And I guess, as owning is so awful, the elites will follow the same lifestyle.
It's 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better (2016)
21–30 of 267 posts
Re: It's 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better (2016)
#22> It might seem odd to you, but it makes perfect sense for us in this city. Everything you considered a product, has now become a service. We have access to transportation, accommodation, food and all the things we need in our daily lives. One by one all these things became free, so it ended up not making sense for us to own much. All that becoming "free" (here meaning "at no cost") will never happen in a capitalisti…
What do you mean? That paragraph is already close to reality in some places in Europe, where public transport is ticket-less and free and the government provides housing and food at no cost to those who need it.
Expand on that and you're at what the author is describing.
I personally wouldn't bet money on "this will never happen", would you?
Re: It's 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better (2016)
#23I am unclear as to the author's intent. I expect most people here would find such ideas offensive. And yet so many things seem on the right track. It's the polar opposite of the outrageously inefficient model where everything you use, you own, and for 99.9% of the time, the thing just sits there depreciating or taking up space. Regarding cars, as a city liver who needs a car (but has no driveway or garage), I certain…
The very cynical counter argument is rarely spoken: Owning my things provides value even when I’m not using them, because I benefit from excluding other people (my competition) from using them. Example: The sports car locked in my garage helps keep sports cars away from other people, which maintains their benefit of conferring status. It provides utility even if I basically never drive it. This side of human nature i…
It’s not even just exclusion. Can you imagine the scheduling nightmare this would induce? Your personal life would be run minute to minute by your calendar. Any time you wanted to do anything it would either have to be booked in advance or you’d have to wait for delivery.
This article seems to be written from the perspective of someone who likes spending their time in coffee shops and riding their bike around in circles. Might as well be a hamster in a cage. It’s like the millennial version of brave new world, no sex, boring drugs, and the pervasive feeling that no one knows what they’re doing.
Re: It's 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better (2016)
#24I am unclear as to the author's intent. I expect most people here would find such ideas offensive. And yet so many things seem on the right track. It's the polar opposite of the outrageously inefficient model where everything you use, you own, and for 99.9% of the time, the thing just sits there depreciating or taking up space. Regarding cars, as a city liver who needs a car (but has no driveway or garage), I certain…
The author’s intent is to stimulate rage.
Why would someone’s prediction cause anger? They’re not demanding it or proselytising it as The One True Vision.
Re: It's 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better (2016)
#25Re: It's 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better (2016)
#26I think that the part that should be mentioned about this scenario (whether you see it as utopia or distopia), is that the word "privacy" here also stands in for "liberty", "power", etc. The remarkable thing about the scenario depicted is not the wonders of the sharing economy, it's the fact that there is somehow a stable distribution of power that prevents all these own-nothings from being cattle. Not impossible, bu…
The story sounds more like they are cattle. Someone or something is setting the rules, designating protected nature reserves, excluding the people who didn’t come along from participating in their economy, scheduling the business meetings in your living room.
Re: It's 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better (2016)
#27"I know that, somewhere, everything I do, think and dream of is recorded. I just hope that nobody will use it against me." -- This gave me a feeling that I am unable to put into words.
This is why Neuralink frightens the hell out of me. I feel that no matter how they are planning to protect their brain-computer-interfaces, they will eventually fail at it (like it happens with any sufficiently complex technology). Once that happens, any dictator, autocrat or the 'ethically-challenged tech bro du jour' will use them to gain unfettered access to the minds of people and wreak havoc on what makes people themselves. And good luck working against this once they can read your thoughts.
Re: It's 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better (2016)
#28As long as you have a pair of the correct lenses[1], life is all hugs and cupcakes.
> The lenses cause their wearers to see, not their squalid surroundings, but the Overworld, a vastly superior version of reality where a hut is a palace, gruel is a magnificent feast, etc. — "seeing the world through rose-colored glasses" on a grand scale.
The 2020 election appears a step in this direction.
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eyes_of_the_Overworld
Re: It's 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better (2016)
#29As long as you have a pair of the correct lenses[1], life is all hugs and cupcakes. > The lenses cause their wearers to see, not their squalid surroundings, but the Overworld, a vastly superior version of reality where a hut is a palace, gruel is a magnificent feast, etc. — "seeing the world through rose-colored glasses" on a grand scale. The 2020 election appears a step in this direction. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.…
> The 2020 election appears a step in this direction.
Care to elaborate?
Re: It's 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better (2016)
#30People work hardest (and invent new stuff) when they want something for themselves.