I’m looking closely and I’m not seeing IP laws being relevant. Maybe regarding windows 11 keys? Can you elaborate?
I think the claim isn’t totally inaccurate. Claiming that companies prioritize making products last just beyond return windows because that maximizes profits is a critique of capitalism IMO. Since capitalism is about profit (capital) being the dominant signal as far as I understand it.
In my opinion, a lot of frustration about capitalism nowadays can be tied to Goodhart’s law. Profit being the measure and companies getting so efficient at optimizing it, that we’re starting to harm the things that profit is a proxy for.
Specifically it is a critique of our implementation of capitalism. In a picture book version of capitalism everyone has perfect information and consumers wouldn't buy a product that lasts 35 days (unless they truly only need it that short, and resale isn't viable). In an ideal version of Amazon the product reviews would inform you of the quickly failing products. But we don't live in a picture book version of capitalism and don't have an ideal version of Amazon, so we are stuck with companies exploiting information asymmetry to their own gain (an information asymmetry they are creating themselves through review manipulation, no less)
Capitalism is about private ownership of the means of production.
There is nothing about the private ownership of the means of production that inherently leads to the situation described earlier. You could end up in the exact same place if the means of production was community owned.
What leads us there is intellectual property laws, which create artificial monopolies. Go on, just try and copy that shitty product that only lasts 35 days, but modify it slightly to last longer to the glee of the customers, and see how long you last before lawyers are breathing down your neck...
Problem with that is wealthy capitalists lobby politicians to pass or rescind laws favoring their industries. They also figured out how to manipulate consumer demand on mass scale with modern advertising. Just look at how the fossil fuel industry has behaved despite their own research showing in the 70s that climate change was going to become a serious problem in the next century.
Or they use their influence to pass tax cuts primarily for the super wealthy that increase the wealth gap and erode existing social safety nets as we see with the "Big Beautiful Bill".
It's never just about the classic definition anymore than communism is, because there are always humans looking to look the cheat the system.
> Problem with that is wealthy capitalists lobby politicians to pass or rescind laws favoring their industries.
Do you mean interventionists, or, at least, opportunists? Welcoming politicians passing or rescinding laws that favor their industries is not in tune with capitalism, and therefore the people are not reasonably considered capitalists.
The USA is not really a capitalist state, if that is what you have in mind. It integrates some ideas from capitalism, to be fair, but also brings in a wealth of its own ideas. If you are desperate you could call it partially capitalist, I suppose, but even better is to leave capitalism behind and pick a word that encompasses what it really is. But, I know, when one falls in love...
> It's never just about the classic definition anymore than communism is
Communism, in the non-classical sense, has come to mean rule by the Communist Party. If you are implying that capitalism has come to mean rule by the Republican Party (and Democratic Party; there isn't enough difference to need to differentiate), I think that is quite fair. I would agree with you!
Which brings us back to IP laws being the problem. They are a legislative invention, not some kind of capitalistic principle. One that the Republicans and Democrats could fix, but choose not to. No doubt that is what the earlier comment was actually talking about — but poor choice of words given the overloadedness.
Which, again, stems from low quality content. In the olden days of HN, commenters were much more careful (pedantic, even) with what they had to say. Now commenters are just posting comments of little value and preying on emotions by using words that they know tug on heartstrings.
I don’t find it fair that you point out straw man in your parent comment and then use ad hominem in this comment. I would love to see you post some examples. I think you’d have a chance of persuading several readers to at least be more open minded.
I think a lot of people in tech unintentionally blind themselves to reality by obsessing over technology, and then thinking that is all that matters. It’s a behavior that is incentivized because it helps those with power utilize the tech-blind’s skills for their bidding.
spot on. I am continually shocked by the number of people I work with who will actively contribute to ends that are ultimately against their own best interests just because they are intrigued by the technical aspects of a problem
It seems that there’s still unavoidable subjectivity in making the choice of prior distribution? I get how it’s objective for a fixed choice, but my understanding is that you need to first make that choice in order to be objective. Is it actually that making your choice of prior is obvious (or there is some objectively optimal way to pick a prior), which rules out any subjectivity in the choice of prior?
Yes. You've hit the essence of the problem - the choice of a prior. The scientific method gives us a way to choose a prior that fits reality. You are claiming something different, that our prior is based on subjective choices. Yep, those are both ways to choose a prior. But only one is guaranteed to be valid. Do I even need to mention the appalling history of base rate neglect in medical research? Neglecting priors leads to bad decisions.
The latter quarter of the article goes into depth about how one can accidentally find oneself in an inner ring, but it is through a wholesome pursuit and no ulterior motive. The other reply to this comment gets it write: people here like interacting with the things on HN.
In other words, to comment on HN does not mean you are striving to be in the inner circle.
Recently, I finished the making of the atomic bomb by Richard Rhodes. It’s quite long, but a fascinating view on physics, weapon development, and then the politics of the bomb. It’s a good exercise to compare with the current state of AI and see what things are similar and what are different.
I thought of these as well while reading the article as they convey the fun aspects of archival visits well (I’ve done a bit of my own and really enjoyed the random “side quest” things you discover along the way).
If anyone else has recommendations for things like these (text or video) then I would love to see more!
I think the claim isn’t totally inaccurate. Claiming that companies prioritize making products last just beyond return windows because that maximizes profits is a critique of capitalism IMO. Since capitalism is about profit (capital) being the dominant signal as far as I understand it.
In my opinion, a lot of frustration about capitalism nowadays can be tied to Goodhart’s law. Profit being the measure and companies getting so efficient at optimizing it, that we’re starting to harm the things that profit is a proxy for.