I don't dream of labour: ethical tech, work and you
Transcript:
In the inimitable words of Lendrick Kamar. Martin had a dream. Kendrick had a dream, Olu has a dream. Hello world. Welcome to Olu online. Um, I'm Olu, my pronouns are they them? And this , this channel is all about tech, ethics and tech tech, and associated things. So I don't know if you've been on YouTube for awhile.
But if you have, you've noticed the explosion, of videos, all about the don't dream of labor, um, phenomenon and how most of them are saying it's a, that it's a garbage idea, but I would say there's more to it than that. Like I think the whole point as in the beginning of the video is, uh, I didn't dream of labor. Like a dream is not supposed to be something that's small and easily crushed, it's supposed to be something bigger.
than you or me like something to work towards? I think the i don't dream of labor is useful for him for many reasons, but there's here's a few. Um, there's always been more to life than work and I mean, work in the sense, of labour that produces money for someone.
And I think that's true. Even if the person that's, the labor is being that money's been produced for is me. Hard work as a virtue is kind of bogus. Like I don't think you're going to get into your life and be like, oh, why didn't I grind more? And I know you're probably wondering how this relates tech and I'll tell you. The amount that tech has promised that it's going to make our lives easier and make us have to work less.
And do less has always been a lie. Like how have you noticed that? The well, there's studies, even if you don't believe me, but the more we've had to , the more we've produced that can make things easier for our lives. The more we've worked like that productivity has gone up. And so has our workloads, capitalism has meant that we're always going to have to work more and more and more to, you know,
supply the money to keep the line going up. And I know that there's things like fully automated electric communism as an idea. But I think that any idea where machines and tech are going to be the ones to support our lifestyles without any intervention, like who repairs the robots, there's always going to be someone, some underclass here in these utopian visions, there's always going to be work.
So how do you make it as pleasant? Fair and enriching, as possible. In tech, privileged position where we, earn a lot of money. And a lot of it is all arguably underserved. Like, do you think you deserve more money than a teacher or as much clout a doctor? Like we do do a lot fair. Like I think it depends on what industry you're in, of course, but some people I don't know.
And if you think that you do, deserve to have as much clout and money as these other professions, like teachers and doctors and nurses then why is that? And do you think it's fair that they're not paid well yeah, because well, in the world so there is of course alphabet, who is the parent company of google and youtube
and like Google such is the highest search engine in the world of course everyone knows, you know, you google it, but also YouTube searches now, I think second, or is it Tik TOK? I don't know, but either way, like all these walled gardens are taking over from, um, or like a small web of web 2.0, so, you know, things changing. AWS and Amazon are another example.
places where , um, like small, well, not small companies taken over by merging. And like, like, I don't know if you know that most companies have some sort of entanglement with AWS which is Amazon web services, which hosts the platforms that everyone uses every day. So even if you don't use Amazon directly because of ethical concerns, you are probably using it.
when you search the web in general Um, going back to privileged positions. We have it on here, but he can demand that like, you know, we even want to work for a place or, you know, we'll stay working now, but we have the power to make demands of our workplaces. Like we can say we won't work here and unless people or everyone in the whole company is paid well, or we're going to support the things that they're fighting for.
Like join a union, you know, it's my rallying cry. If you, if you're able to, I know that are um the kind of people who can demand some countries there are a lot more, they crack down on that a lot more. Um, if you're able to, you should definitely. And also try and support your fellow workers. There's always going to be work, but we shouldn't accept world where the majority of people are underpaid and undervalued going back to, I don't dream of labor trend though.
It's sad how it's been. Co-opted like, I think a lot of people are. were invigorated by the original message. Cause it seemed quite an anti-capitalist and anti-work going with a current great resignation trend of life or the moment it seemed like a way out of things. But I think it's sad that it's been co-opted by like hustle, culture, to be honest, like shilling, YouTube and creator co like culture as a way out of work when it's not a way out, which it's not a form of work
to be honest with yourself, I was like, even if you're your own boss, quotation marks your, your boss is, YouTube, like, or, your boss is Instagram . And I don't understand how you think that you've escaped things, but it's interesting F.D. 75 has a great video on this, Signifier you should all watch. I'll link in comments in the description box.
But I think that, um, the reality isn't what should constrain our dreams. That's the whole point of this video. Like we should, we should. try and like, like at least with our dreams, if you can't be bothered to try and, well, I'm not bothered. If we can't fight with our dreams at the very least what, what's the point of trying to change all at all?
So what I do with in tech, I dream of a world where the entire vertical was safe and doing fun... Well fun. At least enriching work that is interesting to them and well paid and safe and not bullshit and industry for where the drive for, um, for where like interesting problems to work on doesn't mean that you work on evil things, evil, terrible things, that destroy the planet and people.
I dream of a world where tech serves the interest of the many and not the few. And I dream of a world where, um, tech um, tech and its progress, um, is in service of people and the planet. Thanks so much for watching goodbye, world.
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