What the world will be like in a hundred years (1922) • Hacker News Board

Re: What the world will be like in a hundred years (1922)

#271

Post by verisimi » Thu, Jan 06, 2022, 4:56 PM UTC

lettergram wrote: post #99

overthemoon wrote: post #35

It's interesting to compare this to the WEF future projections: https://www.forbes.com/sites/worldeconomicforum/2016/11/10/s... Especially with regards to this passage:: "In 2022 [economic development] will be as finished as it is to-day in England. American wealth will then be either developed or known, and all of it will belong to somebody. There will be no more opportunity in America than there is in England to-da…

> Welcome To 2030: I Own Nothing, Have No Privacy And Life Has Never Been Better Let me translate “you are slaves and you rent everything. We base your ability to purchase on a social credit score. But we let you rent houses in our artificially limited VR world.” I don’t make much of predictions like these. It’s ALWAYS a safe bet to assume people will lose liberty. To the point the FED was created in 1913, research w…

This is a very hard conversation to have on HN.

It is impossible to consider that the whole of society has been created and planned in advance. To think that the upper classes manage everyone (they always did), that the schooling system produces people that are incapable of seeing the outside the box (and yet believe that they are free, nay - they 'know' it), that finance is the main weapon in the wealth extraction, that it is planned for us to move to technocracy (with a bio-medical-wallet-etc-id, tracked everywhere in spy-cities, not allowed to even leave your 110sqft micro-flat unless the computer says so), that all the disasters we face have resulted in incremental steps towards this aim (911, covid). Its a lot to consider!

That we have been harnessed and put to work creating someone else's heaven on earth (and hardcore slavery for the rest) is a bitter pill to swallow. And the techies here have recently been the greatest driver of this change. Their livelihoods do depend on it.

Anyway, good on you, for bringing some of these issues up.

Re: What the world will be like in a hundred years (1922)

#272

Post by jandrese » Thu, Jan 06, 2022, 4:56 PM UTC

deanCommie wrote: post #255

lettergram wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Welcome To 2030: I Own Nothing, Have No Privacy And Life Has Never Been Better Let me translate “you are slaves and you rent everything. We base your ability to purchase on a social credit score. But we let you rent houses in our artificially limited VR world.” I don’t make much of predictions like these. It’s ALWAYS a safe bet to assume people will lose liberty. To the point the FED was created in 1913, research w…

> the United States is still one of the most free ... countries on the planet. By what metric? More importantly by what magnitude? Would "in the top 20" count? Axross 200 world countries maybe, but to patriotic Americans who speak about freedom abstractly, knowing that they are 16th in democracy [0], 44th in press freedom [1], and 20th in economic freedom [2], probably wouldn't cut it as "one of the top". [0] https:/…

You are looking at this all wrong. If you want maximum freedom you need to go to a place like rural Somalia. As long as you have the most guns nobody will tell you how to live your life. Want to rape children all day long? Nobody is going to stop you. Want to kill your neighbors and steal their stuff? Total freedom. No nanny state government is going to try to take your money to build roads or remove the dead bodies.

Re: What the world will be like in a hundred years (1922)

#273

Post by westcort » Thu, Jan 06, 2022, 4:56 PM UTC

Another fragment from 1922 (found with https://www.locserendipity.com/Google.html):

A HUNDRED YEARS FROM NOW Mary A. Ford

O mighty human brotherhood! why fiercely war and strive,

While God's great world has ample space for everything alive?

Broad fields uncultured and unclaimed, are waiting for the plow

Of progress that shall make them bloom, a hundred years from now.

Why should we try so earnestly in life's short, narrow span,

On golden stairs to climb so high above our brother man?

Why blindly at an earthly shrine in slavish homage bow?

Our gold will rust, ourselves be dust, a hundred years from now.

Why prize so much the world's applause? Why dread so much its blame?

A fleeting echo is its voice of censure or of fame;

The praise that thrills the heart, the scorn that dyes with shame the brow,

Will be a long-forgotten dream, a hundred years from now.

O patient hearts, that meekly bear your weary load of wrong!

O earnest hearts, that bravely dare, and, striving, grow more strong!

Press on till perfect peace is won; you'll never dream of how

You struggled o'er life's thorny road, a hundred years from now.

Grand, lofty souls, who live and toil that freedom, right, and truth

Alone may rule the universe, for you is endless youth!

When 'mid the blest with God you rest, the grateful land shall bow

Above your clay in reverent love, a hundred years from now.

Source: https://www.locserendipity.com/full/platformpiece00hawn_djvu... (written in 1922)

Re: What the world will be like in a hundred years (1922)

#274

Post by jacobr1 » Thu, Jan 06, 2022, 4:57 PM UTC

mbg721 wrote: post #125

SantalBlush wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any attempt to depict the US as a free country prior to 1920 is a nonstarter. There was slavery, Jim Crow, and women could not vote. Seriously, give me a break.

