A reply to AI as a Fascist Artifact
If they write manifestos about how great the tech they funded is good at replacing us, we write manifestos about how great that same tech is good at replacing their money, hence their power.
Iāve been building bb.scm, a multilingual multi-surface content-addressed language and infrastructure for building and sharing code, with priority claim proofs, and checks, for months now - a tool that breaks free from duplication and complexity imposed by the statu quo. Hereās what Iāve learned: without AI, this wouldnāt exist. Not āwould be harderā - simply wouldnāt exist.
For over a decade, Iāve talked about multilingual Scheme programming with code stored in databases where review must be explicit, with enough decentralization for agency and resilience. Not because the idea was wrong, but because I didnāt have the time, energy, or the right words to make it real. The gap between vision and implementation was simply too large for one person to cross.
Nobody showed up.
I didnāt have the words. AI gave me the words - it made the impossible possible. Where complexity and duplication used to be the price of building anything useful, I now have the same or more agency with straightforward code that focuses on solving actual problems rather than managing infrastructure.
Yes, these systems were built with concentrated power and money extracted through various forms of violence. Tanteās not wrong about that. But hereās where I part ways with the āusing AI = accepting fascismā argument: sometimes you need to use the existing structure to build its replacement.
Stallman had to rely on proprietary systems to bootstrap GNU/Linux. He wasnāt endorsing proprietary software - he was refusing to let its existence prevent him from building something better. The choice isnāt āpureā or ācomplicitā - itās āstuckā or ābuilding.ā
Every significant shift in technology has required that āprise de conscienceā - that moment when someone gathers world knowledge and compresses it until it fits on overpriced pieces of metal. The question isnāt whether that compression happens, but who gets to access the result.
AI has re-energized tech competition in ways that matter for individual builders. Search works better. Tools are more accessible. The barrier between āI need thisā and āI can build thisā has dropped dramatically for people who donāt happen to work at Google or have venture funding.
The power imbalance tante describes is real - knowledge workers underpaid and undervalued. But this isnāt new, and the solution isnāt to refuse tools that might help. Itās to remember that when we build with these tools, weāre not just using them - weāre choosing what to build, and who to build it for.
I accept that I didnāt have the words or energy to make bb.scm real ten years ago. AI gave me those words.
Now I get to choose what that means - not just for me, but for everyone else whoās been told they need permission to build something useful.
Iām building so the kid in Tizi Ouzou doesnāt need to ask anyoneās permission to code in their own language. So I shipped bb.scm.