Capitalism is an extremely efficient machine designed to extract as much wealth from any resource or commodity possible. Usually by internalizing all profit while externalizing any costs or losses wherever and whenever possible.
when the song says "you load 16 tons, and what do you get? another day older and deeper in dept", it's neither hyperbole nor satirical. It's literal in the most horrifying way.
As someone who lives in what is left of the rust belt, this story rings familiar. Know grandparents that were layed off when big corporations decided labor was cheaper elsewhere makes me mad. Going back to the town where my parents grew up and grandma still lives and see abandoned factory after factory makes me mad. Looking outside and seeing so much car infrastructure that you would never be able to tell that it was once so covered with trees that a squirrel could get from one side of the state to the other without reaching the ground makes me mad. Driving from where my family lives now, in the richest county in the state, just a few miles to where we used to live and have there be an obvious line where the government stopped caring because the road suddenly became filled with potholes and fading yellow lines makes me mad. Under capitalism, they with slowly go throughout the U.S removing all the goods and resources they can until there is nothing left. We need to stand together and fight for our equality and community.
Mountain top removal also destroyed another important resource of the Appalachians. The beauty. Tourist dollars are a great way to bring money and jobs back into the area. Mammoth caves are extraordinary! But no one wants to vaykay next to a big, ugly pit. Or fish in a river that smells like a paper plant.
@@quixotik1021sounds like another problem that can be solved by not relying on a socio-economic model that demands ruthless exploitation. Sustainable tourism is possible, but not if you have a capitalist mindset
I'm not from Kentucky but I am Appalachian and, knowing our history and seeing how companies have come in and destroyed the land and our people, with government backing, is a big part of why I'm a leftist. I'm also an artist and, seeing the rise of these LLMs worries me more than I'd like to admit. Thank you for shining a light on this!
As a trans chick who had to flee Kentucky to escape eliminationist laws, but who still loves and empathizes with my homeland and the people struggling there, it's refreshing to see a Leftist acknowledge that fact that Kentucky is an oppressive hellscape for the working class. Conditions in Eastern Kentucky are comparable to those in the global south. There's lead in the water, coal in the air, the mountains are blown to bits, the forests are mowed down, and the only work (outside of cities) is coal mining or tobacco farming, both of which are brutal and dangerous and wreck your body. The Republican government keeps wages low, busts up unions, and ensures that regulations are nonexistent. It's a place where lives are short and ugly. It's easy to treat the Imperial Core as a monolith, and presume that all (cishet white neuronormative) folks in the USA enjoy a decent degree of security, but in Kentucky, West Virginia, and other regions of Appalachia, that really isn't the case. People there are treated as disposable. Obviously marginalized people are treated *even worse* (as evidenced by the fact I had to flee!) but that doesn't change the fact that Appalachians are exploited regardless of race, sexuality, gender, or ability. It's really an overlooked black eye on the face of Capitalism and deserves more attention and aid. "Abused" is the perfect description of Kentucky.
As someone who also escaped Kentucky, it is very nice to learn from the past and still value the place I came from, just not in the way that republicans or those on the right do. Kentucky is the textbook example of how capitalism fucks people over, and if you expand to the Appalachian region as a whole, how people can fight back. America has a history of fighting against those who oppress the working class, and alot of that history takes place in the Appalachian mountains. So even if Kentucky is kinda fucked currently, and sadly for the foreseeable future, I still take pride in being from there. Also lmao I also moved to WA, may not be able to afford rent half the time but atleast we're somewhat safer just, existing.
If this is the case then why do the people keep electing republicans to office? When they hear of the opportunities of green energy why don't they want their kids to go into these industries rather than coal mines? There is a dark streak of self destruction in these folks, and unfortunately they're dragging the rest of us along with them.
It’s the, home of chicken and Appalachian civilisation, Where labour unions fought and were replaced by automation, The future, well, it often rhymes, repeats its devastation, And if you want these kinda dreams it’s Kentuckication
About to watch the video. As a Kentuckian, Kentuckification sounds like a terrifying word 😂 I love my home, but it’s a tough place to live and continue to have hope.
One thing i wished was mentioned is how badly the opioid epidemic in the south really can be. Like honestly its scary and infuriating just how bad of a dystopian hellscape exists in a place supposedly so secure
Yeah that was something that I wasn't able to do justice to in this video at all, but I probably should've at least mentioned it. I just didn't know how to, like, take a bite out of that. It's such a big topic with so many angles
As a Kentuckian.... Yeah. My state is currently being beaten to death. Doesn't help we have to deal with Mitch McConnell the Turtle man. There's a reason there's.a song about the mines dark as a dungeon....
Great video! Just yesterday I was rereading Marx's chapter on machinery and automation in Capital and thought how relevant it is for the current AI discourse and why no one was making that connection in their videos and then you do all of that just the next day. I feel like a dangerous part of the current AI (art and text) discourse is that the new developments attack the jobs of a group of people that has always felt itself to be above the blue collar workers so often associated with the more classic image of labor disputes, unions and all the class war stuff. If these people don't wake up quick and lose their delusions of superiority it will go hard with them and well, that's the divide and conquer strategy capital has always relied on.
"They need you and your compliant friends to work the machines, write the code, load the trucks, hammer the nails, deliver the packages and deep fry the potatoes..."..And Terry Crews to do a super nonsense feel-good commercial to act like the place where you're exploited isn't so bad...
Regarding AI - I feel the technology must be allowed to exist in some form, due to it's potential utility in the assisting scientific research. 'Deep Learning' models have already contributed to several major discoveries that would've been near-impossible otherwise, including: -Digitally restoring and translating ancient egyptian (and other) fragmented archaeological texts that couldn't be pieced together otherwise. -Inventing new drugs and medications, that were later proven to work in clinical trials. One example is a potential treatment for pancreatic cancer, that likely never would've been discovered without AI. -Mapping how proteins fold, including proteins associated with Sars-COV2, which is important for developing effective treatments for various diseases. I do also think AI *may,* potentially, have a place as a tool to assist artists, writers, and musicians, when using models that are trained ethically. It cannot and should not replace actual artists or be allowed to threaten their livelihoods, but I don't feel comfortable dismissing it entirely simply because it's currently being abused by corporations. Honestly, at the end of the day, I see the problem as one that has more to do with our economic system than with the tech itself. We should absolutely push back against attempts to implement AI in the workplace at the expense of workers. Boycott products made entirely by AI or made by companies using AI to avoid paying actual workers, refuse to support AI companies that train their models unethically, and if you need art (or writing, music, etc.) for your project-commission an actual human! Support artists and respect their work, but please don't attempt to abolish AI technology wholesale. It has a place in our society.
