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.-===.
We are creators of open-source geospatial software and we are the community. By "progress" we refer to the tools revolutionizing our industry: tools that you cannot ignore if you don't want to be left behind. Well, we consciously choose to stay behind, because we know it is a path we have no interest in pursuing. We deeply believe that creating software is a humanitarian act. A perpetual conversation between siblings that evolves as it unfolds. Not a single good idea executed to perfection, but an idea that evolves by being taken apart and put back together, differently each time. Any tool promising to relieve us of the act of crafting, serves only to distance us from the real meaning of progress we seek. We do not program just to achieve perfect software: we write it to channel its purpose into a more refined understanding. By creating and sharing our work, we weave our experiences and efforts together to achieve a superior synthesis, greater than the sum of its parts. No technology can possess the cognitive and moral depth to intervene in this act.
But new tools promise wonders. They promise to liberate us from a packaged concept of undesirable labor, enable higher levels of abstraction, and place us individually at the helm of the creative process. No need for communities, a lonely stage for our egos. This is a deceitful allure. The true purpose of these new tools is to do away with us. Their ultimate goal is to wrest the mantle of this mission from our hands in order to pursue solely profitable ends.
Another capitalist victory over the commons?
We will believe in the NO to this question. Our community rejects this materialism along with all its hollow promises and vain allurements, and asserts its right to continue its original mission.
Check out our By Humans, For Humans position on AI contributions, for use by like-minded projects.