The renewable energy industry. The tech is good and getting better rapidly. Costs continue to drop, consumer grade solar is becoming widely accessible.
This to me is the most exciting thing. And not just solar, but also modular nuclear power, fusion power, battery tech. The PRC is at the forefront of this green revolution.
Sure, they can lobby state legislatures to legalize balcony solar. Yet if I try to go around and convince those legislatures to legalize balcony fission, they look at me like I’m crazy! 😀
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capitalism
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All technology from this point on will be a grift, because the grifters have all the power.
Seriously
Gene therapy and stem cells.
There is one from Japan about regrowing teeth, and then the one (forget where) about a 4 hour gene therapy treatment that basically cures issues some people have around cholesterol.
Although maybe the first one might turn into a grift. Like honestly, if I could GMO in/ Stem cell in like, just one alligator tooth into my grill, I might just.
AI is not a grift but it is very much a dangerous rudderless ship right now.
Quantum computing is also not a grift.
Hell I feel dirty saying this but you could argue blockchain is not a grift either.
The problem in all these things is the people not the technology.
It’s worth remembering the hype cycle when it comes to these things.
The honest question is where are we with AI in its current state?
I’d disagree about the blockchain. It doesn’t actually provide anything useful and massively wastes resources, because it requires a ton of energy doing useless calculations for a fake token that you just gamble with on the internet. Countries that ban it are immediately placed in an economic advantage because they free up tons of resources to actually go into producing real physical things and not meme coins, which is a big reason why China has largely banned Bitcoin, viewing it as a major burden on their energy infrastructure while contributing nothing real to the economy.
There are a lot of libertarian weirdos in tech who try to push certain technologies solely for ideological reasons. They will tell you how ideological superior the blockchain is for decentralizing things and thus not making you dependent on Uncle Sam. But they don’t actually provide any utility to that other than ideology.
The only non-ideological explanation I have ever received is that the blockchain is good because it makes it easier to break the law if the law is unjust. If for example you want to pay someone for something that is wrongfully made illegal to begin with, you can pay them in Bitcoin and get away with it easier.
That to me, however, is a bit of a bizarre argument. Saying that X should be legal because X can be used to break the law makes little coherent sense. Obviously, the law at that point is the problem and is what should be changed. If you have the power to influence what is legal (and thus to actually act upon the question of whether or not something should be legal), then obviously we should choose to get rid of the unjust law, not to legalize Bitcoin. If we do not have the power to influence what is legal, then the conversation is moot anyways.
NFTs were even worse, because nobody has ever made a non-ideological argument for NFTs. They are always justified based on some weird ideological belief about the sanctity of some nebulous “private property” registered on the blockchain. Laughably, blockchain technologies do not have the storage capacity to practically hold entire images, so they just held links to the images, and so many now lead to nowhere because the original servers they were registered with are down.
People often hate me for the fact that I often defend the utility and potential utility of AI and quantum technologies (even if I do agree that companies hype it and push out slop, that does not prove the technologies themselves are entirely a scam). But I have always been a critic of blockchain and the “metaverse,” because those were hypecycles which nobody could actually give me a single coherent explanation of how these things might improve human society at all in any material way.
People say quantum computing is a grift?
The other two are are only “grifts” because capitalism has shoved them into things that have no business involving them and breeds opportunistic get rich quick mindsets around the technologies. So any time you hear them mentioned it’s more than likely to be a grift. They are fine in certain niches and very stupid everywhere else, like every other technology.
people will say QC is a grift when it eventually becomes commercially viable(Just look at the second level comments here)
The first two are grifts and I have yet to see anyone say quantum computing is going to be a grift anywhere, so because of your other comment I’m going to assume you’re just someone who likes crypto and AI and are mad that people are pointing out how they are grifts with huge environmental and social problems
Hi, read the next sentence:
quantum computing is also a grift
Hi, read the next sentence:
You’re condescending so I don’t trust your opinion and you’re also the first person to ever say that to me. Also with nothing to back that take up, good job.
I didn’t mean it to be condescending, you said you’d never seen it, so I said it. It was kind of a joking, cheeky way. I didn’t mean it like you’re stupid or incapable of understanding it. It was a failed attempt at a joke, and once I saw the down votes I realized the joke didn’t land.
No I didn’t back it up but that ship has sailed. I dont really care to prove to you my position now, I’d rather just apologize for how my comment came off.
You know what? That’s ok. I’ve flubbed jokes before. All is forgiven and better luck next time!
Thanks!
Fire.
A great time to be on the Internet. Felt like anything was possible.
I think Fire and Stick have a long future ahead of them still. Also a big fan of Wheel and Stardew Valley.
The four great innovations
None of them really, they were all novel technology ideas snd advancements that every company and their mom adopted because it became the next silicon valley investment money printer.
Blockchain started out as a decentralized network concept that’s still useful today.
AI started out as a tensor statistical concept that’s still useful today.
People say QC is a grift because every silicon valley giant has invested heavily into it because they want to be the first if it becomes viable. It’s just what they do. They throw money into everything and if they get something successful, they pump it as much as they can before it dumps.
Even FOSS software isn’t invulnerable. Half of AWS’s SaaS platforms are just automated FOSS software running on their cloud infrastructure without so much as a hint of donation or development into the project itself. They just want money, they don’t care how they get it.
Holy loaded question batman! Yeah I’m not gonna take this seriously with you just making these sweeping assertions with no evidence.
The assertion that lemmy users call Blockchain and AI a grift is not without evidence(just browse around on any thread related to the topic) people calling QC a grift is more nuanced and something I have picked up on, you could make the case when ‘it happens’ lemmites would call QC a grift.
Why do folks think quantum computing is a grift? I haven’t heard that yet.
He’s from the future where we call it a grift
This is the grift economy baby! Everything is a gotcha.
Anything china makes*
(I’m leaving this up for transparency, but I totally misread the comment I responded to. Sorry! I have attacked a strawman, and fought valiantly against ghosts lol.)
You’re several decades out of date with that opinion.
Chinese manufacturing has exploded in quality, safety, and efficiency over the last 20 years. The old stereotype that China is an assembly line economy pumping out cheap knockoffs and plastic junk, is false.
China now has some of the most advanced manufacturing facilities in the world. Even Tim Cook stated publicly a year or two ago, that they don’t manufacture Apple devices in China because it’s cheaper. They do it because China is the only country currently that has both the precision engineering plus the scale to build those devices at the volumes and quality Apple demands.
China has invested massively into STEM, their students, engineers, and scientists attended the best Western universities across the world for decades. Learned everything they could, brought that knowledge back home, and have been expanding on and turbocharging it with massive state and private investments.
Basically they did what the US used to do before we became a grift/vibe/hussle economy, and they are eating our lunch. Now I am absolutely no fan of China, but damn it, I am starting to get pretty jealous…
Yep buckykat already backed me up. I was saying that in support of china not against. I agree I think chinese technology is cool.
You’re right, sorry haha. I flipped that 180 degrees in my head.