There's really no putting the genie back in the bottle anyway. The scientific papers are published, the code is written. We're stuck with it, and companies will use it to reduce staffing costs just as they would any other productivity-boosting tool.
Automation will definitely face less opposition in a system that considers it as a tool to help people achieve more while working less, instead of a way to cut costs on wages and earn more profit.
It's true of most technologies. So often they are used to exploit when their very existence could- in a more just society- be used to free people from the exploitation of survival labor
@@sherrickthuesmunn657 a clever response, but really... the elites no longer care to maintain our infrastructure. Basically, if you know that your buildings not up to code and you don't care, then you probably don't care much if the building burns down. They've forgotten the fact that the New deal, made them richer.
I'm afraid one of the many bridges in that state is gonna collapse on my way through it. The train system is probably neglected, too. In the past, they would've tarred & feathered Manchin, maybe worse. People like him shouldn't feel welcome in public.
@@lanterns_glow I guess I should feel lucky that my family left in the AK Steel exodus in the 1950s. We got nicer roads, but we got hit by Dupont's PFAs first. Yay. I wonder how bad it's gotta get before moving to another part of the world looks like a good idea... sheesh.
I’ve never lived in Appalachia etc., but I've had similar thoughts about how what happened/is happening there is a warning for how other workers are gonna end up treated in the future. Definitely don't know enough about it to properly put it into words lmao, and you've given me a lot of food for thought and ways to point out parallels to people in my own life.
I'm from Northeast Tennessee, and my wife is from Kentucky. Love this region so much, and I hate that people who ostensibly should be on our side (Liberals, left leaning folks) treat us with such condescension. Good video ❤
Respect is a two way street. You can't expect us to be nice you when you call us pedophiles, tell us our cities are shiтholes, and actively cut off your own noses to spite black and brown faces by voting for people who want to help the rich and hate you even more.
@connornoel2138 I'm not where you are at, so I don't know your community, and I won't presume to speak about it. I will say that I've lived in some extremely rural conservative areas, and I've never felt unsafe as far as bodily harm was concerned - an out bi, gender nonconforming, socialist. I wish you luck, I'm sure there's some sympathetic folks around you if you can be fortunate enough to find them
People in Kentucky just need to find and "take care" of McConnell. That'd make a good start for them. If we could get Jan 6th energy aimed correctly it'd make a huge difference for this country.
Not originally from Kentucky (I was born in Arkansas) but one thing that hurt me while living in Menifee CO was how much people clung to the idea that the coal industry would magically return. They were literally fighting to go back to the mining operations that kept the working classes there oppressed for decades due to indoctrination and the belief that it was the only solution ignoring the massive tracts of viable farmland in the area.
I really appreciate the way you approached this video. Way too often people who talk about automation and AI will fall into the trap of talking about it like it's something that will be replacing service workers like cooks and housekeepers first, when that simply isn't the case. Just like you said in the video, it's going to be the low-middle class office jobs that go first, and a lot of redundant managers after that. EDIT: Also there is literally never enough clipping in videos
I feel like I learned a lot about life in the week I spent in West Virginia repairing the home of a veteran and disabled coal miner he got injured on the job became wheelchair bound and hadn't left his house in a decade. The roof rotten porch gone and of course he had no way out. I was part of the team building a ramp for him. The biggest thing is we stayed in a church that had been an abandoned high school. It's disgraceful how coal mining has left so many landscapes and the grossly underpaid people in horrible situations and it's not ok. I learned that you can't really blame people who are misinformed especially back before the internet and in the generations that never learned how sometimes circumstances play into people being manipulated and the difference between poor in a state that has more socioeconomic resources is different from a state that doesn't. My grandparents were working poor people but could still make ends meet and put food on the table even if they were scrapping together two regular jobs and a bunch of odd ones what I saw in west Virginia was typically 1 adult still in good enough health to work and lots of young adults with a few kids mostly single mothers barely getting by and really no elders it was a good wake up call to a teenage me who thought at that time the world was mostly just and fair.
Thank you, Appalachia! As a resident of the most segregated city in America, Chicago, I recognize the divisive, classist, anti-Southern propaganda for what it is; Instilling the belief that "the problem" lies elsewhere, & is the fault of someone else. I remain committed to the continuing process of rooting this conditioning out of myself.
Fun but fairly random discussion (I guess) - 2 weeks ago 100 mph winds blew through here in Oklahoma, leaving everyone without power for at least 3 days. At one point we had the front and back doors open for a vague notion of a breeze and I began to cackle insanely because it sounded like a county fair in my neighborhood, with all the chugging of the generators going on. And of course tall boy large trucks were running the streets in the middle of the night, just being looky-loos. So Weird, Right? Hahahahaha...at any rate, cool tip of the hat to Clipping...
Can't belive you didn't use Paradise by John Prine for your remix! It's such a powerful song to relay the devastation wrought by the coal industry on our beautiful state, anybody who hasn't heard it should give it a listen
I had heard allusions to you being in Louisville in an older video. I've enjoyed your videos--they have helped me fine-tune some of my own positions. Sometimes that's been more challenging than others, but I feel like as something of an "olde" guy, and even though I'm busy with caring for parents and in-laws with age-related challenges of their own, I feel compelled to stand for what's good and against the toxicity of patriarchy. Let's have a recovery beverage of some sort together, and discuss how the Battle of Blair Mountain can teach us a hopefully-less-violent but still humane and productive way forward.
Chapter 3 ('Days of Devastation') of _Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt_ by Chris Hedges & Joe Sacco is about mountaintop removal in Welch, WV and broader Appalachia. It's got Joe Sacco, so of course the beautiful art makes it worth reading on its own. Immensely frustrating though since this book is 10+ years old now and things have only gotten worse
Hell fucking yeah! Nice to hear someone else talk up the Appalachia area! Kentucky is one of the most unseen gorgeous places you will ever lay eyes on, and one that few people visit, which is oft in my opinion our own blessing, as piles of tourists annoying hollers is unlikely to improve the state in the way others might believe. I am always torn on this issue, as I think if more people got to see the beauty of the OH/KY/WV area they might appreciate more why we fight for it, but at the same time that commodification is just as likely to bring gentrification and annexation of that land from it's people as it is to bring the knowledge of why it's worth fighting for, especially as the climate disaster worsens, and the rich fucks who caused this from the coasts and many others rush to look for safer places to live, and use their wealth to leverage us out. And this is before we engage with the whole, "People only fight for things they think are pretty, not just because our communities have an inherent right to exist" issue.
