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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

#261

Post by jambalaya8 »

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

I would have called BS on that before but I think now I would just call BS on the part where it was people like Bezos or whatever. It seems there is a neverending number of people who would do the same. Look at the stories about the sunflower fields that had to close down before the pandemic, or the current overrunning of cities and villages in Italy (like Lake Como). Or competing for views on social media (not just attempting to get them). Fighting for status is as old as.... well maybe humanity. What is fairly new is money and real property... and virtual property.

There probably is nowhere left to go. Maybe one of those little islands in the South Pacific but you can't live there and they are all mapped too.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#262

Post by bamboozled »

butlike wrote: post #151
throwaway13337 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Marketers have a term for this - "breaking through the noise". I call it pissing in the pool. I hope one day we see paid advertising as immoral. Immoral acts can be defined as negative sum on society but possibly positive to the individual. A working society agrees, culturally, to think negatively on negative sum behavior. Social animals do this too - even vampire bats ( https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC46858…

You just nailed something for me, so I wanted to say "thank you." It's the _PAID_ advertising that's the issue. I've been struggling with hating advertising, yet having difficulties reconciling how I would know about anything I like if it wasn't advertised. But it's the PAID advertising that spurs the creation of advertisements with spectacle and cheap shit that ends up in landfills and the oceans.

You just realised people pay for advertising ?

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#263

Post by toomuchtodo »

demibabs wrote: post #260
toomuchtodo wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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

Its a measure and visualization of undemocratic power and control through wealth and resources.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#264

Post by triceratops »

consensus1 wrote: post #113
alex1138 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah really How do people like him get the money to fund his little projects, it's amazing

In this case by founding Netscape

An ultimately failed, overvalued company that got its shit wrecked by hungrier, more ruthless businesspeople.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#265

Post by chabes »

tetris11 wrote: post #259
bodge5000 wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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]

[flagged]

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#266

Post by triceratops »

sznio wrote: post #178
bugglebeetle wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m old enough to remember the heavenly times before people repeated phrases like “the taxi cartel” as if they were original thoughts vs. cooked up by Uber’s comms team.

have you actually used a pre-uber taxi? you'd pay through your fucking nose and get a long tour of the entire city to inflate your bill. at least with uber you get a refund when the driver does this bullshit. nevermind all the crime, slashed tires and arson

> have you actually used a pre-uber taxi?

I actually did, though not frequently (mostly just getting to and from the airport). They were fine. Car always showed up, I never got ripped off.

I accept that Uber and Lyft made getting taxis easier for more than just those use cases.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#267

Post by kelseyfrog »

swat535 wrote: post #171
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.

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

You might be interested in William Gibson's Jackpot triloy - The Peripheral and Agency.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#269

Post by rglover »

nrb wrote: post #230
rglover wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No sarcasm: play a different game. If you play their game, of course you'll suffer. But if you play a game they're repulsed by, you can win a life they'll never have access to: one filled with people who love and respect you and an environment where your best self and life can emerge.

What if their game is to flip the boards of everyone else’s games?

Then so be it. Hopefully they've considered all of the angles and can defend themselves against people being radicalized to the point of hunting them down.

Turns out their obsession with moats was prescient.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#270

Post by Arodex »

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.

"Look at what you made me do."

Has it ever occurred to these low status people that their low status is due to their bad choices in life? No, it's all the fault of others: the black people, the brown people, the weird people...

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