100 years of whatever this will be • Hacker News Board

Re: 100 years of whatever this will be

#471

Post by UncleMeat » Thu, Dec 02, 2021, 7:24 PM UTC

__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #429

munificent wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I 100% sympathize with this feeling too. But the pattern I see over and over again is: 1. Society is getting worse. 2. I'm really good at writing software. 3. Therefore the solution is to write software to fix society. That chain of logic is simply the streetlight effect [1] writ large: A policeman sees a drunk man searching for something under a streetlight and asks what the drunk has lost. He says he lost his keys…

I like the analogy, but in many cases the societal ills that defi is trying to solve were caused by software in the first place (e.g. internet advertising as a democracy-eroder). Also, the protectors of the status-quo are putting a lot of software people to work in protecting that status quo, so tempting them to the other side means compatibility with their skillset. Lastly, anyone who would overturn the status quo m…

How would decentralized finance affect the advertising driven business model of web applications?

Re: 100 years of whatever this will be

#472

Post by mrobot » Thu, Dec 02, 2021, 7:27 PM UTC

There are many negative top-level comments here. I wonder what a good survey of developers would say about their feelings on the different bullet points from the article.

Re: 100 years of whatever this will be

#473

Post by asdfman123 » Thu, Dec 02, 2021, 7:27 PM UTC

> We don't need deregulation. We need better designed regulation.

The article's thesis is so obvious that it's amazing it needs to be argued in this particular way.

Two thoughts here:

1) It's often problematic when people take absolutist views on things, i.e. "government regulation is ALWAYS bad." The optimal amount is never zero.

2) After following some "dark enlightenment" people on Twitter and libertarians with a subset of very far right viewpoints, it's becoming clear that lots of these people claim to want "freedom," but what they really want is freedom from the existing power hierarchies, and to create new ones in which they are on top again.

Re: 100 years of whatever this will be

#474

Post by mmaunder » Thu, Dec 02, 2021, 7:28 PM UTC

Wait until the free money stops. Then you’ll have real problems on your hands. If folks are whining now in an economy with a rate of inflation higher than most long term debt, and the biggest market rally since the 90s, wait until the party stops. Then you’re actually going to have something to cry about.

Incredible how people in developed countries have no idea or appreciation for the freedoms and opportunities they’re surrounded by.

Re: 100 years of whatever this will be

#475

Post by wyre » Thu, Dec 02, 2021, 7:28 PM UTC

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #343

pydry wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of the reason you got gay marriage but not universal healthcare is that gay marriage doesn't threaten corporate interests.

Universal Healthcare doesn't particularly threaten corporate interests either. Remember when centrist Obama tried to implement the Heritage foundation approved version and everyone went a little crazy for no obvious reason? It would be comforting to think that some evil geniuses were holding back universal healthcare for their own benefit, but it's mostly just lingering stupidity and racism that's holding America bac…

Having health care tied to employment is a corporate interest. Corporations need workers and everyone needs health care, so by making health care come chained to employment it keeps workers stuck in their jobs.

Re: 100 years of whatever this will be

#476

Post by preseinger » Thu, Dec 02, 2021, 7:28 PM UTC

pdonis wrote: post #181

preseinger wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All useful markets are regulated.

All useful markets are regulated by the free choices of the market participants of which transactions they will and will not engage in , yes. The idea that a free market, with the definition of "free" that I gave (all transactions are voluntary) is "unregulated" is simply wrong. In a free market, you can't force other people to do things they don't want to do; you have to get them to voluntarily trade with you. That…

No, by central authorities.

Unregulated markets lead to exploitative and destructive outcomes 100% of the time. This isn't even a controversial statement, it's just a pithy summary of all relevant history.

Re: 100 years of whatever this will be

#477

Post by DanHulton » Thu, Dec 02, 2021, 7:29 PM UTC

ahtihn wrote: post #104

nouveaux wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"There's another word for "require everyone else to agree": Tyranny." I think this is often thrown out there to push back on liberals and socialism but this is the wrong point. We as a global society _need_ to agree to be productive. We need to work together to find the best solutions for as many people as possible. Everyone needs to agree that starting a nuclear war is bad. You would likely want to stop China from s…

I've never seen anyone else define conservative vs liberals like that. Conservatives aren't against rules, they are against changing rules. Why are conservatives against abortion, gay marriage and drug legalisation if they don't want to be told what they can do on their "own 200 acre farm". All those issues are about enforcing a worldview on others .

The rules on abortion have been around for decades.

Conservatives seemed pretty dead-set on changing them.

Pretty sure it goes deeper than that.

Re: 100 years of whatever this will be

#478

Post by codezero » Thu, Dec 02, 2021, 7:29 PM UTC

ro_bit wrote: post #195

> The most reasonable daycare and public transit in the Bay Area is available only with your Big Tech Employee ID card. What's this about?

Monthly Caltrain passes cost (last I used them) cost ~ $200/month. Tech companies usually give such passes away, or heavily subsidize them.

Re: 100 years of whatever this will be

#479

Post by kelseyfrog » Thu, Dec 02, 2021, 7:30 PM UTC

delusional wrote: post #450

mcguire wrote: post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But grassroots campaigns and protests do result in change. Not quickly enough for many people, but if your alternative is burning everything down....

Grassroots campaigns and protests let you change the small stuff around the edges. The system provides you with just enough knobs to play with to keep you oblivious to all the ones you can't.

Construct an self-reinforcing reality aimed at dismantling the current enabling structures. That's exactly as hard or as easy as it sounds.

Re: 100 years of whatever this will be

#480

Post by asdfman123 » Thu, Dec 02, 2021, 7:30 PM UTC

notpachet wrote: post #49

All of the current histrionics that we hear from DeFi advocates regarding escaping the evil centralized Banks and Regulators and what not -- you know what they remind me of? They remind me of what I hear from junior developers when they're tasked with fixing an antiquated, broken software system. These developers typically lack the experience and the patience necessary to fix the system incrementally from within, so…

And you must ask: who is really driving the public debate to throw out centralized banks?

I saw a Winklevoss on Twitter saying something along the lines of "cash is trash; crypto is the future." Makes sense that he wants to pump up crypto, because he has a large financial stake in it.

There's always going to be someone on top of society making the rules. The question is this: who do we want it to be? How can we make sure it's well designed, and accountable to the people?