Im from Louisiana. What you described sounds exactly whats happening to us in the Gulf South. Thank you for this. Just shows how much we are all in the same struggle
I don't have much to add to the conversation, but I do want to agree that the Appalachians are the most beautiful area of America I've seen. Every year my family would drive from Houston to Pennsylvania to visit family and I always loved the drive through Virginia because of the mountainous landscape. Just absolute beauty. Also nice use of Clipping, they have become one of my favorite bands recently. YOU DON'T WANT IT WITH A
I just started grad school and I have a paper to write tonight. When I'm done, watching this will be my little reward. thank you for posting this today!
Also, I always said the day ol Mitch dropped I was going to call out of work and throw a party. These days my work is Dad, so maybe no day off, but I'm making the biggest celebration cake. I used to think it would be any time, but tortoises can live for quite a while
My channel content takes place in a kind of Perpetual Evening. It's all there in the lore descriptions on various items. (i record all my videos after my kid goes to bed)
I feel that sentiment. I grew up in the south and have now lived in Minnesota for about a decade.I care about a lot of things out here despite having no connection prior.
I have been a developer for 20 years. Nothing we have now is even remotely close to to AI. It's just a buzzword. It's nothing more than fancy statistical analysis with better algorithms and hardware now.
I'm a little late to the party on this one but I'll comment anyway. I've seen quite a few of your videos and this one encompasses a lot of the important ideas you often share. Well done.
i watched the first episode of Marvel Secret Invasion because parts of it were filmed in my county in england because according to the director it seems russian enough, the intro immediatedly struck me as lazy and cost cutting without employing any real artists to do it.
As an explicit communist, the whole snide disdain liberals have for the Apalachians truly disgusts me. They ignore the fact that it was the liberals themselves that drove them to that point; the Apalachians had, and is redeveloping, large revolutionary movements until the liberal state sent the military to surpresss said groups. And as he said, get organised; the CPUSA and IMT have chapters in most every state, join your union or if it doesn't exist the wobblies can help, and, of course, there's other groups from reading groups to gun clubs that'll help you train your mind and body. Also, for That Dang Dad, could you release the remix since it's rather nice.
the next stage of galaxy brain about ai after this is the worry that AI might keep the kentuckification going after the working class is dead, and then the rich class die too, wondering why they built the torment nexus. have i already commented here about "disneyland with no children"? it's basically an end state to capitalism but with the humans gone entirely, and a fairly detailed story about how one ends up there. It's the majority of my mental threat model about superintelligence safety
@@ThatDangDad no, that's interesting too. "disneyland with no children story" is a new thing written by someone like me trying to get the word out about catastrophic ai risk.
Don't unionize with those you love, unionize against those you hate. Your final point about culture war bs being directly beneficial to anyone threatened by unions was really eye opening to me.
Mount Carmel, PA is sinking as nearby Centralia burns due to the overharvesting of anthracite coal and misanagement of the mines. When it became clear that there was no future to be had there, my daughter and I moved back to Maryland and then headed west for a better chance. Now it burns here every summer, and I'm hoping this area is more climate resilient than where we came from.
It's a great video, but how anyone can detail the history of extractive capitalist monopolies and take anything other than a hardline anti-ai stance. Context: I am a visual artist, this is damaging us in favour of capital interests.
In a non-capitalist world, AI wouldn't be able to harm people in the way I'm describing (reproducing material cheaply to put skilled humans out of work). I think of AI like a gun: it's a tool that can save lives in the right hands and take lives in the wrong ones. Also, like guns, I don't think it's possible to put the toothpaste back in the tube. So I'd rather focus on using it for good where possible (medical research, etc) and prevent it from doing harm where possible.
@@ThatDangDad I appreciate the reply. To develop the thought further, do we think (this particular) AI would be created in anything other than a capitalist world? When we use AI-generated art in our videos, are we saving lives or taking lives?
I think one really pernicious way that the wealthy in this country (and the prison industrial complex) are able to exercise power is through unequal access to legal representation. Basically I mean capitalists can afford good lawyers and you and I can't. Imagine a large language model, like chat GPT that's trained solely on legal precedent/ advice. You could input a contract and it could translate the legalese into plain english. If you have a court date coming up or you were wronged/injured by a corporation it could break down your options for you. The ends probably don't justify the means for getting something like this working and accurate enough. However if I could will it into existence in a fully functional state and put it out for cheap or have it be free and government funded, I think it'd make the world a slightly better place.
I'm canadian and all the talk about kentucky and the talking points of coal companies reminds me of the talking points of oil companies in alberta, but I don't live in alberta so I can't talk for people who live in alberta.
Even if you aren't working for a big capitalist org, government work is devalued to the detriment of the disproportionately minority government workforce providing the social and physical infrastructure that lets these companies function at all. If there weren't roads or water or electricity or trash collection, these companies can't work. But despite reliance they push to decrease funding and the taxes that ensure these things exist.
I've had "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive" stuck in my head all week and this video did not help. It did make a useful and relevant comparison I had never considered, though, so pros and cons.
Standing together it is harder for them to knock any of us down. Also, agreed on machine learning bring cool and interesting tech if not for the capitalist hellscape surrounding it. I'm an aspiring author, building worlds of fiction that mirror our world, but also offer hope and better options. I hope that my efforts to express situations like that of Kentucky can do justice to the people there. As always, incredible work! Stay safe out there friends!
The only non-union employers that can ever be expected to pay a fair wage are the ones that need to compete with union employers for employees. There is a reason for that.
