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Jeff Bezos reportedly launches new AI startup with himself as CEO (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 11 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Former Amazon CEO to co-head Project Prometheus with tech executive Vik Bajaj, according to the New York Times

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[–] 16 points 11 months ago (11 children)

You gotta respect the man for how much he seems to relish in being pure evil. Prometheus like the movie, about the bald dudes who created life? And the ultimate artificial lifeform as a weapon that wiped em all out in the end? That's a masterclass in Saturday morning ass villainy this Jeff practices.

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  • [+] 65 points 11 months ago (7 children)
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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (5 children)

    Fair play, TIL.

    I figured it was something from Greek mythology (probably), but I don't have that particular kind of special interest so I never looked into it.

    As to your concern I imagine the vast majority know of it from the movie, not an obscure greek myth. Like surely you understand that's pretty niche compared to a multimillion dollar blockbuster?

    EDIT: why am I downvoted for admitting I didn't know something? Not knowing something and admitting it, even being proud of having the opportunity to learn something new is always a good thing. It is something we should encourage in people. Fucking dotworld I swear man.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

    You’re good. I upvoted. People downvoting are leery of anti-intellectualism (and not without good reason).

    But I don’t see that in your comment. You simply didn’t know something, and you didn’t get mad when corrected. You acknowledged you just didn’t know yet.

    In addition, your guess that the majority who recognize the name associate it with something from pop culture rather than classical mythology is likely accurate. Those who were taught this in school, or who had the resources at hand to teach themselves — public libraries, internet access, free time, etc — often forget that in most of the world knowledge remains a privilege, whereas the right to pay for entertainment is nearly always guaranteed.

    If you’d like to read some of these stories, along with commentary about them, I would recommend A Guide to Mythology by Helen Clark, which is public domain and thus free. You can listen to it for free as well.

    Edit: add links and additional resources

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 child)

    Thank you! And yeah you said it well.

    I might check it out at some point, but I'm not really into mythology tbh, I think the only thing remotely close to that that I've ever consumed is some of the videos from Overly Sarcastic Productions on YT.

    I also wonder where (if anywhere) they teach classical greek myths at school. The literature classes we had in high school - other than Shakespeare - mostly focused on modern period literature from the 19th century onwards (with the most recent book probably being To Kill A Mockingbird ofc and the earliest Silas Marner)

    I guess that's kinda like what's particularly astounding to me about the downvotes. This is not even a matter of privilege and resources, it's simply a matter of: Why would you expect anyone to go out of their way to look up fairly obscure greek myths, unless they were specifically into fairly obscure greek myths? And I already think considering I actively engage with content about mythology even rarely as it may be I imagine most people know much less.

    Heck I had the lucky opportunity for the joy of explaining The Illiad and The Odyssey to my girlfriend recently, who had literally no clue what those even were or that they existed.

    Right now I'm really into space stuff. It's extremely unlikely that if I asked any random person, including myself from like slightly over a week ago, what ORB RATE and INRTL positions on the FDAI switch on Panel 13 do in the Apollo CSM, that they would know what the heck I'm talking about. So I would never make that assumption. It's just kinda baffling to do so.

    We cannot hate on people for not knowing what is unreasonable for anyone but an enthusiast to know. That in itself is refusing to think properly, it is anti-intellectualism, plain and simple. "Ooga Grog no know thing, means Grog bad!" is an insane way to operate, it's reeks of a regressive and unsystemic view of the world.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago

    Haha, I see where you’re coming from. It’s a fairly old and ongoing debate: the importance of classical humanities in the curricula of primary and secondary education. To illustrate, at one point children were not only taught literature from the Greco-Roman period, but also the languages they were written in.

    In fact, that’s one of the key reasons for all the institutional Greek and Latin usage you see in higher ed. That was the tradition. These were languages only the educated knew. The effects of that on society were mixed, in my opinion. Fast-forwarding to today, the recent trend has been to prioritize knowledge more relevant to the modern era, including STEM subjects and practical trade-related skills.

    That’s the reason for the lingering notion, among older generations especially, that classical works are foundational knowledge, a common intellectual inheritance that everyone should know. While I’m more used to thinking this way, and can probably make some convincing arguments for it, I recognize that in many ways and for many individuals, it fails the test of relevance. So maybe it really is for the best that it’s only taught in the optional extension of higher ed.

    Yes, zero expectation from me to read that book, but if you ever become curious, mythologies are often short, fun, and memorable stories to read. And once familiar with them, you’ll see references to them basically everywhere, including the names of blockbuster films and spaceships, like the Apollo.

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  • [+] 3 points 11 months ago (1 child)
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  • [–] -1 points 11 months ago*

    I can understand, but really, though? Why would you expect anyone to know something so niche?

    You should be grateful I'm actually happy to learn about it, and that you had the opportunity to tell me about it, spreading knowledge, especially on something as cool as classical literature and history is a good thing.

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