FAQ

Q: Are you luddites?

A: That depends. If by "luddite" you mean "industry professional concerned about the direction of the industry", then yeah. If you mean the strawman definition of luddite - ie, "do you hate tech for the sake of hating tech" - we encourage you to re-evaluate your reasons for asking.

Q: Do you hate capitalism?

A: We don't like growthism very much, at any rate. Mostly we like people and want them to have a nice future that doesn't involve them being exploited.

Q: What about models trained on public-domain datasets? Or openly distributed models?

A: Our concerns with generative models are multi-dimensional - social, economic, cultural, technical, environmental. Right now, we don't see conditions that would make generative models desirable. In general, we're in favor of smaller, more considered computing.

Q: Are you a movement? Or an organization? Or what?

A: Not really any of the above. There's no Permacomputer HQ over here. We're just some people who talked about permacomputing stuff and got unsettled by the rush toward implementing AI systems.

Q: What about new technology providing solutions to your concerns?

A: We take a very skeptical view of solutionism around here. The historical record of technological solutions reducing consumption and summoning utopian futures is uninspiring.

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