Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy • Hacker News Board

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#291

Post by xg15 » Tue, Aug 11, 2026, 12:48 PM UTC

labcomputer wrote: post #280

xg15 wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your government clearly is dysfunctional (at least the part that is supposed to serve the ordinary citizens). But look around the world and you can see that it doesn't have to be that way. Also, in the US, there are a lot of forces who see the government straight-up as the enemy and want to have it as dysfunctional as possible. It's where "starve the beast" and DOGE comes from.

Ok, but these two things are incompatible: 1. Your government clearly is dysfunctional 2. You have been brainwashed into thinking that government is bloated, corrupt and inefficient. If I believe that government is dysfunctional... then surely that belief is informed by the observation that my government is bloated, corrupt and inefficient, not due to brainwashing?

I see the brainwashing mostly in instilling the belief that any government necessarily has to become bloated and corrupt.

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#292

Post by 6510 » Tue, Aug 11, 2026, 10:42 PM UTC

Lerc wrote: post #183

6510 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it is known that a lot of the marbles are pink there would have to be other colors. That means there is something to it!

I'm not sure if providing a counterargument to a point not being made is a good way to argue against a field that trains people to notice when you do that.

The one who dies with the most tools wins.

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#293

Post by peterashford » Tue, Aug 11, 2026, 10:47 PM UTC

steveBK123 wrote: post #3

I don’t even think most of it is deeply philosophical. They just got uberrich and now worry more about the concerns of the uberrich than the concerns they had when they were normies. Rule of law, functioning government providing services, functioning public commons, free press, freedom of speech for all, any social safety net, etc don’t matter when they are so far removed from the public they can just go buy yourself…

I think the philosophy is post-hoc justification of their actions.

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#294

Post by peterashford » Tue, Aug 11, 2026, 10:53 PM UTC

lisper wrote: post #228

demilicious wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

mind defending that? I suspect that opinion would only come from one who took philosophy 101 and stopped there. If all you took was philosophy 101, this sounds a lot more reasonable and runs right into the point made by the pos you just responded to

How would you expect me to defend it? It's my opinion. I could give you a long list of things in philosophy that I consider BS, but what good would that do? Do you really doubt that I could provide such a list? The most likely outcome of that exercise would be for you to invoke the no-true-scotsman fallacy and say, "Oh, of course those things are bullshit, but that's not real philosophy." And the fact that I can make…

Ayn Rand and the Austrian school aren't philosophers