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0 pointsAlecSchueler5d ago0 comments

> The hypocrisy is downright silly.

> The 99% collective benefits from mass production at the expense of the 1% of artisans

And in this case it's looking more like less than 1% benefiting at the expense of 85%?

> I don’t see any of the AI protestors here exclusively wearing ... commissioning ...

I would love to order more bespoke goods but mass production has driven most of the makers out of business and that ones that remain I can't afford. You're saying this as though I actually wanted this ugly IKEA closet.

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pembrook5d ago

> it's looking more like less than 1% benefiting at the expense of 85%?

Your model of the world is wrong. 85% (even 99%) of people do not create any art, software, music, etc.

The vast majority of people are consumers of any given craft, and the 1% of the most passionate in a given field are creators, as has always been the case. It’s the same with people who create websites vs consume them.

> mass production has driven most of the makers out of business and ones that remain I can't afford

Again, your model of the world is wrong.

There was never a time when getting everything made bespoke was cheap. You’re pretending everyone was a rich aristocrat nobleman in the past if you think this is the case.

Historically you just wouldn't have a closet or enough clothing to fill it at all.

AlecSchuelerOP4d ago

> 85% of people do not create any art, software, music, etc.

Etc.? I think you're overlooking a very broad range of occupations. From people getting into politics by doing newspaper summaries for party offices to people editing newspapers.

And if you're really pushing that it's 99% benefiting while 1% lose out then where do the kids whose schools get bombed or the women harassed with deepfakes fit in? Do they still benefit because they don't have to go to the trouble of writing a song about their pain?

It's the same companies and the same technologies doing all these things.

Let's not even get into the inauguration gifts in the US etc...

> You’re pretending everyone was a rich aristocrat nobleman in the past

I'm not pretending anything and my world model isn't "wrong." I don't mind having this discussion but I would ask you to mind your manners.

> There was never a time when getting everything made bespoke was cheap.

In my lifetime my family had many things made to order; from clothes to furniture. And I grew up in one of the poorest parts of the country, a working class area. But that meant that everyone worked and everyone had trades. My grandfather made me toys from scrap wood at the shipyard, my uncle was a joiner who made us better quality tables than I can get now, another was a plumber who ensured everything ran smoothly in our pipes. My aunts knitted and sewed everything we wanted. When a new fashion came out like skinny jeans they would tighten the ones we had; at Halloween I only had to say what I wanted to dress up as and the costume would appear.

Now if I go to the same area everyone is surviving on state benefits, the skills are all automated away and everyone is sitting in the same gray houses with the same gray furniture. And everyone looks miserable.

But at least no one has to do any expressionist painting to let their emotions out, they can just prompt it now and enjoy more and more consumption.

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