Great video, first one I saw so I've subbed! I've been a working artist for over 15 years now, and it really feels gross that mine, my friends and the culture I enjoy and cherish, the very experience/creative choices and what not are now being stripped mined like a resource. With a PR spin that we've been a secret upper class hoarding some ethereal natural resource. We're not, most are working class, earning less than your average tradesman - I used to be one before I was an artist. If nothing is done, if you make anything unique in your own time, your own labor will be gobbled it up, potentially years of your own hard work taken instantly with no recourse for you, while someone else gains from it for next to nothing. A weird form of retroactive slavery. I'm not saying I'll be a stand out artist/writer/voice actor, etc; but there people who will. It's probably one of the most egregious disregard for sonder and individuals I've ever seen. It's like people looked at the ST:TNG's Borg and thought "hey, that's something to aim for" to the extent I've seen some techbro capitalists on places like youtube or linkedIn literally say verbatim "Resistance is Futile" did they actually watch TNG and the context of that? Pretty sociopathic to be openly pushing that on people; mostly people who've lived quiet lives and kept to themselves out of everyone's way, just scraping by. Some already driven to destitution or other work. Culture in some spots evaporated near overnight. This doesn't feel like "progress" to me. And mind you, this is coming from someone who's spent most of their creative career doing generative stuff with 3d and scripting (houdini/unity stuff) I do agree, it's a cool tool *in a vacuum* but it wouldn't be how it is in a vacuum, the only reason it's so effective now is because of the wholesale data strip mining, and it could only exist in its current incarnation through large capitalism systems. If the tool itself were in a vacuum and given to individuals it'd handy. Some strange days ahead.
Gonna say, as someone from a small-ass town in Ohio known for a horse race and little else, you don't need to worry about someone assuming you've got a Hillbilly Elegy sort of bullshit going on. XD
I am from the Uk i have a degree and job in tech a beautiful partner of 20 years and i am 37 i have already made a deal with myself, Death I choose 50 for suicide, I have had a hard life but I see where the road ends and I checked out a long time ago. There are no piers, no friends no hope, just a clock ticking. enjoy the time you have if its good now, there is no promise it will be good tomorrow. My entire family died when i was 24 and i am now alone no support etc. Labour is slavery always has been. There is freedom in not fearing death welcoming it is a freedom. I am luky I never had kids nore would I. As a parent you're the cause of all the joy but equally all the suffering in the world. If given the choice with all i now am aware of. I would never have agreed to being made conscious. Just my observations. Life itself is also a form of slavery luckily it does not last forever.
Thank you for this. I recently watched a short RUclips doc exploring a part of Appalachia and it was really eye opening. The way drugs start being pushed on communities and then the local law enforcement just feeds right into creating a shell out of those people and their history. I take for granted how educated I am and the upper hand that I have in a lot of situations. I want to keep coming to interactions with people both online and in person with an open mind. I don’t want to assume that people we often call Hillbillies don’t have anything to teach us (people like me) because I think they do.
*Me going into software development:* “Machines may take our jobs, but we’ll always need software to run those machines!” *Coworker:* “Look! I told this AI to write me C# code for a functional Tic-Tac-Toe game! It’s not perfect, but it’s really close!” *Me now realizing that my job security only comes from people not knowing how to write simple code, and AI is getting REALLY good at interpreting requests to write simple code and my job may not start phasing out in my lifetime:* “oh. neat! love that.”
You'll like this. Since I wrote this video, I've tried to use ChatGPT to debug some stuff and it was giving me wrong answers. When I told it that, it basically said "Oh well it could be a connectivity issue on your end." Who taught the AI how to give people the IT Blowoff??
@@ThatDangDad I coded an entire browser game with ChatGPT for a blog post, and one thing I realized it that it makes both AI-specific mistakes _and_ human-like mistakes. It was still really convenient for writing snippets of boilerplate code though.
![Megan Thee Stallion - Neva Play (feat. RM) [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/TpYTyAaTRts/mqdefault.jpg)
East Kentucky Mutual Aid -> facebook.com/groups/2557126217948530/
Great video, I'm glad somebody with voice is saying this. Thank you.
There’s an unspoken third part to the Capitalist maxim: move fast, break things, *leave the mess for someone else to clean up*
Negative externalities are where the real money lies
@@FLY1NF1SH gotta get those government handouts when the taxpayers inevitably foot the bill
Capitalism is an extremely efficient machine designed to extract as much wealth from any resource or commodity possible. Usually by internalizing all profit while externalizing any costs or losses wherever and whenever possible.
Convince them the mess is an opportunity (for you)
@@jeffersonclippership2588100%
when the song says "you load 16 tons, and what do you get? another day older and deeper in dept", it's neither hyperbole nor satirical. It's literal in the most horrifying way.
As someone who lives in what is left of the rust belt, this story rings familiar. Know grandparents that were layed off when big corporations decided labor was cheaper elsewhere makes me mad. Going back to the town where my parents grew up and grandma still lives and see abandoned factory after factory makes me mad. Looking outside and seeing so much car infrastructure that you would never be able to tell that it was once so covered with trees that a squirrel could get from one side of the state to the other without reaching the ground makes me mad. Driving from where my family lives now, in the richest county in the state, just a few miles to where we used to live and have there be an obvious line where the government stopped caring because the road suddenly became filled with potholes and fading yellow lines makes me mad. Under capitalism, they with slowly go throughout the U.S removing all the goods and resources they can until there is nothing left. We need to stand together and fight for our equality and community.
Mountain top removal also destroyed another important resource of the Appalachians. The beauty.
Tourist dollars are a great way to bring money and jobs back into the area. Mammoth caves are extraordinary!
But no one wants to vaykay next to a big, ugly pit. Or fish in a river that smells like a paper plant.
Tourism is good to ruin your culture. Bali had a beautiful culture until tourism made native traditions nearly extinct.
@@quixotik1021sounds like another problem that can be solved by not relying on a socio-economic model that demands ruthless exploitation. Sustainable tourism is possible, but not if you have a capitalist mindset
I'm not from Kentucky but I am Appalachian and, knowing our history and seeing how companies have come in and destroyed the land and our people, with government backing, is a big part of why I'm a leftist. I'm also an artist and, seeing the rise of these LLMs worries me more than I'd like to admit. Thank you for shining a light on this!
As a trans chick who had to flee Kentucky to escape eliminationist laws, but who still loves and empathizes with my homeland and the people struggling there, it's refreshing to see a Leftist acknowledge that fact that Kentucky is an oppressive hellscape for the working class. Conditions in Eastern Kentucky are comparable to those in the global south.
There's lead in the water, coal in the air, the mountains are blown to bits, the forests are mowed down, and the only work (outside of cities) is coal mining or tobacco farming, both of which are brutal and dangerous and wreck your body. The Republican government keeps wages low, busts up unions, and ensures that regulations are nonexistent. It's a place where lives are short and ugly.
