A: That depends. If by "luddite" you mean "industry professional
concerned about the direction of the industry", then yeah. If you
mean the strawman definition of luddite - ie, "do you hate tech
for the sake of hating tech" - we encourage you to re-evaluate
your reasons for asking.
= * = * =
Q: Do you hate capitalism?
A: We don't like growthism very much, at any rate. Mostly we like
people and want them to have a nice future that doesn't involve
them being exploited.
= * = * =
Q: What about models trained on public-domain datasets? Or openly
distributed models?
A: Our concerns with generative models are multi-dimensional -
social, economic, cultural, technical, environmental. Right now,
we don't see conditions that would make generative models
desirable. In general, we're in favor of smaller, more considered
computing.
= * = * =
Q: Are you a movement? Or an organization? Or what?
A: Not really any of the above. There's no Permacomputer HQ over
here. We're just some people who talked about permacomputing
stuff and got unsettled by the rush toward implementing AI
systems.
= * = * =
Q: What about new technology providing solutions to your concerns?
A: We take a very skeptical view of solutionism around here. The
historical record of technological solutions reducing consumption
and summoning utopian futures is uninspiring.
