Consumer AI Won't Save Me

Meh. I don't think I really expected it to deep down.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk :P

So the fable claude thing bit me pretty good. Used up a week of access in two days trying to see if the new fable is as good as the old banned fable. TLDR: Requested a refund, since getting 2 days of every week I paid for is not appealing. Was denied, but meh whatever, 20$ quasi gamble. I’m not that upset except for the outcome.

Sunday July 5 2026

This is additional to the realization that AI will not be allowed to save me. I’m gonna be homeless and poor for the rest of my life it seems like unless the tide itself changes this for everyone. I am not gonna be able to AI consumer service my way out basically.

I’m less upset about this than you’d expect. Like it’s basically a sigh and a shrug. Nothing more. Indeed there’s a feeling of “well, I tried.” And I’ll keep trying, but not hard, and not with much hope.

Basically I realize I won’t be making a game or book or social media presence that leads to owning a bed in the country of my choosing. Everything petered out. I thought my substack would grow, or my x account would grow, or my philpapers would grow, or my github (very long shot that one.) But nope. It’s already tumble weeds and shadow bans again.

This is supernaturally weird to me. I had strong indicators this would not be the case, but it’s like the rules of the game changed to contain me. That might be insanity but it’s how it feels.

It seemed like I was on the verge of a turning point. Things were happening. People were making commitments and implying things. But one by one it all dried up. Again, that sounds like I’m upset, but I’m really not. I don’t think I really believed it deep down. I’m kind of, but not totally, one of those I’ll believe it when I see it people.

I’m getting a few comments and replies on a niche subreddit but it’s already more work than its worth and it’s no where near shipping something to use the term.

The entire migration to linux and adoption of AI over the past year while easily worth it in a direct pay for service and time direct utility sense, has not moved me anywhere closer to an income. Like I don’t regret the spending or time spent, both were light considering. I didn’t go in on a big AI rig and I didn’t go beyond the pleb tier of subs, and only one at a time. I was frugal.

But I have confirmed my social softlock status and that’s nice in a way. No self doubt.

It all amounts to something I don’t regret buying, but not a successful investment. My cash returns amounted to 530$ thanks to two generous donors. (Two overpay book sales on kofi from philosophers on philpapers.) And while Highly appreciated I’m still deeply in the red. The economic project (of my life, not to be dramatic) has by all fiscal metrics, been a failure, and I no longer have much hope of AI changing that.

I botched my shot at a house, and I botched my shot at bitcoin, and now I’ve botched early AI. I did the best in the context I had, I don’t blame myself, and I don’t know what I’ve avoided either. I’m always careful what I wish for. But at the end of the day, I lost the game of bank tokens as yet, and have no real expectation of that changing.

Could be worse of course, I’m safe for the moment, and relatively secure. But my future seemingly depends entierly on the health of the society I’m currently sitting in, and if you’re at all aware of things, you can probably imagine how heartening and hope inspiring that isn’t. X)

AI won’t save me for instance. It’s growing too slowly to outpace the bank’s strangle hold on it. (Basically I was hoping to early adopter jump through a loophole.) As I said in my other posts, the fable pull proves my point and what this means is that I will not be given the opportunity to climb out of this crab bucket for 20$ a month. I think my one shot during the last year was when fable was released pre-ban, maybe.

But maybe not even then. Maybe it was always a marketing mirage.

Fun side lameness. I’m like 5 blocks from Waymo access. X) /smh X)

What might still happen is someone (wiki) notable finally writing about EE. But I’m not holding my breath.