It's easy to treat the Imperial Core as a monolith, and presume that all (cishet white neuronormative) folks in the USA enjoy a decent degree of security, but in Kentucky, West Virginia, and other regions of Appalachia, that really isn't the case. People there are treated as disposable. Obviously marginalized people are treated *even worse* (as evidenced by the fact I had to flee!) but that doesn't change the fact that Appalachians are exploited regardless of race, sexuality, gender, or ability.
It's really an overlooked black eye on the face of Capitalism and deserves more attention and aid. "Abused" is the perfect description of Kentucky.
Hear hear!
(and I hope you're safe and doing well wherever you are now!)
@@ThatDangDad I'm in Washington. It's a little Bougie and the cost of living is exorbitant, but it's the safest place for queer folx right now.
"coal in the air"
This. The air is always easier to breathe inside my home than out.
As someone who also escaped Kentucky, it is very nice to learn from the past and still value the place I came from, just not in the way that republicans or those on the right do. Kentucky is the textbook example of how capitalism fucks people over, and if you expand to the Appalachian region as a whole, how people can fight back. America has a history of fighting against those who oppress the working class, and alot of that history takes place in the Appalachian mountains. So even if Kentucky is kinda fucked currently, and sadly for the foreseeable future, I still take pride in being from there.
Also lmao I also moved to WA, may not be able to afford rent half the time but atleast we're somewhat safer just, existing.
If this is the case then why do the people keep electing republicans to office? When they hear of the opportunities of green energy why don't they want their kids to go into these industries rather than coal mines? There is a dark streak of self destruction in these folks, and unfortunately they're dragging the rest of us along with them.
It’s the, home of chicken and Appalachian civilisation,
Where labour unions fought and were replaced by automation,
The future, well, it often rhymes, repeats its devastation,
And if you want these kinda dreams it’s Kentuckication
When they say "Move fast and break things" they don't say that you are the thing being broken.
About to watch the video. As a Kentuckian, Kentuckification sounds like a terrifying word 😂 I love my home, but it’s a tough place to live and continue to have hope.
Hail statesman!
Same same
There are dozens of us!
One thing i wished was mentioned is how badly the opioid epidemic in the south really can be.
Like honestly its scary and infuriating just how bad of a dystopian hellscape exists in a place supposedly so secure
Yeah that was something that I wasn't able to do justice to in this video at all, but I probably should've at least mentioned it. I just didn't know how to, like, take a bite out of that. It's such a big topic with so many angles
As a Kentuckian.... Yeah. My state is currently being beaten to death. Doesn't help we have to deal with Mitch McConnell the Turtle man.
There's a reason there's.a song about the mines dark as a dungeon....
"A rising tide floats all ships"
"Okay but you built a dam and diverted the waterflow to your own private holdings and we barely get anything."
That title got me immediately. You laid out "Kentuckificatiom" so well and tied it back to AI in a terrifying way. You have given me a lot to chew on!
Great video! Just yesterday I was rereading Marx's chapter on machinery and automation in Capital and thought how relevant it is for the current AI discourse and why no one was making that connection in their videos and then you do all of that just the next day. I feel like a dangerous part of the current AI (art and text) discourse is that the new developments attack the jobs of a group of people that has always felt itself to be above the blue collar workers so often associated with the more classic image of labor disputes, unions and all the class war stuff. If these people don't wake up quick and lose their delusions of superiority it will go hard with them and well, that's the divide and conquer strategy capital has always relied on.
"They need you and your compliant friends to work the machines, write the code, load the trucks, hammer the nails, deliver the packages and deep fry the potatoes..."..And Terry Crews to do a super nonsense feel-good commercial to act like the place where you're exploited isn't so bad...
Regarding AI - I feel the technology must be allowed to exist in some form, due to it's potential utility in the assisting scientific research. 'Deep Learning' models have already contributed to several major discoveries that would've been near-impossible otherwise, including:
-Digitally restoring and translating ancient egyptian (and other) fragmented archaeological texts that couldn't be pieced together otherwise.
-Inventing new drugs and medications, that were later proven to work in clinical trials. One example is a potential treatment for pancreatic cancer, that likely never would've been discovered without AI.
-Mapping how proteins fold, including proteins associated with Sars-COV2, which is important for developing effective treatments for various diseases.
I do also think AI *may,* potentially, have a place as a tool to assist artists, writers, and musicians, when using models that are trained ethically. It cannot and should not replace actual artists or be allowed to threaten their livelihoods, but I don't feel comfortable dismissing it entirely simply because it's currently being abused by corporations. Honestly, at the end of the day, I see the problem as one that has more to do with our economic system than with the tech itself.
We should absolutely push back against attempts to implement AI in the workplace at the expense of workers. Boycott products made entirely by AI or made by companies using AI to avoid paying actual workers, refuse to support AI companies that train their models unethically, and if you need art (or writing, music, etc.) for your project-commission an actual human! Support artists and respect their work, but please don't attempt to abolish AI technology wholesale. It has a place in our society.
There's really no putting the genie back in the bottle anyway. The scientific papers are published, the code is written. We're stuck with it, and companies will use it to reduce staffing costs just as they would any other productivity-boosting tool.
Automation will definitely face less opposition in a system that considers it as a tool to help people achieve more while working less, instead of a way to cut costs on wages and earn more profit.
@@orinjball5138 Is there any difference? Achieve more by working less means reducing the employee headcount.
It's true of most technologies. So often they are used to exploit when their very existence could- in a more just society- be used to free people from the exploitation of survival labor
Around 15 years ago I came to the realization that we've reached the wealth extraction phase of our countries history.
Pretty sure we reached that phase around 1776 or earlier
@@sherrickthuesmunn657 a clever response, but really... the elites no longer care to maintain our infrastructure. Basically, if you know that your buildings not up to code and you don't care, then you probably don't care much if the building burns down. They've forgotten the fact that the New deal, made them richer.
I'm afraid one of the many bridges in that state is gonna collapse on my way through it. The train system is probably neglected, too. In the past, they would've tarred & feathered Manchin, maybe worse. People like him shouldn't feel welcome in public.
Yeah. We have a train rail through my area but only the military is allowed to use it..
@@lanterns_glow I guess I should feel lucky that my family left in the AK Steel exodus in the 1950s. We got nicer roads, but we got hit by Dupont's PFAs first. Yay. I wonder how bad it's gotta get before moving to another part of the world looks like a good idea... sheesh.
