No doubt. The question is, is that the explicit goal, and if so, why? And if not, don't they consider the effects of their actions, if they aren't, why?

The torment nexus is very interesting from a research standpoint and very profitable for investors. There's many military and industrial applications.

the torment nexus can't torment you specifically, you're overreacting.

i am totally a real person and use the nexus every day to improve my productivity -- it is a simple and intuitive tool.

Gotta bring home that stable paycheck (not justifying it)

You actually don’t. Technologists have more leverage than most workers. There’s no shortage of jobs that don’t require building surveillance states or engagement addiction engines.

At this point, the path from what these teams of people are building to dystopian outcomes is well-mapped. Whether it’s an explicit goal is irrelevant because if you can reasonably foresee the harm and proceed anyway, you’re making a conscious choice to enable it.

> It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.

Rich or poor, smart or dumb. We all are slaves to the mighty dollar.

When one is fascinated with building a gear, they might not see the machine they are creating.

AI/Surveillance are only gears in the machine.