I grew up in Toronto and the family of my university girlfriend owned a small cottage in the northeastern part of the province that didn't have road access. You had to take a boat across a lake to get to it. It had a tiny camp kitchen, a table for everyone to eat at, and a bunch of single and bunk beds and that was it. No power or running water. The whole point was spending a weekend living simply, not just living your regular life in a different location.
I miss it dearly and there is nothing like it any more.
Anyone downplaying the impact of AI is looking at things from a practical perspective rather than getting inside the heads of decision makers.
It doesn't matter whether AI is ready to do peoples' jobs. All that matters is whether leaders who make budgets *think* it is. If they all get around a table and decide "We can cut 500 heads this year, AI will cover the productivity loss" or "We can keep the workforce flat, AI will help our workers be more productive" then that will be the reality.
This is quite condescending towards "decision makers".
Bad decisions lead to bad outcomes. Outside of SV, businesses haven't burned to the ground precisely because those decision makers have limited the impact of AI to stuff nobody was doing anyway like writing notes and filling in gaps for documentation.
I strongly disagree with this assessment. (I am GenX so take this with a grain of salt).
GenX grew up during an era when hyper-capitalism began to take off. Manufacturing was offshored and layoffs became commonplace. Government institutions were privatized and subcontracting gave companies ways to abdicate responsibility. The corporate world didn't care about building a company and brand for the long haul, it was shareholder value and quarterly earnings. We watched our parents work their assess off for companies and then get tossed out in the name of a few more cents per share. So no one was motivated to follow the traditional Western dream when there was no assurance of any sustainable life at the end of that grind.
GenX was far more civic minded than you give them credit for. The term "political correctness" entered the lexicon because of the work GenX college students were doing to try to combat racism, sexism, and homophobia. We marched against apartheid, raised money for Amnesty International and Greenpeace, and AIDS awareness. We were the first to carry around reusable mugs for coffee and drinks and got recycling mainstreamed.
Generational warfare, like class warfare, is designed to keep us at each others' throats instead of realizing that, no matter what generation, a wealthy few hold the true power.
My high school had two comp labs with a combination of IIe's and IIc's.
The first year the building was opened one of the labs was put in a carpeted room and it took a while for people to figure out why their programs kept disappearing from their 5 1/4 inch floppy disks.
In computer science class we were given a certain number of days to write and test our programs. If we finished early we could use the rest of the lab time to game. I used to plan out my projects and write them out longhand at home and type in and test my code the first day of lab to maximize my gaming time.
Lots of computer joy early in my life was thanks to the IIe and IIc.
The same behavior displayed by union workers occurs at a level where people can hide behind a title (Vice President, department head, whatever). Yet people rarely look as critically at senior management as they do at union workers.
I also find it that people who are critical of union workers never seem to be critical of police or fire fighters, both of whom are unionized.
My dad was a union worker for 19 years and I don't think ever displayed any of the negative characteristics assigned to unionized workers.
ACAB largely exists due to the police union, and I always hear people astutely bring this up. Firefighters unions I know less about, but I've also only ever heard about volunteer firefighters and scarcely enough about them either..
I miss it dearly and there is nothing like it any more.
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