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Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

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Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#251

Post by jambalaya8 »

akudha wrote: post #129
pulkitsh1234 wrote: post #81

"A man who wishes to make a profession of goodness in everything must necessarily come to grief among so many who are not good. Therefore, it is necessary for a prince, who wishes to maintain himself, to learn how not to be good, and to use this knowledge and not use it, according to the necessity of the case" -- Niccolo Machiavelli It's a self fulfilling prophecy... while us commoners, or so called "activists" or et…

Setting ethical and moral questions aside for a second: Never pay a human again Every time I see stuff like this (along with other more serious shenanigans like wage theft, union busting etc) I only ask myself the same question again and again - what is the end game here? If much of the population is too poor to buy anything, too sick to consume much etc - who is left to buy anything at all? If all their power comes…

that sort of crappy movie with Matt Damon and Jodie Foster that is supposedly dystopian but far more utopian than the reality would be.

wonder if the overlords will allow meat or only gruel or bug bars like that Bong Ho movie to the survivors. heh but serious.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#252

Post by qwerpy »

butlike wrote: post #148
AlotOfReading wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The parent comments are talking about how the game is negatively impacting society. Your suggestion is to check out and leave society to them. One of the many problems with that suggestion is that it's hard for your best self/life to emerge in a bleak future.

I think it's possible to "pick and choose" to some extent. I've found most of the bleak future stuff goes away if I turn off my phone, but since I need it to contact people in 2026, I try and give things their due, and, to the best of my ability, ignore the more unpleasant aspects of modern life. I think the landline telephone is a good example. It was fun to chit-chat with friends on the phone, but when a telemarket…

It’s done wonders for my free time and mood by deleting my Reddit account and restricting HN to toilet time. Instead of reading rage bait American news I do a daily scan of BBC. All those are sources of negativity and stress that bring nothing of value to your life. I invest my newfound time and energy into my family, hobbies, and health.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#253

Post by chaseadam17 »

On one hand, VCs that fund thousands of early-stage startups are inevitably going to fund some bad stuff, even if they try hard to avoid it.

On the other, the older I get the more I worry about the decline of spirituality in the West. Especially in tech, I sometimes feel like I’m living in a hyper rational snowglobe of people optimizing a local maxima, not even considering (and often looking down on) the possibility that there are larger, more important games to play.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#254

Post by triceratops »

estearum wrote: post #167
e40 wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t that how we got here? Making fun and ridiculing the low status, dumb people said “fuck you” with their vote for him, twice.

No, actually. It's a cute story but there's no evidence of it. We got here by putting two of the most hated people in the country on the ballot against him, twice. One was actively hated for decades by the ultra-powerful evangelical voting bloc and hardly loved even by her own party, then another who couldn't be more closely affiliated with the incumbent during a period of high inflation (globally) that ousted incumb…

> hardly loved even by her own party

But why tho? And what does that say about voters who apparently "loved" Trump, a guy who mocked a disabled reporter at a campaign rally, more than her?

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#255

Post by kristjansson »

edot wrote: post #88
moogly wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hard to say Flock is the worst... There's a lot of competition. I'll throw Toka into the ring. https://www.techspot.com/news/113395-flock-biggest-investor-...

Wow, that's an insane pairing. For those who don't click, Toka is a software company that specializes in hacking and altering security camera footage.

It seems impossible for this to be a true statement. and yet.

What’s next? $20m series B in ByBy, a horizontally integrated trash disposal, concrete shoe manufacture, lye bath, and pig farm operation?

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#256

Post by MisterTea »

optimalsolver wrote: post #136
vintermann wrote: post #33

> Lee's stated goal was to “desensitize everyone to the phrase ‘cheating.’” If you say it enough, he argues, “cheat begins to lose its meaning.” A16z praised Lee's approach as “rooted in deliberate strategy and intentionality.” Investors: but surely they won't cheat me !

[flagged]

Cheaters ate my face. FTFY :-)

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#257

Post by bamboozled »

smallmancontrov wrote: post #221
swat535 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And who is going to maintain this low-population paradise of elites, if there is no one left but the elites ?

Servants. Yes, robots eventually, but servants are the classical answer. The terrible truth is that palace economies are stable -- we see them in "resource-cursed" countries around the world and through time. When a single easily-owned fountain of wealth dominates the economy, a small group of people consolidate ownership and everyone else polarizes around them, forming into concentric rings of gatekeepers and masses…

The robots would have to be intelligent enough to be fully self sufficient, at which point they don’t care about people.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#258

Post by triceratops »

e40 wrote: post #162
estearum wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but they should be criticized all the while... obviously. In fact, beyond criticizing them, they should be denigrated and made fun of incessantly. Ostracized and reaffirmed as low-status individuals, no matter how much wealth they can acquire through low-status bullshit, they'll never be worthy of respect.

Isn’t that how we got here? Making fun and ridiculing the low status, dumb people said “fuck you” with their vote for him, twice.

> Making fun and ridiculing the low status

You mean like how Trump mocked a disabled reporter at one of his early campaign rallies?

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#259

Post by tetris11 »

bodge5000 wrote: post #246
ceejayoz wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If much of the population is too poor to buy anything, too sick to consume much etc - who is left to buy anything at all? No one. That's the idea. A low-population paradise. Venice without its pesky people to mess with Bezos's wedding. Bora Bora without the peasants.

There's been plenty of good sci-fi written about this, but surely they know that any any display of power is meaningless without someone to have power over? The wedding in Venice only means anything because people live in Venice and you're still able to "take over". Any "paradise" built like this will never be paradise, it'll be just chasing the next extreme until there's nowhere left to go

[flagged]

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#260

Post by demibabs »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #225
akudha wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Setting ethical and moral questions aside for a second: Never pay a human again Every time I see stuff like this (along with other more serious shenanigans like wage theft, union busting etc) I only ask myself the same question again and again - what is the end game here? If much of the population is too poor to buy anything, too sick to consume much etc - who is left to buy anything at all? If all their power comes…

> what is the end game here? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elysium_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ready_Player_One_(film) A tale as old as time, power and control, over the means of production and (what those seeking this power and control consider lesser) humans. If you think they're doing this for "the betterment of humanity," I would ask you strongly re-examine the evidence. "Watch what people do, not what t…

Comparing GDP to net worths isn’t very meaningful
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