0346 - News. - 2024.05.20

Comic!

Comment:

The CRGC and CEDC are government agencies that work to guarantee all Canadians and visitors to Canada a safe place to reside and access to education, respectively. I mean, it's 2167, we're not barbarians here. And yes, while this narrative may have taken years for me to write and for you to read, please keep in mind that, in strip-time, Orb has managed to set up that early morning meeting with less than 24 hours' notice.

As I write this comment file, it is 2024, and the tech hype train du jour is "A.I.", a term that silicon flimflammers and pie-eyed futurists are currently using to mean "black box Markov chains with uncredited source data". Much like the cryptocurrency and NFTs of last year's hype train, the legitimate use cases of some perfectly decent technology are being overshadowed by a gold rush of rapacious capitalists and their eager would-be suckers, which will surely taint the public perception of such "A.I." for decades to come.

But, of course, over a century from now, surely that stink will have worn off. Autocomplete, like all other forms of technology, is, at its heart, a labour-saving device. Labour should be being saved, and if the saved labour results in someone losing their job and, subsequently, their home and education, then labour is being saved incorrectly.

The true advances between 2024 and 2167, of course, have nothing to do with programming and everything to do with society. While generative text (with appropriate safeguards and an actual understanding of the text being generated) is instrumental in the responsive functioning of the CRGC and CEDC, the really important element of these agencies is what they do, not how efficiently they do it.

A functioning, equitable, compassionate society would certainly save its members a heck of a lot of labour. I'm uncertain as to whether or not it's a good thing that such a development would be difficult for capitalists to monetize.

Transcript:

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0346– 2167/07/07/10:56- Rosenthal College, Phi building, classroom 1248
OT: Anyway.
OT: The news I have, Lee, happens to be comprised of good news and bad news. Which do you want first?
LC: Can I just get the good news?
OT: That’s... not how news works, no.
Zoa: We’ll take the bad news first, please.
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OT: The bad news is that, after a very long meeting this morning between myself, Rosenthal’s Administrative Board, an advocate from the CRGC, an advocate from the CEDC, and our dorm maintenance coordinator… regardless of what we do, at the end of the semester, you are being moved out of your current apartment.
OT: Either that, OR, if you stay on as a full-time student with a full course load, you’d be permitted to remain, but with two roommates, as your unit is officially rated for three occupants.
OT: That’s the bad news.
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LC: I… oh… that’s… uh…
LC: Shit. Crap. Crap.
Zoa: Breathe, Lee, breathe. That’s still three months out, and there’s good news comin’, isn’t there, Mezzer Twofeather?
OT: Right. The good news is that the CRGC rep says - specifically for folks with certain documented mental health issues, which you happen to have - there’s a subsidized single-occupancy unit currently available for roughly the same creds-per-second you’re paying now. It’s slightly smaller, and it’s a ways outside of town, but… it’s an option.
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LC: So… move out of the student housing and move into the crazy-person housing?
Zoa: Given that you are one thing and aren’t the other, I’d say that sounds like the option to go for, babe.
OT: Yeah, I’m not gonna lie, the fact that you evidently tipped your vacuum cleaner a kilocred really weighted the balance in your favour...
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