Jeff Bezos’s Master Plan • Hacker News Board

Re: Jeff Bezos’s Master Plan

#41

Post by Tuna-Fish » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 5:38 PM UTC

mothsonasloth wrote: post #8

I am a sci-fi enthusiast like Bezos, however he seems to cherry pick the themes that he likes to apply to himself and Amazon e.g. driving mankind towards the stars and solving energy crises. There are however plenty of dystopian concepts in science fiction which his company seem to be propelling us toward: * Compression of labour wages by replacing/augmenting with robots. * Building an evil mega-corp (think Tyrell, L…

> * Compression of labour wages by replacing/augmenting with robots.

Eliminating work by replacing it with robots is a social good, so long as the lost income is replaced somehow. Bezos is an outspoken proponent of UBI.

Re: Jeff Bezos’s Master Plan

#42

Post by SpicyLemonZest » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 5:47 PM UTC

yters wrote: post #22

Why the space colonization focus of techies? So much of earth vastly underpopulated and much easier to colonize. What if an asteroid strikes earth? What if the space colonies all fail?

Why do people like overseas vacations, when an hour's drive would easily get them to a town they've never visited?

Re: Jeff Bezos’s Master Plan

#43

Post by minitoar » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 5:56 PM UTC

dpau wrote: post #39

andreilys wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think of it as a hedge against possible extinction. Being a multi-planterary species means that an existential threat on earth (I.e. asteroid, super bug, etc.) doesn’t wipe out all of humanity.

Agreed. But it's a bit like your house has caught fire and, rather than try to put it out, you call a realtor and go shopping for a new home. Why not try to save your current home, first?

Because the only way to stay warm in this current house is literally lighting bits of it on fire.

Re: Jeff Bezos’s Master Plan

#44

Post by ci5er » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 6:22 PM UTC

yters wrote: post #22

Why the space colonization focus of techies? So much of earth vastly underpopulated and much easier to colonize. What if an asteroid strikes earth? What if the space colonies all fail?

There are no more frontiers on Earth to discover/explore/develop. Everything here is controlled by a more-or-less recognized government over a nation-state. Built. Controlled. Civilized. The expanding frontiers of space represent a fantasy - where there would be contant expansion of human possibility/potential.

Also a hedge against earth's collapse.

Re: Jeff Bezos’s Master Plan

#45

Post by smegger001 » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 6:24 PM UTC

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #42

yters wrote: post #22

Why the space colonization focus of techies? So much of earth vastly underpopulated and much easier to colonize. What if an asteroid strikes earth? What if the space colonies all fail?

Why do people like overseas vacations, when an hour's drive would easily get them to a town they've never visited?

usually they have never been to the town an hour away because there is nothing worth seeing there.

Re: Jeff Bezos’s Master Plan

#46

Post by ci5er » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 6:26 PM UTC

dredmorbius wrote: post #36

roenxi wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe this is what you were drawing attention to, but that part of the article misinterprets centralised planning. What it describes is the logistics of getting something from one place to another. Centralised planning is when a government planner decides the source, the destination and the good without giving final power to a consumer. Amazon doesn't have the final word on what people buy (or the destination of good…

Regardless, Amazon picks the suppliers, owns the information channel, and both informs and transacts with the consumer. It operates on a greater scale than many national economies, falling at about 38th on a current listing based on 2018 revenues. Amazon is the market. Hayek's basic premise was that national-scale central management was impossible. Amazon and other megacorps put paid to this.

Amazon - often picks all the suppliers, and lets the buyer decide which they prefer.

Also - they deal in finished (consumer) goods. There is a whole lot of coordination before that stuff gets assembled and ready for Amazon or one or their marketplace suppliers to ship it.

Maybe they've integrated the demand chain logistics, but not the integration supply chain. And they don't dictate that consumers get to purchase one and only one brand of whatever product (like peanut butter).

Re: Jeff Bezos’s Master Plan

#47

Post by jtbayly » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 6:31 PM UTC

smegger001 wrote: post #45

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do people like overseas vacations, when an hour's drive would easily get them to a town they've never visited?

usually they have never been to the town an hour away because there is nothing worth seeing there.

Kind of like Mars.

Re: Jeff Bezos’s Master Plan

#48

Post by krapp » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 6:40 PM UTC

ci5er wrote: post #44

yters wrote: post #22

Why the space colonization focus of techies? So much of earth vastly underpopulated and much easier to colonize. What if an asteroid strikes earth? What if the space colonies all fail?

There are no more frontiers on Earth to discover/explore/develop. Everything here is controlled by a more-or-less recognized government over a nation-state. Built. Controlled. Civilized. The expanding frontiers of space represent a fantasy - where there would be contant expansion of human possibility/potential. Also a hedge against earth's collapse.

>There are no more frontiers on Earth to discover/explore/develop.

That's not true - we know far less about the oceans than we do about space.

>The expanding frontiers of space represent a fantasy - where there would be contant expansion of human possibility/potential.

That fantasy depends on the common science-fiction metaphor that space is just a bigger, wider ocean and that we just need to recreate the Age of Sail with space ships.

But barring the discovery of a warp drive, "constant expansion" into space is simply not feasible (see the Fermi Paradox.)

>Also a hedge against earth's collapse.

Well, that's already underway, so...

Re: Jeff Bezos’s Master Plan

#49

Post by smegger001 » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 6:41 PM UTC

andreilys wrote: post #26

sunasra wrote: post #12

Move to space to save the earth is useless statement. Human isn’t able save natural resources on earth, how come he can build enough resources to survive human being in space or mars or whatever. I would say Focus on earth, invest on the broken things

Think of it as a hedge against possible extinction. Being a multi-planterary species means that an existential threat on earth (I.e. asteroid, super bug, etc.) doesn’t wipe out all of humanity.

lets just hope it is not a gamma ray burst as that would potentially still get both planets

Re: Jeff Bezos’s Master Plan

#50

Post by gdy » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 6:50 PM UTC

dredmorbius wrote: post #38

yters wrote: post #22

Why the space colonization focus of techies? So much of earth vastly underpopulated and much easier to colonize. What if an asteroid strikes earth? What if the space colonies all fail?

It's an appealing fantasy which enables denial of limits to economic and technological growth. It's an appealing fantasy to which I was very strongly drawn in my youth, through O'Neill torii, T.A. Heppenheimer, von Braun, Clark, Asimov, and Heinlein. I believe I've matured slightly.

More like you've died slightly.