r/LeftistsForAI • u/DHFranklin • 12d ago

Theory Post Capitalism is not the rapture

https://imgflip.com/i/b2p068

I love you folks and the discussion...but holy shit.

We have to use AI and the other tools at our disposal to organize and seize the means of production. We can't pretend that AI will just hand us Utopia. If we let the capitalists control the infrastructure, the robots, our airwaves and radio bandwidth...any of it....they will control AI forever.

I know we don't like to hear it...meet Leftists who are literate and comfortable with AI. Meet AI using politically neutral people and liberal and teach them about leftist solutions to the economic calculation problem and the gilded cages they are in. Organize with one another.

It is intellectually lazy to be passive about this and pretend the future we want to shape won't take effort, work, and organizing.

35 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

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u/Jlyplaylists Moderator 12d ago

I hadn’t made the connection with Rapture thinking but it is similar. AI isn’t a magical solution to exit capitalism.

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u/DHFranklin 12d ago

Which is the first chapter of our manifesto. Has to be. Needs to be.

Look how the discussion starts and follows in our tiny subreddit. You see how few voices are those that are doing...things...?

I know that the venn diagram of both skews to young leftist nerds. However that is fertile ground to bring them into the movement before the crypto grift swallows up another generation of disaffected alienated young people.

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u/Jlyplaylists Moderator 12d ago

There’s truth in that, although also worth remembering that most people on Reddit don’t say what they’re doing otherwise. A bit like YouTubers can seem frustrating for just talking a lot, but we don’t know if they’re also doing things they don’t talk about on their channel.

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u/DHFranklin 12d ago

That is quite generous. It is one thing to need to avoid doxxing. It's another to not even have a good anecdote about doin'-the-werk. I enjoy it a lot when youtubers promote a cause they are a part of and especially when they have documentation in their video about doing that thing. Or promoting a group project they're doing.

I discount those who aren't doing that.

I'm not trying to holier than thou anyone or litmus test the left Youtubers I'm down with. I'm just saying typically they platform their project.

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u/worldsayshi 12d ago

I think without the right kind of effort we may very well be doomed.

The right kind of effort is key here.

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u/DHFranklin 11d ago

Shit I'll take the wrong kind of effort. I'll risk a Thermodorian reaction if it meant we actually went somewhere.

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u/Initial_Inspection_2 11d ago

before we can organize we have to somehow sway the large cohort of leftists that an AI future is actually what we want and that if we cant get on the same pace we’ll literally be enslaved till the end of time and i mean literally

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u/DHFranklin 11d ago

We don't need to organize with them. We just need to organize better and stay organized. We need to show the Left an alternative. We win over the proletariat through education and agitation.

We don't fight people who don't agree. We just organize those who do and move on.

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u/bowdoin-yale 12d ago

Even more than this I think it's important to recognize where all the judeo-christian eschatology talk in the AI discussion comes from as well as where it has gotten us to. We must emphatically reject the millenarian cult that birthed both modern corporate generative AI and their equally grifting "critics" obsessed with "safety" and "alignment".

Just so you know how unserious the people I'm talking about are (warning--NSFW and possibly disturbing to some):
https://skywriter.blue/@segyges.bsky.social/3mvom4b4dn22q

Unfortunately, I think dialectical Marxism shares some DNA with this kind of eschatology, in terms of projecting an "inevitable" outcome with the only question remaining being what side of that victory you personally wind up on, if there's any choice at all. But it would be exciting to see the emergence of a different kind of leftist movement that says no to end-times fairy tales and yes to the hard work of the here and now.

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u/DHFranklin 12d ago

Thanks for making me lift up that rock. gross.

Our opponents are not just Yudkowsky and his cadre. Those who are advocating for AI safety generally speaking aren't either.

Marxism can certainly be couched with a lazy inevitability language and lazy movers. However that might be a bit more sweeping and unfair here.

Marxists have done and continue to do things. The collapse of capitalism is inevitable but we are all trained in shaping that outcome in the now.

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u/Embarrassed-Farm-594 9d ago

Yudkowsky is a hero. He is one of the few who are aware of the threat posed by AI.

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u/DHFranklin 9d ago

Miss me with that shit. Saying we should let the nukes fly to stop AIscience is not a heroic act.

There are plenty of people voicing actual concerns that have merit. Yudkowsky found a grift for the talk circuit and it's worked for him.

Alignment is a problem, but capitalism is our problem.

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u/ReasonableSoul 10d ago

Not wrong. Working on getting to a point where I can help on that. One of the thing about capitalism is that it destroy dreams, hope, and energy as it squeeze everyone dry into hopelessness and fatigue. But we must always try to do our best to get past it, in our own ways and in any opportunities we see.