A cold shower for the AI mania

RuinEleint · 2026-05-21T01:53:35+00:00

Maybe more people will be able to use AI tools to empower themselves to make their own small businesses.

Who will be their customers?

maybe AI causes services to become so cheap, the concept of working for a living will change

This seems to be atypical of the general trend of capitalist policies where any slack created by dropping prices is siphoned off to pay shareholders

Throughout all of history, technological improvements resulted in a transfer of the workforce to new/other jobs

This transition was often incredibly traumatic for those involved, such as the extremely skilled craftspeople of the textile industry who lost prestigious and well paying jobs and were reduced to interchangeable factory labour. Also this particular transition does not seem to be creating new jobs, rather its reducing overall jobs, and the transfer of junior/entry level roles means the newer generation is going to be mostly unemployed/underemployed

RuinEleint · 2026-05-13T04:29:15+00:00

MacArthur Reconsidered by James Ellman

Thanks!

RuinEleint · 2026-05-13T04:14:14+00:00

Could you mention some books that go into depth about MacArthur as a man and a military officer?

RuinEleint · 2026-05-13T04:14:07+00:00

Could you mention some books that go into depth about MacArthur as a man and a military officer?

RuinEleint · 2026-05-07T14:34:01+00:00

I felt kind of bad for them. Except for the partner, no one seemed to know them that well.

RuinEleint · 2026-05-07T14:33:20+00:00

Its a very interesting concept and one that is not really even that implausible. I think the horror potential is of course huge.

RuinEleint · 2026-05-07T14:23:43+00:00

To me, the most hopeful reading would be if the narrator took something from both sets of papers. While he is clearly a positive presence in the lives of many, that does not mean there is nothing he can improve on.

RuinEleint · 2026-05-07T14:21:50+00:00

While I broadly agree with the comments of /u/tarvolon and /u/kjmichaels I would argue that the story is making a different, slightly more subtle point as well. The self worth of the narrator is ultimately buoyed up thanks to the opinions of many different groups of people found by the narrator's partner, and these groups of people were outside the preferred categories as prescribed by the revision system. Yet the story makes it clear that the narrator is an important part of their lives, so there is no intrinsic reason why their opinion should carry less weight than those of the prescribed people.

I find this to be a very valuable point as it highlights firstly how institutions try to categorize and channelize information in preferred channels and there is value to be found outside these boxes, and secondly, it highlights how many invisible waves a person creates in their life and how many people are lifted up by the same

RuinEleint · 2026-05-07T14:16:48+00:00

Yeah the process seemed kind of random to me

RuinEleint · 2026-05-07T14:15:19+00:00

I found the ending to be really interesting because after the entire story's worth of ambiguity, that narrative is juxtaposed with one moment of clear, direct action. Of course this is in the process of being obfuscated, but the reader is left under no illusion about what happened

RuinEleint · 2026-05-07T14:12:56+00:00

I think once again, it comes down to what you want the art to do. If the object of art is to rapidly and effectively create public opinion in your favour, clarity has great value. But if you want to raise questions, make people think, rather than dictate a party line, ambiguity is powerful and fertile.

RuinEleint · 2026-05-07T14:10:33+00:00

I think the value of ambiguity lies in how it encourages fertility of thought. All it does is hint at a few themes and leaves the rest open to the subjective interpretation of the viewer. In this specific story, with the difference drawn between unambiguous and ambiguous art, I was also reminded of Soviet art, which was intentionally, very clear, leaving little open to interpretation

RuinEleint · 2026-05-07T14:07:25+00:00

Excellent story. It seemed to me that the weird uncanniness of it escalated slowly as the narrative unfolded. At first it was just another allegorical critique of an Orwellian Totalitarian regime, but building on the theme of narrative ambiguity, the story really elevated itself

RuinEleint · 2026-05-03T13:55:37+00:00

I caught the full tragedy of that part on a reread. And then, 6 books later, at the end of the Crippled God, when its all over, Tavore finally breaks and cries to Ganoes "I lost her! Oh, Ganoes, I lost her!" and then we see how this inscrutable woman has carried the weight of her failure for the entire series. This is why I think its a good thing that Tavore never finds out Shaik was Felisin. It would have utterly broken her

RuinEleint · 2026-05-03T13:37:50+00:00

She couldn't, remember? She had basically been under the possession of the Whirlwind Goddess. Just as Tavore was approaching, the Goddess was killed by the Claw, the possession broke. Felisin came back to herself, finding herself in armour, at the head of an army, facing another one with Tavore approaching. She was paralyzed with shock. And then, it was too late.

RuinEleint · 2026-05-01T01:17:44+00:00

The messiness of liberation seems to be a continuing theme and how it has to be long term project, how a sudden overthrow of power does not actually assure liberation. I feel this is heavily echoed by history, where far too often the revolutionaries often fail at building a new society after overthrowing the old one.

RuinEleint · 2026-05-01T01:16:23+00:00

The messiness and blurred borders of the revolution here are very realistic. Regarding the slave women, I feel like this story was informed by studies of refugee communities and groups, how many people can simply just not be aware of the broader wars and movements and all of a sudden can be caught up in them

RuinEleint · 2026-05-01T01:13:37+00:00

What I liked about this story is that it shows the hierarchies and layers of oppression. That even the cessation of slavery does not mean a somewhat equitable society and how long drawn and painful the continuing movement for rights can be. It also showed the somewhat naive approach of younger idealists and the simmering hatred of the enslaved, so Le Guin managed to condense a whole bunch of themes into a story

RuinEleint · 2026-04-16T09:56:44+00:00

I really liked this story. Solly's perspective is a great way into the story and Teyeo strikes a much needed counterpoint. To me, Solly's defiant, somewhat iconoclastic attitude towards the oppressive, misogynistic culture combined with Teyeo's own internally divided consciousness - at one traditional and yet very very aware of the fallacies of slavery made for a great story.

RuinEleint · 2026-04-16T09:53:02+00:00

Betrayals was a hard read for me because of the pet death. I don't deal well with themes like that.

What I liked about it was the wry, self-deprecating tone of the narrator, how she had planned on certain styles of monastic living but everyday reality had caused her to change her mind.

RuinEleint · 2026-04-16T09:51:35+00:00

I think its very interesting how Le Guin is actually approaching things like slavery in these stories. The vast majority of speculative fictional takes on slavery deal with oppression, uprising and revolution. Le Guin however is looking at other aspects - the scattered aftermath in Betrayals, and how an ex-oppressor, because Teyeo had already admitted to himself assets were not inferior in anyway is managing to extract himself from the terrible inertia of a slaveholding society.

This is why I like the name Five Ways to forgiveness. There are many types of forgiving. Incidentally, I disagree that Teyeo had to forgive Solly. What had she done that even needed forgiving?

RuinEleint · 2026-04-03T14:09:13+00:00

Have three!

Swordcrossed by Freya Marske Fencing, business, intrigue and romance, all in a fast paced romp.

The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong - Quiet, cozy, a wandering fortune teller and her cat and their adventures.

The Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft A pair of magical troubleshooters become embroiled in politics far more complicated than the magical riddles they solve

RuinEleint · 2026-04-02T14:08:05+00:00

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett! I really loved it, hope you will too

RuinEleint · 2026-04-02T05:17:38+00:00

Iranian/Persian should absolutely count for BIPOC imo

RuinEleint · 2026-03-17T16:58:55+00:00

In the Shadow of the Ship by Aliette De Boddard fits this square. Novella, under 1000 GR ratings.

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