I’ve never lived in Appalachia etc., but I've had similar thoughts about how what happened/is happening there is a warning for how other workers are gonna end up treated in the future. Definitely don't know enough about it to properly put it into words lmao, and you've given me a lot of food for thought and ways to point out parallels to people in my own life.
I'm from Northeast Tennessee, and my wife is from Kentucky. Love this region so much, and I hate that people who ostensibly should be on our side (Liberals, left leaning folks) treat us with such condescension. Good video ❤
We'd be on your side if you'd stop voting for Republicans.
central ky Here. I wish there were people I could network with, but I'm afraid of getting shot for being nonbinary and/or a communist.
Respect is a two way street. You can't expect us to be nice you when you call us pedophiles, tell us our cities are shiтholes, and actively cut off your own noses to spite black and brown faces by voting for people who want to help the rich and hate you even more.
@connornoel2138 I'm not where you are at, so I don't know your community, and I won't presume to speak about it. I will say that I've lived in some extremely rural conservative areas, and I've never felt unsafe as far as bodily harm was concerned - an out bi, gender nonconforming, socialist. I wish you luck, I'm sure there's some sympathetic folks around you if you can be fortunate enough to find them
People in Kentucky just need to find and "take care" of McConnell. That'd make a good start for them. If we could get Jan 6th energy aimed correctly it'd make a huge difference for this country.
shooter.mp3
Not originally from Kentucky (I was born in Arkansas) but one thing that hurt me while living in Menifee CO was how much people clung to the idea that the coal industry would magically return. They were literally fighting to go back to the mining operations that kept the working classes there oppressed for decades due to indoctrination and the belief that it was the only solution ignoring the massive tracts of viable farmland in the area.
If we don't share histories like this, we don't learn from them
Workers of the World Unite and Build METAL GEAR!
I'M MAKING THE MOTHER OF ALL OMELETTES, JACK
Killdozer Treads on Them
ooohhhhh this feels like a top tier video essay....
All of his videos are top tier!
i hope so!!
@@ThatDangDad it was. the part abt organizing contributed a sense of hope and solidarity that a top tier video essay needs, in my opinion
I really appreciate the way you approached this video. Way too often people who talk about automation and AI will fall into the trap of talking about it like it's something that will be replacing service workers like cooks and housekeepers first, when that simply isn't the case. Just like you said in the video, it's going to be the low-middle class office jobs that go first, and a lot of redundant managers after that.
EDIT: Also there is literally never enough clipping in videos
Love the connection here. I like when you do stuff like this because I always learn a piece of the puzzle I didn't consider.
As a WV boy, I appreciate this introspective video! Not enough people realize just how severely Appalachians have been victimized
I feel like I learned a lot about life in the week I spent in West Virginia repairing the home of a veteran and disabled coal miner he got injured on the job became wheelchair bound and hadn't left his house in a decade. The roof rotten porch gone and of course he had no way out. I was part of the team building a ramp for him. The biggest thing is we stayed in a church that had been an abandoned high school. It's disgraceful how coal mining has left so many landscapes and the grossly underpaid people in horrible situations and it's not ok. I learned that you can't really blame people who are misinformed especially back before the internet and in the generations that never learned how sometimes circumstances play into people being manipulated and the difference between poor in a state that has more socioeconomic resources is different from a state that doesn't. My grandparents were working poor people but could still make ends meet and put food on the table even if they were scrapping together two regular jobs and a bunch of odd ones what I saw in west Virginia was typically 1 adult still in good enough health to work and lots of young adults with a few kids mostly single mothers barely getting by and really no elders it was a good wake up call to a teenage me who thought at that time the world was mostly just and fair.
I like listening to these conversations. Your topics are interesting and eventhough things feel hopeless you don't make it feel impossible.
Kentuckification is going in my mental dictionary
Thank you, Appalachia! As a resident of the most segregated city in America, Chicago, I recognize the divisive, classist, anti-Southern propaganda for what it is; Instilling the belief that "the problem" lies elsewhere, & is the fault of someone else. I remain committed to the continuing process of rooting this conditioning out of myself.
Fun but fairly random discussion (I guess) - 2 weeks ago 100 mph winds blew through here in Oklahoma, leaving everyone without power for at least 3 days. At one point we had the front and back doors open for a vague notion of a breeze and I began to cackle insanely because it sounded like a county fair in my neighborhood, with all the chugging of the generators going on. And of course tall boy large trucks were running the streets in the middle of the night, just being looky-loos. So Weird, Right? Hahahahaha...at any rate, cool tip of the hat to Clipping...
Capitalists will wax lyrical about coal miners while stripping the safety regulations that keep those miners alive and going home to their families.
Can't belive you didn't use Paradise by John Prine for your remix! It's such a powerful song to relay the devastation wrought by the coal industry on our beautiful state, anybody who hasn't heard it should give it a listen
one person who's never heard it is ME. i'll check it out!
Still think Lisa Simpson said it best: "They have the plant; but we have the Power"
As always you are spot on in identifying the issue and treading lightly.
You were probably asking rhetorically, but I think the last time Bill Gates wrote a line of code was sometime around 1986.
ha!
Trillbilly Workers Party is a real good time. Recommended listening. It's funny most of the time too, if that helps.
I appreciate the unique perspectives you bring to these kinds of topics. Keep up the great work!
I had heard allusions to you being in Louisville in an older video. I've enjoyed your videos--they have helped me fine-tune some of my own positions. Sometimes that's been more challenging than others, but I feel like as something of an "olde" guy, and even though I'm busy with caring for parents and in-laws with age-related challenges of their own, I feel compelled to stand for what's good and against the toxicity of patriarchy.
Let's have a recovery beverage of some sort together, and discuss how the Battle of Blair Mountain can teach us a hopefully-less-violent but still humane and productive way forward.
Chapter 3 ('Days of Devastation') of _Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt_ by Chris Hedges & Joe Sacco is about mountaintop removal in Welch, WV and broader Appalachia. It's got Joe Sacco, so of course the beautiful art makes it worth reading on its own.
Immensely frustrating though since this book is 10+ years old now and things have only gotten worse
Hell fucking yeah! Nice to hear someone else talk up the Appalachia area! Kentucky is one of the most unseen gorgeous places you will ever lay eyes on, and one that few people visit, which is oft in my opinion our own blessing, as piles of tourists annoying hollers is unlikely to improve the state in the way others might believe.
