Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman • Hacker News Board

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#241

Post by pixel_popping » Fri, Apr 10, 2026, 10:13 PM UTC

cleversomething wrote: post #199

classified wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> in 5 years That's literally the same argument that the blockchain gurus made, and each following year it was still 5 years in the future. I'm getting strong Real Soon Now™ vibes.

Bitcoin was never actually valuable for the average person except if they got lucky by timing the speculation bubbles right, or if they were buying illegal drugs online. Lots of AI tools already add actual value and they're only getting better. Every software dev I know uses Claude at some level. Whether it will be the next trillion dollar unicorn might be overhype, but in terms of demonstrating its general utility,…

It's really 2 very different things, only the "shilling" might be deja-vu.

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#242

Post by outside1234 » Fri, Apr 10, 2026, 10:13 PM UTC

strongpigeon wrote: post #36

It is a bit scary how people seem to genuinely be OK with violence (see this reddit thread [0]). Is just me or does it feel like the overall "temperature" has gone up. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/1shugf8/firebomb_t...

I don't condone it, but I understand the anger.

The billionaire class has enabled armed masked police in our streets, endless layoffs, basically don't pay taxes at any reasonable percentage, and basically have rigged politics with Citizens United.

Given that, I can see how people are resorting to 18th century French tactics.

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#243

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Apr 10, 2026, 10:13 PM UTC

pixel_popping wrote: post #130

rambrrest wrote: post #27

This will only get worse imo - regardless of how Sam is perceived - there is anger against AI which is growing amongst the people. I think we as a society need to stop and have the conversation and be more thoughtful about how we integrate AI with everything.

I don't think this is possible yet, because many people refuse to think AI would be eventually better than us at practically anything (at least anything virtual), they keep talking about what's "current" while I think it's completely irrelevant for that discussion, people need to assume extreme intelligence and orchestration tools (and robots) will be there, worldwide, it's a *fact*, not just a maybe.

[deleted]

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#244

Post by jmyeet » Fri, Apr 10, 2026, 10:13 PM UTC

strongpigeon wrote: post #36

It is a bit scary how people seem to genuinely be OK with violence (see this reddit thread [0]). Is just me or does it feel like the overall "temperature" has gone up. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/1shugf8/firebomb_t...

I'm not saying throwing a MOlotov cocktail is ok. It's not. I think most people are analyzing the incident as being indicative of the times we're living in, particularly with the warehouse fire.

But where people are "OK with violence" is with state violence.

State violence include police violence (>1000 people are killed every year in the US by police), prison violence, violently rounding up immigrants and putting them in concentration camps, criminalizing homelessness, denying people life-saving medical care, evictions while landlords collude to raise rents, genocide, sending random people to a maximum security prison in a foreign country (ie CECOT), mass shootings, going with a firearm to a protest to instigate an incident and get a legal kill, intentionally creating the opiod crisis and so on.

For a large number of people some or all of these incidents will get a reaction somewhere between "thoughts and prayers" and "no, it's good actually".

Compare the state's reaction to one healthcare CEO being murdered and the perpetrators that are implicated in the Epstein files. Epstein himself was known to authorities since the 1990s and got an absolutely sweetheart deal in 2008.

So I'd say the real problem is what people view as violence and who's allowed to do it, seemingly without oversight or consequences of any kind most or all of the time.

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#245

Post by AlexCoventry » Fri, Apr 10, 2026, 10:13 PM UTC

strongpigeon wrote: post #36

It is a bit scary how people seem to genuinely be OK with violence (see this reddit thread [0]). Is just me or does it feel like the overall "temperature" has gone up. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/1shugf8/firebomb_t...

I don't condone violence, but it's hardly surprising that people would resort to or support it in this case, considering that by stepping in where Anthropic refused to help the US military, sama essentially agreed that OpenAI will serve as the IT Department for Trump's secret police. Either that, or he's willing for OpenAI to endure a similar punishment when he refuses the inevitable demand to assist with domestic mass surveillance.

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#246

Post by GOD_Over_Djinn » Fri, Apr 10, 2026, 10:14 PM UTC

strongpigeon wrote: post #36

It is a bit scary how people seem to genuinely be OK with violence (see this reddit thread [0]). Is just me or does it feel like the overall "temperature" has gone up. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/1shugf8/firebomb_t...

We can’t vote our way towards a better future. The corrupt MAGA and DNC institutions strangle any nascent grassroots movement in the crib. And we cannot make them relinquish their death grip on our country with only bare hands.

Seriously shocked that this is the aspect of this moment in history that you choose to focus on, and not the absurd levels of violence perpetrated by the ruling classes against common people.

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#247

Post by Fricken » Fri, Apr 10, 2026, 10:14 PM UTC

hnthrowaway0315 wrote: post #180

strongpigeon wrote: post #36

It is a bit scary how people seem to genuinely be OK with violence (see this reddit thread [0]). Is just me or does it feel like the overall "temperature" has gone up. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/1shugf8/firebomb_t...

I'm not saying that violence is legal -- which is definitely not. But it is part of the "packages" and totally depends on whether the one wants to use. Historically violence has been a very...effective tool. When people feel that law and order do not protect them, some eventually will go "the extra mile" (somehow managers always like this phrase). It's not something we can prevent. It is human nature. I guess super r…

Of course violence is legal. Laws themselves carry no weight if they aren't backed by a credible threat of violence.

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#248

Post by toraway » Fri, Apr 10, 2026, 10:14 PM UTC

pixel_popping wrote: post #130

rambrrest wrote: post #27

This will only get worse imo - regardless of how Sam is perceived - there is anger against AI which is growing amongst the people. I think we as a society need to stop and have the conversation and be more thoughtful about how we integrate AI with everything.

I don't think this is possible yet, because many people refuse to think AI would be eventually better than us at practically anything (at least anything virtual), they keep talking about what's "current" while I think it's completely irrelevant for that discussion, people need to assume extreme intelligence and orchestration tools (and robots) will be there, worldwide, it's a *fact*, not just a maybe.

It is actually entirely possible to discuss a solution for something that may or may not happen. If a hurricane is approaching, we don't typically require every person to agree the odds of landfall are 100% to start preparing shelters and stockpiling aid nearby. Not everything in the world is about the "AI skeptics" on the internet being dumb and wrong unlike you.

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#249

Post by outside1234 » Fri, Apr 10, 2026, 10:16 PM UTC

strongpigeon wrote: post #36

It is a bit scary how people seem to genuinely be OK with violence (see this reddit thread [0]). Is just me or does it feel like the overall "temperature" has gone up. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/1shugf8/firebomb_t...

There was a rumor going around Silicon Valley that if ICE came to San Francisco in force that Mark Zuckerberg's house was going to go up in flames in retaliation. You will be surprised to learn that the oligarchs talked to Trump and they did not come.

Re: Molotov cocktail is hurled at home of Sam Altman

#250

Post by sleepybrett » Fri, Apr 10, 2026, 10:16 PM UTC

2dfs wrote: post #202

bombcar wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It varies and they don't talk about it (obviously) but you can glean things from various sources. The more "public" the ultra rich are, the more they'll have security, especially noticeable security. The silent or unknown ones will often still have something (usually a requirement of their or their company's insurance). Once you graduate from "2, 3, 5 houses" to "mansions" you will have staff at each one, even if rel…

Yeah but theyre useless if a large organised group shows up.

hell they will probably join the mob instantly.