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“Children of Men”'s vision of the future is now disturbingly familiar

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Re: “Children of Men”'s vision of the future is now disturbingly familiar

#221

Post by stephengillie »

anigbrowl wrote: post #210
stephengillie wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a way of teaching helplessness, while inflating your own ego. That grocery store owner wouldn't want help with picking up the heavy box, because he is an able-bodied man. Doing this for him is belittling him, saying he's not an able-bodied man. It's like receiving unrequested advice or assistance on a project. Having grown up in poverty, been homeless for a summer, walked home past homeless people every day for…

There's a whole lot of projection going in your post - you're far too sure of people's guiding motivations based on a throwaway description of a momentary incident, to the point that you're now accusing another poster of weakening people in their community through willingness to lend a hand. I also recognize that direct charity prevents or delays people from finding a better solution You may claim that, but don't try…

The solution is to build ways out. Shelters and job programs do help. Direct charity, giving money to beggars, only keeps them begging.

Employ homeless people.

Give a homeless person a break. Maybe just ignore them in their shelter. They must do everything in public, for they rarely have a private space. They can't afford the luxury of choosing which actions others may view.

Learn how communities in your area address the homeless people who live there. Remember that homeless people do still live somewhere. This is not a part of their life they will be proud of, but it's not the end of their life, not a permanent placement.

Re: “Children of Men”'s vision of the future is now disturbingly familiar

#222

Post by Camillo »

ferdythebull wrote: post #185
lacampbell wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am curious, have you experienced poverty? I mean "first world poverty", like the kind you bus drives through? I have, and I want nothing to do with it. I certainly wouldn't choose to walk through it again. Have you stopped to consider you're being a bit of a slum tourist, or maybe you have a saviour complex?

Shame on you. I've experienced "first-world poverty", and it sucks. The solution isn't to plug our privileged tech worker ears and pretend "the poors" don't exist. The solution is to get involved with our communities, by helping the old man at the convenience store, helping the wheelchair man up the curb, and talking to the homeless who spend their entire day on the sidewalk getting ignored by everyone caught up in t…

"The solution" to what? The things you mentioned will not solve poverty or homelessness. They will not even make a dent in the problem. Do you think that talking to the homeless guy will warm his heart and brighten his whole day? Not as much as your heart gets warmed; not as much as your day gets brightened. The only problem you are really solving is your own guilt. And tomorrow, and in a year, and in ten years, there are going to be just as many poor and homeless people around, to provide you the same service. And shaming people on HN serves the same purpose.

If you want to help the poor, work harder and give the extra money you make to good charities. That is not going to solve the problem, either, but it will improve things more than anything else you could do in the same amount of time. The direct personal involvement you seek only serves to benefit you, at the expense of greater possible material improvements for them.

If that sounds inhuman, that's because our moral intuition, like so much of our instinct, does not scale. What is good for a single poor man is not necessarily best for poverty as a social problem.

Re: “Children of Men”'s vision of the future is now disturbingly familiar

#223

Post by ZeroGravitas »

Lio wrote: post #151
lobster_johnson wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Conversely, in William Gibson's Neuromancer, there are no cell phones, despite being set decades into the future. Gibson knows a thing or two about seeing their scifi becoming dated, of course. The famous opening line, "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel" no longer resonates with anyone born the last 20 years or so (although for a number of years, many digital TVs would displa…

I wonder what these people who don't know what a TV tuned to a dead channel looks like make of the HBO intro.

Especially after it's been encoded poorly, as static is a worst case scenario for video codecs.

Re: “Children of Men”'s vision of the future is now disturbingly familiar

#224

Post by vidarh »

qbrass wrote: post #192
vidarh wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that the entire plot involves someone chasing him to forcibly extract the data, it wouldn't seem it would offer more security than suitable crypto on a micro-sd card.

The person chasing him isn't trying to extract the data, they're trying to delete it.

I might have misremembered though the wikipedia entry for the movie (I've never read the short story, so my comments here are about the movie) specifically says that one of the groups after him wants the data for themselves.

But if they just want to destroy the data, that just makes the security distinction even less relevant, as destroying his head with contents would solve the issue whether it's in his brain or on a foreign object in his head.

Re: “Children of Men”'s vision of the future is now disturbingly familiar

#225

Post by codetwelve »

smallgovt wrote: post #218
codetwelve wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that you should really assess your own inner self. Your thoughts, your feelings and why you react this way to someone helping others out. Do you at all refer to yourself as cynical? You probably do, and it's usually rooted in something in your past. Hoping for something that never came to fruition. We all have to deal with that but some is way more traumatic and permanent (without even realizing it is at the…

I disagree that the original commenter is a likely cynic. I think the most likely belief set here is that it's possible for any poor person to escape poverty through hard work and tenacity. This belief (though arguably incorrect) is supported by his personal experience. Furthermore, because he's proud of his struggle and achievement, the idea of someone 'pitying' or feeling 'guilt' for someone in his former position…

I don't think the original commenter is trying to save or solve anything. There are people there in his community that need help daily and he's giving and helping what/where he can.

Re: “Children of Men”'s vision of the future is now disturbingly familiar

#226

Post by future1979 »

closeparen wrote: post #183
future1979 wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes .. in many cases, because they simply cannot afford to have children.

Well, they clearly can , as many more people in more deeply impoverished parts of the world are having lots of children. Likely, they cannot afford to have children while providing the standard of living (own bedroom, back yard, healthy food, bonding time, good school, college education, etc) they consider the lower bound on acceptable.

I think it is clear that this is precisely what I meant. But thanks for your comment :)

Re: “Children of Men”'s vision of the future is now disturbingly familiar

#227

Post by deadringerr »

roryisok wrote: post #181
deadringerr wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's when they first enter the building and droplets of water get on the camera lens but are quickly removed in the next couple of frames.

Well, it's still an incredible achievement

Absolutely! Children of Men is one of my all-time favourite movies.
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