I am always torn on this issue, as I think if more people got to see the beauty of the OH/KY/WV area they might appreciate more why we fight for it, but at the same time that commodification is just as likely to bring gentrification and annexation of that land from it's people as it is to bring the knowledge of why it's worth fighting for, especially as the climate disaster worsens, and the rich fucks who caused this from the coasts and many others rush to look for safer places to live, and use their wealth to leverage us out.
And this is before we engage with the whole, "People only fight for things they think are pretty, not just because our communities have an inherent right to exist" issue.
I was not prepared for the Clipping needle drop, excellent reference dude.
i'm aging but i still have good taste :)
Im from Louisiana. What you described sounds exactly whats happening to us in the Gulf South. Thank you for this. Just shows how much we are all in the same struggle
I don't have much to add to the conversation, but I do want to agree that the Appalachians are the most beautiful area of America I've seen. Every year my family would drive from Houston to Pennsylvania to visit family and I always loved the drive through Virginia because of the mountainous landscape. Just absolute beauty.
Also nice use of Clipping, they have become one of my favorite bands recently. YOU DON'T WANT IT WITH A
The (Bill Monroe?) song is so eerie. The harmony singers go "zing" like a slide guitar when they gliss.
I just started grad school and I have a paper to write tonight. When I'm done, watching this will be my little reward. thank you for posting this today!
feel free to cite me!
thank you for awakening me to the term "spicy autocomplete"
also using "The Ghoul in the Machine" to describe capitalistic tendencies from now on.
Also, I always said the day ol Mitch dropped I was going to call out of work and throw a party. These days my work is Dad, so maybe no day off, but I'm making the biggest celebration cake. I used to think it would be any time, but tortoises can live for quite a while
Fellow Louisivillian (non-native) here. Love your content, had no idea we had a shared residence.
"So if you take nothing else from this video tonight..."
Wait, isn't it still the afternoon in the US?
He's talking to us Old Worlders, not you :)
My channel content takes place in a kind of Perpetual Evening. It's all there in the lore descriptions on various items.
(i record all my videos after my kid goes to bed)
@@ThatDangDad
Fair
I feel that sentiment. I grew up in the south and have now lived in Minnesota for about a decade.I care about a lot of things out here despite having no connection prior.
I have been a developer for 20 years. Nothing we have now is even remotely close to to AI. It's just a buzzword. It's nothing more than fancy statistical analysis with better algorithms and hardware now.
I'm a little late to the party on this one but I'll comment anyway. I've seen quite a few of your videos and this one encompasses a lot of the important ideas you often share. Well done.
Excellent to see a mindful human in the 502. Mayhaps you could influence my childhood friends a bit?
You can make a lenseless monocle by poking a needle hole to look through. Business cards are a good thickness for it. Works better with more light
I am also a Louisvillian ...... cool didnt know that about you. And yes you are correct louisville is the LA of Kentucky
The use of Bill Monroe’s song was perfect in this, so haunting
i watched the first episode of Marvel Secret Invasion because parts of it were filmed in my county in england because according to the director it seems russian enough, the intro immediatedly struck me as lazy and cost cutting without employing any real artists to do it.
Terrifying title (I lived in KY as a teen), and a very good message. ✊
As an explicit communist, the whole snide disdain liberals have for the Apalachians truly disgusts me. They ignore the fact that it was the liberals themselves that drove them to that point; the Apalachians had, and is redeveloping, large revolutionary movements until the liberal state sent the military to surpresss said groups. And as he said, get organised; the CPUSA and IMT have chapters in most every state, join your union or if it doesn't exist the wobblies can help, and, of course, there's other groups from reading groups to gun clubs that'll help you train your mind and body.
Also, for That Dang Dad, could you release the remix since it's rather nice.
yeah, check back this evening, i'll upload the remix somewhere and link it in the description
Fantastic video, glad I found this channel
You have a new subscriber sir!!! Good Job!!!!!
awesome! :)
the next stage of galaxy brain about ai after this is the worry that AI might keep the kentuckification going after the working class is dead, and then the rich class die too, wondering why they built the torment nexus. have i already commented here about "disneyland with no children"? it's basically an end state to capitalism but with the humans gone entirely, and a fairly detailed story about how one ends up there. It's the majority of my mental threat model about superintelligence safety
Is it a Ray Bradbury story that has the house robot eternal cooking breakfast for a family that is long dead from nuclear fallout or whatever?
@@ThatDangDad no, that's interesting too. "disneyland with no children story" is a new thing written by someone like me trying to get the word out about catastrophic ai risk.
"Well, they dug for their coal till the land was forsaken
Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man."
Don't unionize with those you love, unionize against those you hate. Your final point about culture war bs being directly beneficial to anyone threatened by unions was really eye opening to me.
Mount Carmel, PA is sinking as nearby Centralia burns due to the overharvesting of anthracite coal and misanagement of the mines. When it became clear that there was no future to be had there, my daughter and I moved back to Maryland and then headed west for a better chance. Now it burns here every summer, and I'm hoping this area is more climate resilient than where we came from.
Small correction. The ‘beginning’ does not start with European workers. It starts with native Americans.
It's a great video, but how anyone can detail the history of extractive capitalist monopolies and take anything other than a hardline anti-ai stance.
Context: I am a visual artist, this is damaging us in favour of capital interests.
In a non-capitalist world, AI wouldn't be able to harm people in the way I'm describing (reproducing material cheaply to put skilled humans out of work). I think of AI like a gun: it's a tool that can save lives in the right hands and take lives in the wrong ones. Also, like guns, I don't think it's possible to put the toothpaste back in the tube. So I'd rather focus on using it for good where possible (medical research, etc) and prevent it from doing harm where possible.
@@ThatDangDad I appreciate the reply. To develop the thought further, do we think (this particular) AI would be created in anything other than a capitalist world?
When we use AI-generated art in our videos, are we saving lives or taking lives?
I think one really pernicious way that the wealthy in this country (and the prison industrial complex) are able to exercise power is through unequal access to legal representation. Basically I mean capitalists can afford good lawyers and you and I can't. Imagine a large language model, like chat GPT that's trained solely on legal precedent/ advice. You could input a contract and it could translate the legalese into plain english. If you have a court date coming up or you were wronged/injured by a corporation it could break down your options for you. The ends probably don't justify the means for getting something like this working and accurate enough. However if I could will it into existence in a fully functional state and put it out for cheap or have it be free and government funded, I think it'd make the world a slightly better place.
