To the creepy SEO service that came with my webhosting: blocking access to robots is not a problem for my site. It’s a problem for search engines. Turn on indexing? I don’t want that.
To the tech worker who patiently explained to me that there are productivity gains with “AI”: even if that were true, I don’t want that, either. Even if we accepted, for just a moment, that there is “productivity” to be gained from generative use of LLMs, I do not care.
For whom
We need to ask: “Productive for whom?” and “Indexed for whom?”
The answer to both is the same: for capitalists, for their project of furthering their own control over resources and over our lives.
Generative use of LLMs produces more things we do not need. More surveillance software, more advertising, more ways to track and sell and keep us trapped and beholden to capitalism. If anyone tells you we need to use “AI” to produce more or to produce faster, remember that what we’re producing is more control for the ruling class and faster enclosure for the rest of us.
We do not need that. It’s the capitalists who need that, to stay in control.
In this post-search era, sites are not indexed for the user, in a bargain between a tech corp and the users it uses — you give up your privacy, they deliver relevant results for you. The pretense has been dropped, and indexing now is to serve generative LLM projects and deepen user reliance on destructive technology.
We do not need that, either. It’s the people who want to hasten our surrender to the machine who need that.
I refuse
When this is what productive means, I do not want to be productive. I do not want my friends to be productive. When this is what indexing means, I do not want to be indexed. I do not want “robots” (indexing scripts) executing on my site.
“Productivity” under capitalism is destruction. Indexing in a post-search, generative-LLM era is destruction. The answer is NO. I don’t want that.
What do I want instead? A web of creative, sentient beings creating knowledge and meaning together. Networks of mutual support with resources devoted to meeting our needs in community.
I want link lists (like the one on this site, created for this purpose). I want collaborative projects.1 I want the commons. I want places online that are decentralized and liberatory, for people and their communities. I do not want to be controlled and enclosed. As much as it is in my power to do so, I refuse.
- Another place to find me on the web. If you think the idea of rebuilding the commons is where it’s at, and you’re in the area, join us at a local gathering. Let’s see what we can get up to together. ↩︎