I wouldn’t say all “AI” was a grift. Machine learning is a useful tool, like a hammer, it’s just not a magic genie for everything. Always has been, always will be.
Same with blockchain, albeit in a much narrower niche. I do think it’s a terrible system for a widely-used currency, though.
Same with quantum computing. It’s a niche.
The pattern is that Tech Bros inflate something narrowly interesting into a “it’s going to ascend the human race if you give us enough money” FOMO thing.
…And, currently, the next target seems to be space travel.
Again, I emphasize. Very useful in certain niches, like science. Stupendously impractical outside of them.
There’s quite a lot happening in 3d printing that is kind of life changing, and not getting any press coverage because no single obscenely wealthy person can use it to hype a pump and dump.
Weird specific stuff exists now, that never did before - like custom cases for weird sizes of batteries, and a pen-holder that looks exactly like the latest manga character to make a splash.
Do elaborate more on the 3D printing stuff
Do elaborate more on the 3D printing stuff
There’s all kinds of mechanical things that can be directly 3d printed, now - screws, and hinges and springs!
Someone invented a 3-way zipper that allows a structure to be rigid when zipped or flexible when unzipped. Supposedly we’re going to get a bunch of cool new more convenient tents and field furniture with it, soon.
Yeah 3D printing has either allowed me to print out stuff that helps around the house that I don’t necessarily want to spend money on (a basic flowerpot for example), or things that are obscenely overpriced that I can print at the fraction of the cost (a case for clarinet reeds, with some cases going for nearly 100$ for a basic plastic case with a space for a silica gel packet).
At first I picked up my printer thinking it would be useful for robotics and prototyping some cases for electronics projects. Turns out its playing a big role in me just not going out to buy stuff anymore.
I got some parts for a very cheap keyboard that Logitech doesn’t sell (for obvious reasons, it’s Logitech lol). Just hit up a 3d webshop and they were delivered in less than a week.
Not to mention the high-end stuff that is being used for like, medical innovations.
Why do folks think quantum computing is a grift? I haven’t heard that yet.
The technology itself isn’t, but companies will probably abuse the word ‘quantum’ until it loses all meaning, like they have with AI.
Is your cloud Quantum Safe™?
Is your cloud Quantum Safe™?
lol. That could end up being the one non-grift example, though.
There’s going to be lots of grift claiming that something is somehow “better because quantum”, as if how the thing was processed makes the outcomes artisanal. lol.
But defending against assholes who have access to a quantum computer is actually proving to be not too terribly expensive, so far. (Signal and Proton claim to be ready now, for example.)
But a big important open question is which kinda of assholes will have access to quantum computers, and what quality, and how soon.
I expect a slow stupid adotpion race between ignorance and laziness.
It’s not unreasonably expensive to secure services against quantum computer attacks (so far), but until people understand it enough to want it, most vendors will probably ignore it.
So we will probably get something like HTTPS adoption, again - unreasonably slow due to lack of understanding or care about the risks, probably with a few infamous breach scenarios along the way to mark progress against.
He’s from the future where we call it a grift
Yes. There’s certainly plenty of possible future timelines where most quantum computers mainly sit in museums as curiousities.
There’s lots of cool possibilities, but there’s no guarantee that they’ll be practical for wide scale use.
Stuff made open source/without a profit motive.
If there’s a profit motive, it’s not looking to solve a problem or make things better. It’s looking to make profit.
I think Fire and Stick have a long future ahead of them still. Also a big fan of Wheel and Stardew Valley.
I think Fire and Stick have a long future ahead of them still. Also a big fan of Wheel and Stardew Valley.
Uh…one of these is not like the others.
Are we sure
Wheelhas the long term practical staying power of the others in this list?It’s not great in bogs and up hills I’ll admit
The four great innovations
None of them really, they were all novel technology ideas snd advancements that every company and their mom adopted because it became the next silicon valley investment money printer.
Blockchain started out as a decentralized network concept that’s still useful today.
AI started out as a tensor statistical concept that’s still useful today.
People say QC is a grift because every silicon valley giant has invested heavily into it because they want to be the first if it becomes viable. It’s just what they do. They throw money into everything and if they get something successful, they pump it as much as they can before it dumps.
Even FOSS software isn’t invulnerable. Half of AWS’s SaaS platforms are just automated FOSS software running on their cloud infrastructure without so much as a hint of donation or development into the project itself. They just want money, they don’t care how they get it.
Quantum non-fungible tokens won’t be a grift. Trust me.
(Hopefully this obvious sarcasm is obvious.)
AI is not a grift but it is very much a dangerous rudderless ship right now.
Quantum computing is also not a grift.
Hell I feel dirty saying this but you could argue blockchain is not a grift either.
The problem in all these things is the people not the technology.
It’s worth remembering the hype cycle when it comes to these things.
The honest question is where are we with AI in its current state?
That’s the thing. When you were browsing bitcoin subreddits during the “golden days” it was pretty bizzare to see people talking about how cool it is and thia is the future and all, and to make it viable, you have to use it, like you know… A currency. But then they also made fun of the guy who bought a pizza with his bitcoin. Haha what a loser, he bought. A pizza for 40k no now 100k dollars. We are all holding, right, no one is selling, right guys?? We’re all in the same boat.
Motherfucker, it’s so obvious that EVERYONE was treating it like a get rich quick scheme.
Really without major social or political change all commercial technology will serve incumbent power.
I’m hoping repairable tech is going to become more and more common. So far neither Framework nor Fairphone seem like grifters while some that came before didn’t end up fulfilling their promises.
The technologies themselves aren’t grifts, but grifters are notoriously “first-adopters” of new technologies.
Most of Lemmy are idiots and poor people that hate everything. Don’t listen to most the idiots here.
These technologies are not grifts.
The way they are often employed is absolutely a grift.
Blockchain is a very cool concept. Getting people to pay $1,000 for a picture of a cat and imply that it has value because it’s on a blockchain is grift.
Ai is a cool technology. It has become a grift because the companies behind it are sucking up massive investor dollars, destroying the worldwide computing parts market, and persuading managers to axe jobs promising the AI can take their place.
If quantum computing actually starts to work some of it will be used for grift because many current encryption schemes could potentially be cracked using quantum computers.
The picture wasn’t even on the blockchain. It was a url which links to a picture of a cat sitting on someone else’s server
Was it even that or just a hash of the url (or whatever text/data was being “confirmed”)?
It was some sort of hash system. The blockchain didn’t want to store large amounts of data on the chain itself so it would store some sort of hash of the image file and as I recall a pointer to a server where that file was located.
The whole thing was totally fucking stupid but people poured tons of money into it
Capitalism is what makes them grifts. Llms could be neat. Theft at scale, environmental impact, and using it to kill little kids (anyone but jfc the kids killed wtf) is the problem. Its always the horrid companies and governments who look at any tech like “can i hurt people with this? I totally can…”
