FWIW I just got an email from GitHub announcing that Copilot is now free for my account (a very basic one).
gerikson
I honestly had no idea of the original Russian meaning of the gloss. To me "refusenik" implies some sort of hard-left hippie.
Edit finally went and read the linked article.
Schneier and Sanders:
We agree with Morozov that the “refuseniks,” as he calls them, are wrong to see AI as “irreparably tainted” by its origins.
Morozov:
Meanwhile, a small but growing group of scholars and activists are taking aim at the deeper, systemic issues woven into AI’s foundations, particularly its origins in Cold War–era computing. For these refuseniks, AI is more than just a flawed technology; it’s a colonialist, chauvinist, racist, and even eugenicist project, irreparably tainted at its core.
But the original term was not for people refusing to take an action - it was the state refusing to allow their actions! It's done a 180, but considering no-one now remembers the plight of Soviet Jews attempting to emigrate to Israel it's not that strange.
Doctor Parkinson declared, "I'm not surprised to see you here
You've got smokers cough from smoking, brewer's droop from drinking beer
I don't know how you came to get the Bette Davis knees
But worst of all young man, you've got industrial disease"
Diamond Age is an interesting idea, the original Primer was for the elite and used distributed encryption to farm out the qualified work to skilled artisans. In the end though, a cut-down primer (using some sort of AI? it's been a long time since I read it) is used to educate and train the girl army used by one of the faction in the final battle.
It's not really explained but I suspect the OG Primer had a robust payment model that ensured that the service oculd be kept solvent.
Assuming the company will last 5 years is awfully optimistic.
sounds horrorshow to me
Pretty sure this person has been watching a lot of very inappropriate anime
RAF's aims were explicitely accelerationist - their terror would provoke a ferocious repressional response that would open the eyes of the masses to the repressive government and trigger a revolution.
being performatively worried about Japanese birth rates is a HN trope, for whatever that's worth
"Our righteous warriors are only supposed to kill brown people and women, not captains of industry!!"
oh hey a tankie