Michael reads up on the secret sauce in Amazon’s A.I. formula: Indian Labor! Questions about work and labor are asked throughout, and in the back half we look at an essay on the practice of criticism that has us wondering about our relationship with art.
Articles read:
https://gizmodo.com/amazon-reportedly-ditches-just-walk-out-grocery-stores-1851381116
https://www.screenslate.com/articles/feedback-loop-critical-interventions
00:00 Pre-Roll
04:22 Start
10:05 Inside The Crack
21:09 Comments
28:05 Gizmodo Amazon Article
29:21 Addressing More Destiny Stuff
33:16 Actually Getting To The Article
37:36 Technical Difficulties
38:14 We’re Back!
52:08 Matthew Yglesias on Remote Work
01:01:34 Christian Visibility Day
01:11:25 Feedback Loop Article on Criticism
01:42:18 Verge Interview We Cut Short
01:48:25 Outro Media Recs
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#news #philosophy #tech #ai #amazon
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I had a Carman Electra Poster on the back of my door! lol
Wait… So that recent SNL sketch was right?! The new Whole Foods checkout system is prone to human bias?!
Canadian re-education camp? WTF is that
I legitmately forgot I even subscribed to this channel. I can only imagined the woke freaks that probably run this channel now…
The quality of this channel is on the rise. Keep having those challenging conversations.
The reason I didn’t finish the free speech video is because I found the background music irritating. Gonna go finish it now.
People crave to be enslaved… to muscle mommies.💯
44:36 this false walkout concept where it’s supposed to be AI but it’s actually people in India, it really gives me Theranos vibes
"People crave to be enslaved"… wasn't that the premise to Erich Fromm's Escape from Freedom? And isn't it also a theme of Brave New World?
The anarchist in me wants to argue the reason people are afraid of liberation is that they crave to be enslaved by the State & by capitalism. It seems at least debatable.
THANK YOU for recommending Born in Flames! I haven't seen it in many years, I definitely need to watch it again. Probably will watch it tonight. I just remember the feminists chasing rapists on bicycles, lol.
Carman electra rocks
The Twitter poster assumes that the only way to make friends and be happy is to go to work.
I made all my friends by going to community events at the library and if I was retired I would hang out with my friends more, read more books, and have more time in general to be engaged with the world around me.
I do find fulfillment in work, but if I didn't have bills to pay I wouldn't work.
Also remote work rocks, you just have to stop working when the workday is done.
Wisecrack will get more views than my last 50 videos combined and be like "oh this video ain't doing so hot."
I know it's different because they do this for a living and I'm just a broke college student who makes very bad videos. But it really puts these things into perspective. It's like sticker shock but with view counts or something, idk 😅😅😅
My guess for why Freedom is Bad video doing poorly is that it's such a radical statement on it's face and completely contrary to a lot of American (which I assume is the majority of your viewership) thinking. To examine such a thought requires a lead of faith that you are going to present a compelling argument, and that's just too much of an ask in the current media landscape.
That said, I loved it and think it's worthy programming. Maybe you need to start a 'one for you, one for me' system of shows? Something that's more or less safe, going to do numbers and one that's a little more esoteric or willing to challenge people more?
Again, just some thoughts, I wish you all the best, can't give 5 USD every month, but I did this month because what you do is important and I want to help at least a bit. Good luck!
Stalin-esque psychopath? Okay, i was about to change the channel until you said that.
It was actually the co-mingling of truth and non-truth that bugged me the most about your last stream… as an autist, this is like pouring my dessert on my dinner before ive eaten and telling me its a fun party trick.
actually amazons ai is really just an army of interns
Ah, yes. The corporation spawned by this unavoidable system of unbridled capitalism and owned by one of the frequently-top-3 richest man in the world engaging in one of their favourite activities ever: exploitation of human beings. A classic!
Ah, missed it. Sorry y'all. But nonetheless, obligatory Michael thirst comment for the algo:
something something damn he's hot something something
😍😂
Is Trump trying to find his heart in that pic?
"people craved to be enslaved by purpose"
If only there were more videos on youtube like this one
Before I moved, I lived near an Amazon Fresh and found just walk out shopping convenient right after work, when all of the nearby grocery stores had long lines to wait in because they understaffed the checkouts. Had I known it wasn’t AI but people in India, I wouldn’t have used it.
Omg really! Now i know there is someone i can he mad at for lousy map routing in the flex app
Such an honor, Jack black smiled at your child, she is now the dragon warrior
You asked why the free speech video didn't 'hit' and I just thought about why I hadn't watched it.
I saw it. Then I saw it again with the new thumbnail. Then I didn't see it again with the new new thumbnail. I don't think that man any difference. I saw it and thought "I want to watch that" then didn't click on it. Probably for no reason. I try to watch thought provoking content, or art content, or the occasional movie review of a flick I've already seen because I don't want spoilers but I enjoy the catharsis of seeing someone talk about it after the fact – but there is a genuine bit of randomness to which I pick, when and when. I might binge Space Time videos, or videos on one aspect of programming one week, then watch several philosophy videos the next week… or next month. I do a lot of things other than watching videos and my interest at any given moment tends to revolve around the things actually happening in my day to day rather than what thumbnail has been swapped out.
