Back

@cstross I think that's certainly an LLM hazard.

The core hazard as I see it is not a single specific "this is a bad idea" but that the LLM push is a continuation of the American imperial value extractor built around IP controls. No amount of negative consequences to other people will cause or permit not using LLMs. They're going to get made compulsory unless or until there's a collapse of the empire or they somehow start having intolerable costs to Apple, Google, and Microsoft.

@graydon @cstross

I am increasingly convinced we need a tax on stored data.

Even a little as 1$/MB/year would seriously change decisions about what is stored and how long it is stored.

It would also bring into light who holds how much data.

@bsdphk @cstross No feedback involving a tax is useful until the general problem of making corporates pay taxes has been solved.

My general take on this is that the limited liability corporation is a tool of conquest and should be abolished as part of the alterations to the social machinery acknowledging we live on a finite planet and need to close all the loops to keep the "live" part functional and factual.

(It's also the case that it's not clear ANY 3ʳᵈ party data retention is legitimate.)

@graydon @bsdphk I'd be a little less draconian, but make directors of limited companies personally liable for any lawbreaking and impose jail time on them at the highest management level involved in the infraction. Fines don't work on the rich. "If you cheat on taxes via an offshore wheeze, or do a rug-pull on your customers via contractual shenanigans, you WILL go to prison for 11 years" ought to concentrate their minds wonderfully.

@cstross @graydon @bsdphk criminality immediately strips the limited company protection from directors as it is.

The problem is that the authorities seldom prosecute on that basis. Tax authorities will use it to pursue individuals for company debt if they can though.

(And removing limited liability would make running businesses even less possible for the not-actually-rich who’d have to take on all the risks of civil action personally.)

@Colman @cstross @graydon @bsdphk <raises hand>
Not having that LLC shield would put our tai chi school out of business quickly. No problem with criminality having personal consequences, but I wouldn't be ready to gamble teaching members of the public without that shield.

@Colman @cstross @graydon @bsdphk FWIW, I read it more as legitimate anger being expressed as a "solution" without thinking thru all the consequences. The anger is real and important and more useful expressed in terms of principles than solutions.

@colo_lee @cstross @graydon @bsdphk I believe the US has a specific problem where the concept of corporate legal personhood and natural personhood has become conflated in a way that isn’t true elsewhere.

Everywhere has an enforcement problem.