Live data from Hacker News

Thieves of Experience: How Google and Facebook Corrupted Capitalism

lareviewofbooks.org

221–222 of 222 posts

Re: Thieves of Experience: How Google and Facebook Corrupted Capitalism

#221
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had a friend working in first level support. He told me stories once in a while. And it sounds pretty close... From our point of view it sounds idiotic. Even sometimes narcissistic. But in there world it makes sense, because they have no idea how those two actions connect.

I convinced my 60-year-old parents to get themselves landline internet since they had been sharing a really small mobile data allowance. The landline enabled them to have things like Netflix. They had owned a smart TV for years with no internet... Anyway, mum calls me up because she's having issues with getting Netflix to work on her TV. After a bunch of troubleshooting trying to help her over the phone, I asked her…

Ironically, there is no technical reason for this not to work, just that Netflix doesn't support HTML5.

Re: Thieves of Experience: How Google and Facebook Corrupted Capitalism

#222
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ancient Rome was around 30-40% slaves, though there were many different kinds used in addition to chattel slavery (various forms of indentured servitude, etc), so it's hard to make clear comparisons. However, the Roman empire wouldn't have existed in it's highest form without slaves. They were integral to the economy.

I remember reading that the Greeks or Romans would probably consider today's average wage earner a slave. Interesting to ponder about.

Check Jonathan A.C. Brown's forthcoming Islam and Slavery (October 8, 2019) for a very detailed treatment of that question (Note that I checked the drafts of his book that he posted on his academia profile).
Post reply on HN