I recently watched a video from an art creator that I enjoy and he mentioned that his viewership had dropped and that he wondered for a bit if people 'just didn't care'… Truth is, I care about a lot of things and there are a lot of things competing for my time and attention at any given moment. I don't have time for it all – and variety is the spice of life or so I once heard someone say in a video…
I remember when Michael started to take over for Jared and really became the face of the channel. I was like, "Who's this jabroni?" Well, he's gone from "Who's this Jabroni" to the best political/philosophical commentator on YouTube. I've learned a ton from him. Please keep up the great work.
I don't want self checkout, but I also want the cashier not to speak to me unless necessary. I'm not out here to socialize, I'm here because I have to be. Presumably, you, the one whose job this is, probably are also here because you have to be.
There is a strain of free speech absolutism that is unique to America. It leads people to think that they SHOULD be allowed to yell "FIRE" in a crowded theater.
You guys should do an episode about the early internet just for nostalgia’s sake
1:06:46 this could be every afternoon if you volunteer for the #PositivityForce, but yes, it should be mandated and codified into a constitutional amendment
As far as a thought on the free speech video, maybe a follow up could be on libel and/or freedom of the press. The US is weird in that technically the press can publish anything, they can only be punished after the fact, whereas other countries that are deemed better at freedom of the press preemptively prevent the press from releasing things that aren’t approved, leading to less arrests. In a similar vein, (or vain?) libel laws in the US require a court hearing and what would be libel/slander in countries like the UK are often permitted in the US so long as you use words like “allegedly” or “in my opinion.” Ex: We can see this with how quickly British critics of JK Rowling seem to issue public apologies that her American and other foreign critics never seem to put out. Allegedly, and it’s my opinion, she is using her team of lawyers to bend UK libel laws to force her critics to be nice to her so she can go on her multi-day long screeds about trans people unimpeded.
"This is the stupidest person I've ever seen… and probably" drops UNO reverse card "How dare you?" LOL 😅 If you are Unfamiliar with Anna Akana You would likely enjoy her channel. But she has a video that is "BE NICE TO MY FRIEND!" (And while I'm not claiming to know you well enough to declare friendship, but I do have love and respect for you and this applies [I said, if in the end of things we find ourselves in the same area, I would fight back to back with you, or do my best to be a fighter for you, something like that, and I meant it])
I tend to avoid purchasing anything from Amazon as much as possible, and, I pretty much always use a human cashier line in anything, rather than self check out, despite my anxiety, because principles. (Additionally I feel like i stole something if i go into a place and don't buy something, even thought I'm not) but this whole "just walk out" thing… haha naaaaaah. I would actively go and be a hassle. Like pick up and put down and pick up and put down, like it's a scavenger hunt, random products, just to make more work, and f*ck with the system, and see "just walk out" as a "challenge accepted" thing. Come in with like makeup and clothing that confuses facial and body recognition, some sort of collapsing Faraday cage to put in the bag, barcode stickers from other stores, or even better, from there, for super super cheap stuff, put those on the products, and wear a hat that says "I'm sorry in Hindi" (maybe "i suggest learning escrima" [it's a martial art that oftwn involves using two sticks for self defense] on the back of the shirt) because F*CK Buboes! (This is my new name for him, feel free to steal that and spread it llike the bubonic plague in which it is in reference to)
I support, as something of "a man of culture" myself, a "deviants, degenerates, dissidents, and disregarded disabilities day"! Feel free too add some additional D's. 😊🎉
Series to watch: Cracked-People Watching. It's animated thoughtful shorts, similiar to your content. The channel died, and kinda sorta came back, but the makes of it was an outside studio that i think went under so thwy probably couldnt sue, but if you shot them an email i bet they would be fans of your channel and probably be happy to have it get more views, and its free on YouTube now anyways.
That Amazon story… Karl Marx would roll in his grave with how all this tech and machinery making us work more for less
How has no one mentioned Soylent Green
The content is always great! But my experience with that episode of Elon's interview is that it is hard to hear the video being played. I can hear Michael loud and clear though.
I thought the free speech video was good. It wasn’t hard to understand
Commenting for engagement! You guys do great work!
I came here straight from the free speech video. I didn’t watch the free speech video for several days because it seemed a bit depressing. After watching it, I thought it was fairly spot on. It differentiated different concepts of “free speech” and discussed the incompatibility of social media (i.e., the algorithm) with most definitions of free speech. Based on the ideas in the vid, in a completely ideal scenario speech is completely free, but hate speech comes with significant social disincentives; whereas, with social media, the situation is almost completely the opposite.
So if i walk in to an Amazon store, display a sign that says to contact me directly and I'll pay them the cost of my goods directly instead of Amazon would that count as a protest?
In that Christian Visibility Day tweet with Trump, the soldiers are arranged in a Q shape… I thought we were done with Q and that bullshit, but apparently not.
Man nothing like pot n wisecrack to close of a day.
1:25:39 Any Lip readers in the chat?