, IDC I'll try stripping the balls off it through regedit and other malarky Guess I'll go all-in on Mac Let's try Linux, I see it plays games...It's basically boiling down to 4 paths I see
- Whatever, IDC
- I'll try stripping the balls off it through regedit and other malarky
- Guess I'll go all-in on Mac
- Let's try Linux, I see it plays games now.
The gamers being more willing to try Linux or chip at it, the normies more likely to cope or Mac. The thing is, any uptake amoung the last two means putting cracks in the monopoly armor.
If Valve can crack open a smooth, unified, VR/Console/Handheld/PC experience, it'll really take a chunk out of the consumer market, especially if build-your-own becomes prohibitly expensive (yall see about Samsung exiting the SSD market?).
At a certain point, the largest non-tech sectors will consider if a deploying *nix browser kiosks will save millions, and we'll have come full circle to thin clients again.
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Comment on Reading my first Stephen King novel - What are your favorites? in ~books
vord (edited )Link ParentI consider Insomnia one of his best. In part because it's one of the few books out there that are almost completely unadaptable to film but works so well as a novel. And because even if it's not...I consider Insomnia one of his best. In part because it's one of the few books out there that are almost completely unadaptable to film but works so well as a novel. And because even if it's not his best writing, it's one that had me pondering it on ocassion for years after.
I would be curious for him to take another go at something like that now that he's 8 year's over Ralph's age.
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Comment on Reading my first Stephen King novel - What are your favorites? in ~books
vord Link ParentRIP Frank Muller. I wish he could have seen it through. I do think, to paraphrase King in his intro to the unabridged The Stand, that audiobooks and video adaptations somewhat limit the...RIP Frank Muller. I wish he could have seen it through.
I do think, to paraphrase King in his intro to the unabridged The Stand, that audiobooks and video adaptations somewhat limit the imagination of the reader. Anybody who watched Wizard of Oz before reading the books will attach Judy Garland to Dorothy. And it certainly has its ups and downs.
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Comment on Reading my first Stephen King novel - What are your favorites? in ~books
vord Link ParentSalem's Lot is what pigeonholed him as a horror writer in the public's eye, but even in his non-horror works his ability to describe things in such a visceral way can still make me squirm.Salem's Lot is what pigeonholed him as a horror writer in the public's eye, but even in his non-horror works his ability to describe things in such a visceral way can still make me squirm.
That has been, broadly speaking, the general truism with the rise of industrialization. The goal is rarely to provide a better good/service; It's to churn out more at the same or lower quality with lower costs but same prices.
Even from the beginning, the deployment of machines was used by the capitalists to replace skilled labor with unskilled labor wherever possible.
And the sales pitch for AI to the execs is exactly that: Fire half your staff, you give us half and you keep half.