How to burst the AI bubble: Strike at its roots. Sci-fi author/tech journalist Cory Doctorow on his new book, The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/06/how-to-burst-the-ai-bubble-strike-at-its-roots/
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/06/how-to-burst-the-ai-bubble-strike-at-its-roots/
59 Comments
IratePirate@feddit.org · 74 pts · 41d
I'm a simple man. I see Cory, I upvote. Then I read the text.
uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 69 pts · 41d
AI really appeals to a fantasy that I think all of us have to some extent but that powerful people really have, of a world without people in it—because hell really is other people.
This. The AI industry is pushing super hard to make it work, to replace human workers. It's failing, as AI work is crappier than human work and costs way, way more than human work, but there's that Ayn Rand fantasy that the ownership class can just shut out the worker class and create an utopia.
I'm reminded of the car factory in which the upper management fired the striking workers assuming they could do the work themselves, only to find that the unskilled labor actually took skill.
1984@lemmy.today · 12 pts · 41d
No, hell is loneliness and that's what humanity gets if it goes down the Ai / dystopian route. We can see in China today how people are suffering from loneliness despite having tech to order food and items and having them delivered in hours.
vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 41d
Personally I can and will ramble towards my cats about the intricacies of late Bronze Age trade networks in Central Italy. They slap me for it. I see no reason for human interactions given that I have honest counters to my pre-existing madness.
nullify3112@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 40d
No one expects the sea peoples, not even your cats.
SreudianFlip@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 39d
cf. The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster, 1909.
1984@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 39d
It's insane that this was from 1909. Mind blowing. I should read the entire book...
Neverclear@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 39d
'If you are looking for hell, ask the artist where it is. If you don't find the artist, you are already in hell.' -Avigdoor Pawsner
audaxdreik@pawb.social · 11 pts · 40d
I'm constantly struck by the imagery of the giant warrior from Nausicaa. There is a timeline or a reality where this worked, but they couldn't help themselves. They woke the beast up the second it was even halfway possible and now it's tearing itself apart in self-destructive blasts because the whole thing was under-cooked (and probably the completely wrong direction to begin with).
If there's any consolation here it's that hopefully this has soured enough people on the idea that a second effort won't even get off the ground. I hope ...
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 4 pts · 39d
That's a good movie!
BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 40d
I bet Elon or some other rich creep read Atlas Shrugged and thought it was profound lol
uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 7 pts · 40d
In the early 2010s, there was a lot of Ayn Rand fans in the Republican party. I think in the 2012 Republican Primary, the favorite book question either yielded Atlas Shrugged or the Reagan biography.
Eventually, as Steven Colbert would note in The Colbert Report, none of them were chosen, and the Republican party decided reluctantly to support Mitt Romney.
TipRing@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 40d
Thiel for sure thinks he's John Galt.
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 39d
It's on a bunch of reading lists. In my early twenties I had a libertarian phase (cringe, I know, but I've evolved into a democratic socialist), and I saw it recommended several times on lists like "books every sovereign citizen should read" or shit like that.
I bought a copy but I got bored in the first twenty pages. Probably because I could already tell that the guy was a piece of shit but the book was trying to make him sound cunning, and that didn't jive with me. I've always hated big corporations, even before I realized socialism is actually good.
EmilieEasie@fedinsfw.app · 45 pts · 41d
Reverse centaur? Lol? I need to come back to this later
lime@feddit.nu · 72 pts · 41d
centaur = brain of a man, speed of a horse.
reverse centaur = brain of a horse, speed of a man.
substitute horse with ai.
ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip · 24 pts · 41d
Over a long enough distance, men can outrun a horse. Especially in heat.
sundray@lemmus.org · 58 pts · 41d
Who’s in heat, the horse or the man?
random_character_a@lemmy.world · 34 pts · 41d
I don't like where this is going, but I approve it.
NoSpotOfGround@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 41d
I put on my harness and horse-ears hat...
caseyweederman@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 41d
Are you the mightiest horserer of the lands
erictile@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 41d
Wherever it's going, we can measure it in Hands.
Miller@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 41d
Whoever is chasing.
sundray@lemmus.org · 2 pts · 41d
🤔 😱
fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 41d
Have you ever tried running with a boner? You wear out quickly.
sundray@lemmus.org · 6 pts · 41d
Mountainaire@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 41d
What is that black ball that falls on the right side?
sundray@lemmus.org · 1 pts · 41d
That's weird, I have no idea. I didn't see it on my phone screen, but yeah I see it now on my laptop.
ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip · 2 pts · 41d
Yes
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world · 25 pts · 41d
I think the bigger question is why the man is running after a horse in heat. That is not how you make a centaur.
lime@feddit.nu · 16 pts · 41d
not with that attitude
onion_dude@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 40d
Ooooh! I've got a thing for this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_versus_Horse_Marathon
My friend runs it each year. His pictures are nuts
morto@piefed.social · 3 pts · 41d
But with a horse brain?
ssladam@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 41d
Practically, better described as endurance, although technically correct.
mcv@lemmy.zip · 19 pts · 41d
Good practical examples are the car driver vs the Amazon driver. When you drive a car, you go where you want, but at the superhuman speed of a car. The Amazon driver has a computer telling them where to go, how to drive there, and even cameras to watch if you drive according to Amazon's rules. The driver has become the extension of the computer, instead of the other way around. That's a reverse centaur.
EmilieEasie@fedinsfw.app · 2 pts · 41d
Thank you kindly friend
gedaliyah@lemmy.world · 22 pts · 41d
A centaur is a human that can do more than an ordinary person... A person plus a horse is able to do more. Making our tools work for us allows us to do more.
A reverse centaur is when our tools are using us instead. Rather than a driver using a computer to navigate more efficiently, Amazon drivers are more like computers that use humans as a component to drive more efficiently than the computer itself could. Not great for the human.
nightlily@leminal.space · 19 pts · 41d
He published a transcript of a speech where he goes over a summary of the book that’s worth a read https://pluralistic.net/2025/12/05/pop-that-bubble/#u-washington
Garnish2087@fedinsfw.app · 7 pts · 41d
If you've read this post or kept up with his blog occasionally the book treads familiar grounds. I sill think it's worth the read to have a condensed version.
Doctorow guides you through understanding the AI bubble by proving you don't need to know the technical jargon or latest developments. All you need to have as a guiding framework is "what technology (actually) does and who it does it to."
vane@lemmy.world · 29 pts · 41d
You can also buy and download books / audiobooks from his website https://craphound.com/ some of them are pay as you want.
markko@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 41d
For those wondering, the ebooks for Information Doesn’t Want To Be Free, With a Little Help from My Friends, and Context are pay what you'd like.
digital_alchemist@discuss.tchncs.de · 26 pts · 41d
He talked about the book in his interview on Democracy Now! this morning too.
freeman@feddit.org · 4 pts · 41d
absolutely stunning to hear him talk, he is an exceptional man
some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org · 19 pts · 41d
My friend was blathering on about Cory Doctorow two decades ago and I knew the name, had maybe read a little bit. I was kind of annoyed how ofter he brought him up. Man did he come out ahead of me on that. This guy articulates the ills of society so well.
arcine@jlai.lu · 7 pts · 39d
He really should have called it a "Minotaur" instead of a "reverse-centaur".
modus@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 40d
I couldn't get through Enshittification. It was like reading a reference book after the first half. That said, I look forward to this one.
libre_warrior@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 40d
I like how Doctorow is taking guardianship for his language through no bullshit tolerance.
neutronbumblebee@mander.xyz · 2 pts · 34d
One thing he didn't mention is Superannuation plans. If your plan is investing in AI ask them for an alternative or change providers if you can A lot of this shitshow is backed by retirement investments.
Grumpus_Maximus@thelemmy.club · -5 pts · 40d
Just start buying AI from Chinese companies. Cancel your anthropic and chatgpt - they will suffocate quickly.
rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 40d
Top tip: Getting computer-generated wrong answers in Chinese is just as useful as getting computer-generated wrong answers in English.
You don't even have to read Chinese!
SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 40d
Well gemini once put some helpful comments in a code sample it produced for me. The comments were in Korean for some reason.
Fizz@lemmy.nz · 1 pts · 39d
Or buy Chinese AI hosted on non us non chinese hardware.
corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca · -48 pts · 41d
Mr Doctorov has a nice life where he needs to make no tough decisions. I envy a life without least-worse voting and other harm-reduction efforts, where one can write what he dreams and people will happily consume it.
bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works · 37 pts · 41d
Why is there always some person hating on Cory when he's talked about? Astroturfing? He's the person we desperately need right now and everyone needs to listen to him. And Ed.
digital_alchemist@discuss.tchncs.de · 5 pts · 41d
Zitron?
bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 40d
Indeed
nomy@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 39d
They're two of the most visible faces with valid, well thought out critiques of the AI bubble. It's only natural that true believers (or people with a vested interest in AI) come out of the woodwork to trash them, they're scared.
Jason2357@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 40d
Really? Dude has cancer and a kid in college, and yet chooses to write this. I'm pretty sure he has tough decisions. He also is very much not an uncompromising idealist, pointing to very specific solutions and dismissing others.