We also had one of the strongest eugenics movements in the world, under the same progressive flag as women's suffrage. It took the horrors of WWII to snap us out of it.

And it set us back because we overcorrected. The biggest evil of historical eugenics was the non-consensual application, not the idea that we should improve the gene pool.

This thread is an interesting summary of possible "eugenics" type applications and if those surveyed consider them moral today:

https://twitter.com/Aella_Girl/status/1462824227090976772

Re: What the world will be like in a hundred years (1922)

#275

Post by kuczmama » Thu, Jan 06, 2022, 4:58 PM UTC

This is one of the most insightful articles I've ever read when it comes to predicting the future. If you are on the fence of whether or not to read this article I highly recommend you read it.

Re: What the world will be like in a hundred years (1922)

#276

Post by causality0 » Thu, Jan 06, 2022, 4:59 PM UTC

deanCommie wrote: post #255

lettergram wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Welcome To 2030: I Own Nothing, Have No Privacy And Life Has Never Been Better Let me translate “you are slaves and you rent everything. We base your ability to purchase on a social credit score. But we let you rent houses in our artificially limited VR world.” I don’t make much of predictions like these. It’s ALWAYS a safe bet to assume people will lose liberty. To the point the FED was created in 1913, research w…

> the United States is still one of the most free ... countries on the planet. By what metric? More importantly by what magnitude? Would "in the top 20" count? Axross 200 world countries maybe, but to patriotic Americans who speak about freedom abstractly, knowing that they are 16th in democracy [0], 44th in press freedom [1], and 20th in economic freedom [2], probably wouldn't cut it as "one of the top". [0] https:/…

Depends on your definition of freedom, certainly. If your primary definition is "the range of behaviors for which the government will not prosecute you", it's probably the highest one not currently involved in a civil war.

Re: What the world will be like in a hundred years (1922)

#277

Post by selfhoster11 » Thu, Jan 06, 2022, 5:00 PM UTC

mistrial9 wrote: post #237

dukeofdoom wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many non renewable resources are past peak production, and declining fast. Austerity will be next. But it will be disguised as saving the environment. So that not only do you do not blame your politicians for being poorer. You will be blamed for over consuming and destroying the environment. Energy crisis, like running out of heating gas is already hitting Europe. And shortages of fertilizer will be here this spring.…

this is horribly misguided to say "disguised as saving the environment" .. it is conflating real environmental crisis with political posturing.. It is intellectually lazy to blur two big topics like this..

It's not just intellectually lazy, it's deadly. The last thing we need is to conflate politics with a catastrophe that will wipe out our lifestyle, a significant proportion of species, and potentially our civilization.

Re: What the world will be like in a hundred years (1922)

#278

Post by VirusNewbie » Thu, Jan 06, 2022, 5:00 PM UTC

Spooky23 wrote: post #166

lettergram wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Welcome To 2030: I Own Nothing, Have No Privacy And Life Has Never Been Better Let me translate “you are slaves and you rent everything. We base your ability to purchase on a social credit score. But we let you rent houses in our artificially limited VR world.” I don’t make much of predictions like these. It’s ALWAYS a safe bet to assume people will lose liberty. To the point the FED was created in 1913, research w…

It’s probably a waste of time to argue this, but the arguments for central banking were the same as the arguments put forth by Alexander Hamilton. More stability, greater resilience, etc. The arguments against it were vague references to tyranny, orchestrated by people whose wealth is generated from resource extraction and inherited wealth.

Inflationary monetary policy is wealth transfer into the upper class without most people realizing it. Wealth, be it institutions or individuals, will always push for central banking as it entrenches their power.

Re: What the world will be like in a hundred years (1922)

#279

Post by jacobr1 » Thu, Jan 06, 2022, 5:01 PM UTC

delecti wrote: post #190

eganist wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm still amazed the first and last times nukes were used against people were in 1945.

I've heard arguments for and against the justifications to use nukes against Japan, and while I think it was probably unnecessary, at least it only happened at the very end of the war. If it had been introduced a couple years earlier then I worry our perception might be that it's just another thing you use during war.

If there wasn't a major adversary with similar weapons that might have happened. Low-yield tactical are probably more effective than things like the "MOP" bunker-busters. But the hard-line we've drawn on the application of nukes has prevented such a slippery slope in our proxy wars.

Re: What the world will be like in a hundred years (1922)

#280

Post by beeboop » Thu, Jan 06, 2022, 5:02 PM UTC

jugg1es wrote: post #233

The most striking to me are passages like this: "It is practically certain that in 2022 nearly all women will have discarded the idea that they are primarily "makers of men". Most fit women will then be following an individual career." ... "But it is unlikely that that women will have achieved equality with men."

He definitely missed the mark about alimony or men not bearing the majority of child support