• ch00f@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Specifically this context. Like “falling behind in school,” I get. There are grades. Some people do better while some fall behind. It’s a scaler value with a good end and a bad end.

    But the AI bros are co-opting the phrase and presupposing that ALL OF TECHNOLOGY is on a linear scale where the good end is more AI shit and the bad end is less AI shit. They’re using a scaler when they should be using a vector.

    I’ve mentioned it before on here, but my cousin is taking an AI class in college. He tried to convince my business-owner uncle to let him create an agent for his company’s website so he won’t “fall behind.”

    My uncle owns a gas station.

    • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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      5 days ago

      Haha, alright — I totally understand what you mean. Yet another phrase co-opted by those that would rather spend their time seeming intelligent rather than being intelligent.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Send that cousin to trade school so he can telll your uncle to install EV chargers so he won’t fall behind.

    • jj4211@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      While it’s felt so keenly now, it has always been a part of tech. Some amazing stuff comes out, and thus everything most be amazing and you can’t afford to miss out.

      In practice, if the tech is truly that great, then you can catch up real quick after waiting to understand if it is great. But everyone FOMOs constantly.

      • ch00f@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        I think it’s different this time around. Tech pundits might write “If Apple doesn’t have a VR/AR product in the next six months, they’re falling behind,” but this is the first time in my memory that it’s been tech companies staring down consumers and small businesses and saying “If you don’t adapt to this technology, you will lose your job.”

    • Zink@programming.dev
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      5 days ago

      I think that definition of “falling behind” is exactly the FOMO that the tech giants want to sell to all the other companies.

      I think the FOMO of the tech CEOs is the same as it ever was. Money. In this case it’s “What if the magic thing that makes AI dominate the economy happens and I am not leading the pack at just that moment? I might not become one of the first trillionaires! 😭”