I grew up in KY and this is spot on.
Holy shit dude, we city buddies. Awesome.
Good stuff man. Subscribed. I love the phrase: The Ghoul in the Machine 😂
Pretty brilliant
I'm canadian and all the talk about kentucky and the talking points of coal companies reminds me of the talking points of oil companies in alberta, but I don't live in alberta so I can't talk for people who live in alberta.
Even if you aren't working for a big capitalist org, government work is devalued to the detriment of the disproportionately minority government workforce providing the social and physical infrastructure that lets these companies function at all. If there weren't roads or water or electricity or trash collection, these companies can't work. But despite reliance they push to decrease funding and the taxes that ensure these things exist.
Excellent video
"Kentuckification" sounds like one of those words dubya Bush came up with. lol
I've had "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive" stuck in my head all week and this video did not help. It did make a useful and relevant comparison I had never considered, though, so pros and cons.
Ruby Friedman Orchestra is my favorite version of that song if you need to mix it up
Getting a dal-i from ai is like getting free bagels because the beagle store got caught on fire.
Standing together it is harder for them to knock any of us down. Also, agreed on machine learning bring cool and interesting tech if not for the capitalist hellscape surrounding it.
I'm an aspiring author, building worlds of fiction that mirror our world, but also offer hope and better options. I hope that my efforts to express situations like that of Kentucky can do justice to the people there.
As always, incredible work! Stay safe out there friends!
The only non-union employers that can ever be expected to pay a fair wage are the ones that need to compete with union employers for employees. There is a reason for that.
Great video, first one I saw so I've subbed!
I've been a working artist for over 15 years now, and it really feels gross that mine, my friends and the culture I enjoy and cherish, the very experience/creative choices and what not are now being stripped mined like a resource. With a PR spin that we've been a secret upper class hoarding some ethereal natural resource. We're not, most are working class, earning less than your average tradesman - I used to be one before I was an artist. If nothing is done, if you make anything unique in your own time, your own labor will be gobbled it up, potentially years of your own hard work taken instantly with no recourse for you, while someone else gains from it for next to nothing. A weird form of retroactive slavery. I'm not saying I'll be a stand out artist/writer/voice actor, etc; but there people who will. It's probably one of the most egregious disregard for sonder and individuals I've ever seen.
It's like people looked at the ST:TNG's Borg and thought "hey, that's something to aim for" to the extent I've seen some techbro capitalists on places like youtube or linkedIn literally say verbatim "Resistance is Futile" did they actually watch TNG and the context of that? Pretty sociopathic to be openly pushing that on people; mostly people who've lived quiet lives and kept to themselves out of everyone's way, just scraping by. Some already driven to destitution or other work. Culture in some spots evaporated near overnight. This doesn't feel like "progress" to me.
And mind you, this is coming from someone who's spent most of their creative career doing generative stuff with 3d and scripting (houdini/unity stuff) I do agree, it's a cool tool *in a vacuum* but it wouldn't be how it is in a vacuum, the only reason it's so effective now is because of the wholesale data strip mining, and it could only exist in its current incarnation through large capitalism systems. If the tool itself were in a vacuum and given to individuals it'd handy. Some strange days ahead.
great video with a very important message. Thank you
amen and greetings from old louisville
Gonna say, as someone from a small-ass town in Ohio known for a horse race and little else, you don't need to worry about someone assuming you've got a Hillbilly Elegy sort of bullshit going on. XD
i know, i know, just tryin' to be respectful of the real OGs out here ;)
Hey now, Northeast Alabama is a *small* part of that Appalachia identity, and they are real proud of it. Wife's family is there. lol
The music theme for this video is giving big "Everywhere at the End of Time" by The Caretaker vibes
a favorite artist of mine coincidentally ;)
Jim Cornette is from Kentucky. As a Texan, I can feel a kinship with other Southerners
There ain't nothing more Appalachian than raising a family in Appalachia. You a redneck now buddy
Spittin facts.
“Thank you Appalachia for being our crash test dummy”
Engagement boost.
"Appalachian lefties (and one from Georgia)" oh come now, the blue mountains count as Appalachian :P
I WASN"T SURE
I am from the Uk i have a degree and job in tech a beautiful partner of 20 years and i am 37 i have already made a deal with myself, Death I choose 50 for suicide, I have had a hard life but I see where the road ends and I checked out a long time ago. There are no piers, no friends no hope, just a clock ticking. enjoy the time you have if its good now, there is no promise it will be good tomorrow. My entire family died when i was 24 and i am now alone no support etc. Labour is slavery always has been. There is freedom in not fearing death welcoming it is a freedom. I am luky I never had kids nore would I. As a parent you're the cause of all the joy but equally all the suffering in the world. If given the choice with all i now am aware of. I would never have agreed to being made conscious. Just my observations. Life itself is also a form of slavery luckily it does not last forever.
Fuck yea, just caught "How to Blow up a Pipeline" at my cities last film festival, amazing film recommend it to all leftists
Thank you for this. I recently watched a short RUclips doc exploring a part of Appalachia and it was really eye opening. The way drugs start being pushed on communities and then the local law enforcement just feeds right into creating a shell out of those people and their history. I take for granted how educated I am and the upper hand that I have in a lot of situations. I want to keep coming to interactions with people both online and in person with an open mind. I don’t want to assume that people we often call Hillbillies don’t have anything to teach us (people like me) because I think they do.
*Me going into software development:* “Machines may take our jobs, but we’ll always need software to run those machines!”
*Coworker:* “Look! I told this AI to write me C# code for a functional Tic-Tac-Toe game! It’s not perfect, but it’s really close!”
*Me now realizing that my job security only comes from people not knowing how to write simple code, and AI is getting REALLY good at interpreting requests to write simple code and my job may not start phasing out in my lifetime:* “oh. neat! love that.”
You'll like this. Since I wrote this video, I've tried to use ChatGPT to debug some stuff and it was giving me wrong answers. When I told it that, it basically said "Oh well it could be a connectivity issue on your end."
Who taught the AI how to give people the IT Blowoff??
@@ThatDangDad HAHAHAHAHA!! It IS learning!
@@ThatDangDad I coded an entire browser game with ChatGPT for a blog post, and one thing I realized it that it makes both AI-specific mistakes _and_ human-like mistakes. It was still really convenient for writing snippets of boilerplate code though.
Strip mining is the exact right metaphor.