Animated Arcade Flyers

with every wave of technological innovation comes a new brand of alarmism. it happened with electricity, bicycles, the telephone, radio, and like dozens of others


That's because every new technology ultimately kills some number of people (and/or ruins a bunch of other stuff), be it directly or indirectly. The main reason you don't hear from any of those past people anymore is because they are all dead.

And to all the people who think this time will be just like all the others, you're right. It's going to be just like the Industrial Revolution.

Except this time we are the horses.
 
That's because every new technology ultimately kills some number of people (and/or ruins a bunch of other stuff), be it directly or indirectly. The main reason you don't hear from any of those past people anymore is because they are all dead.

And to all the people who think this time will be just like all the others, you're right. It's going to be just like the Industrial Revolution.

Except this time we are the horses.
100% agree. We are all doomed.
 
i felt the same way about the internet in general. normies ruined it, but cat's outta the bag. imagine what trendy technological horrors await next


At least the internet was great for a few years, before it went to shit.

This technology is shit right out of the bag, and it's trending down from there.

CEO's want it, because 'productivity make number go up'. And every corporation is under a mandate to continually grow, even when there are no new markets, or new problems to solve. However the overall public REALLY doesn't want this technology. We used to be so excited about new tech and the future, and I've lived long enough to see that do a complete 180.

It'll be interesting to see what happens when this tension hits an inevitable tipping point.
 
we have been for a long time, the proliferation of AI technologies is just another event in alignment with the same trajectory. it just seems unique because we're old

100% agree. We are all doomed.

the same things that have happened throughout our lives. consider the societal and technological state of the West from our youth to today - it's been reinvented several times. a new normal will settle in place, and everyone will keep doing what they've been doing, but this time with funny AI videos

It'll be interesting to see what happens when this tension hits an inevitable tipping point.
 
the same things that have happened throughout our lives. consider the societal and technological state of the West from our youth to today - it's been reinvented several times. a new normal will settle in place, and everyone will keep doing what they've been doing, but this time with funny AI videos

If that's how you think things will go, I would offer that there is a piece to the puzzle that makes this situation different from all other previous technology waves.

History can rhyme, that's true. But it doesn't do so forever.

All technologies have to find and maintain a niche, in order to persist and survive. Otherwise they cease to exist, and go the way of the Zune and Betamax. (Or they go extinct when they are displaced, like the dodo, the original Native American tribes, or the telegraph.)

Humans are technology. There is nothing guaranteeing we can (or even should) exist forever. No species does. It's hubristic IMO to assume that we will always be around. Especially when we are chasing down the creation of technology that is designed to be equivalent to (and will compete directly with) humans.
 
If that's how you think things will go, I would offer that there is a piece to the puzzle that makes this situation different from all other previous technology waves.

History can rhyme, that's true. But it doesn't do so forever.

All technologies have to find and maintain a niche, in order to persist and survive. Otherwise they cease to exist, and go the way of the Zune and Betamax. (Or they go extinct when they are displaced, like the dodo, the original Native American tribes, or the telegraph.)

Humans are technology. There is nothing guaranteeing we can (or even should) exist forever. No species does. It's hubristic IMO to assume that we will always be around. Especially when we are chasing down the creation of technology that is designed to be equivalent to (and will compete directly with) humans.
The people who are creating this technology are driven by discovery. They don't care about what will happen to any one beneath them. They believe that it's all for the greater good and whatever happens is for the greater good. I think it's funny when people naively think that anyone "cares" about their welfare.

No one cares. Especially the people on top with all of the money and tech. To them, we are just a blockage to what needs to happen. Whether they are right or wrong remains to be seen. Either way, whatever their plan is, we are not involved in it. Our kids might be but we aren't. If I were in their same position, I'm not sure I would be any different.
 
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The people who are creating this technology are driven by discovery. They don't care about what will happen to any one beneath them. They believe that it's all for the greater good and whatever happens is for the greater good.


I think that is a narrative that people used to tell 30 years ago, and most people were sincere about it then. I was one of them.

However having worked in tech for those 30 years, I feel like it's a narrative that some people are still telling (like Sam Altman), mainly to themselves. But it no longer holds water, nor does most of the public believe it. Because we all heard that same story 30 years ago ('The internet will democratize knowledge, and create wealth and abundance for everyone!'), and look where it's gotten us.

I don't even think most of them are driven by discovery. Some true scientists like Sutskever, Hinton, Bengio, yes. But for the actual CEO types I think it's mostly just greed and power at this point. There are even stories out there of how these people say different things behind closed doors, and believe this shit will ruin society, while they are prepping their Armageddon bunkers. But they can't say that publicly because it's against their fiduciary duty as CEO's. Yet they're the same people who won't let their own kids use social media.

Every one of these tech 'leaders' is a fundamentally damaged person, most of which come from some form of fucked up upbringing. (Not unlike most celebrities and politicians.) You have to be fundamentally fucked up on some level to want disproportionate amounts of wealth, fame, or power. Most of us are perfectly fine with a small amount, and can share the rest. But some people are just bottomless pits, who are never satiated.

I read a youtube comment recently that summed it up well:

"I always knew rich people would ruin the world. I just never expected them to be such losers."
 
We've been living with the internet for about 30 years. We've had effectively no unemployment in the last 3 years in the US. While information systems have changed work they haven't displaced it at all. There are still so many processes that can be automated with traditional information systems. Why they're not comes down to that often the investment isn't worth it. Also, people need to design the prompts for these AI images and train models. These tools will make them more productive though (you'd think) but it seems like there's less control as a designer.

Meta already knows how addictive social media is. AI teamed with VR has potential to be extremely addictive. What this tech will do to some people is real and scary.
 
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The girl in Dead Eye has her head on a swivel!

I had to watch that one a few times. It starts with her facing the viewer, and then her whole body morphs so that we're suddenly looking at her from behind. She then spins around and starts shooting the light gun as if it's a real gun!
Been wanting to see that Defender box art come alive for years now.
Maybe one day it'll be accurately animated, and not obfuscated into something else... like turning the spaceship into a tailless helicopter. AI also only animated the 2 largest people in the photo (there's at least 12 total), having them stand up and walk offscreen like they're on a miniature model of a city.

The basketball players from the Punk Shot flyer clearly don't know how to play basketball, or what to do with the ball tipoff. The woman playing Joust is moving the joystick all over the control panel while the screen shows all sorts of unreadable text on it. Atari's Shane Breaks starts dancing on the Gauntlet flyer (why?). The guys in the cage on the Missing in Action flyer turn and run towards the back of the cage, even though the woman with the gun and the red bandana just freed them from said cage. The women from the Martial Champion flyer start dancing... because...? The only one that looked good was the VCS Space Invaders box art.. probably because no humans were depicted. It's just a compilation of bizarre clips.
 
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Where I work, we have a bunch of net new openings for jobs using AI and software automation to apply to areas where we can't keep up with the demands and can't hire enough people. Eventually this stuff might result in some long term workforce reductions, but so far I've only seen it create new jobs. I only need 10-15 more years before I retire, so I'm not too worried about it for myself.

Young people might be afraid to go into some high tech and coding jobs, but most of them seem to be uninterested in it anyway. It's just the newest reason why many of them aren't going into those fields. I'm not sure it's really scared anyone off.
 
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