Sociology on Ulveon's Thoughts

AI is not a fad: It's here to stay

Sun, 10 Aug 2025 01:00:00 +0100

Nobody cares about your beautiful, elegant, handcrafted code. Software engineers are engineers first and foremost, and producing code was never the main goal for software engineers. Engineers solve problems with code, such as increasing revenue or decreasing spending. Engineers exist to apply scientific innovations to businesses, in order to increase profit. There’s really nothing else to it.

Meritocracy: The lie that built modern Western society

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 22:06:00 +0100

Most of the modern West is built around the idea of meritocracy. Because of how influential Christianism has been in Europe, and later America, this can be traced back to Abrahamic traditions. Many societies nowadays revolve around “hardened individuals”, “self-made men”, and individual financial success. Admittedly, this behaviour motivates people to give their best, as you condition them to believe their efforts have a measurable impact on their future life, by which more effort translates into a better, more comfortable life. And for sure, there’s a component of effort and hard work in everyone’s future.

Why european safeguards strengthen democracy - A response to Vance

Sun, 16 Feb 2025 20:41:27 +0100

Dear JD Vance, your recent speech at the Munich Security Conference on 14th February 2025 concerns me, and you made several points I would like to address individually.

Your speech is full of lies, and has a profoundly unethical undertone. Frankly, I am already deeply disappointed with how Elon Musk has been behaving in the past few years, and this is my first impression of you. Not a positive one, for sure!

Fediverse and the consequences of decentralised moderation

Tue, 21 Jan 2025 22:01:13 +0100

Most furries who are vaguely involved in tech have heard of the “Fediverse” or, at minimum, Mastodon, the most popular Fediverse software stack implementation.

There is a lot to be said about Fediverse, and it is a fantastic initiative from a technological point of view. With Fediverse software, you can build communities around a topic of interest and optionally interact with other users in other instances. It lets you own your data (at least from a server operator perspective), which is clearly very different from Twitter. The communities around Fediverse instances are tight-knit, often focused on technology and topics related to minorities or marginalised communities, like LGBT or sex workers.

Fascism is coming

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 20:34:09 +0100

And it won’t be pretty. We have collectively learned nothing from Hitler’s rise to power. And it is just happening all over again, through the same institutions that we thought were set up to resist the next fascist takeover.

The implicit social contract: the division of labour

Fri, 07 Jun 2024 20:34:09 +0100

I’ve observed an interesting phenomenon that I believe is the base for any economy, capitalist, communist, socialist, or else, and it might very well be an intrinsic part of who we are, collectively, as a species. The division of labour has existed since ancient times, way before Homo Sapiens were roaming Earth. The division of labour exists, to a certain extent in animal communities too. There are leaders, hunters, protectors, and other roles. Naturally, as living standards increase, technology advances, and materials improve, we tend to hyperspecialise.

You don't need to own your home, you just need a place to live in

Wed, 17 Apr 2024 20:00:00 +0100

The entire world is in a housing crisis at the moment. And at times, it might seem like this has been going on for almost two decades, ever since the financial crisis of 2008.

Free speech is not a noble goal to pursue

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 19:35:56 +0100

Freedom and free speech have always been topics of deep interest to me. Historically, I’ve been a firm advocate for free speech, aligning myself with Pirate Party principles.

Later on, during my political explorations, I briefly ventured into libertarianism and “free speech absolutism” which led me to consider many other possible arguments, such as the right to free information from a journalistic perspective. For example: “Why should the government get to decide what kind of news I am allowed to read?” Surely, governments would have a strong incentive to not allow dissenting information that could threaten their grip on power.