Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

modelrepublic.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

281–290 of 459 posts

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#281

Post by jackp96 »

ceejayoz wrote: post #147
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…

> 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.

Eh, you see too many of these guys complaining about declining populations for this to be a thing.

I don't think you need Machiavellianism to explain their actions. These people have everything they could need, but death comes for all of us and they aren't getting any younger.

Purely speculating, but if you had everything in the world (except time) wouldn't you put everything you have into building a future with a 10% chance of living as long as you wanted? What would you sacrifice for that?

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#282

Post by tavavex »

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

> There's been plenty of good sci-fi written about this

Can you recommend me some? I feel like my brain still can't fully internalize the world these people are pushing for.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#283

Post by estearum »

triceratops wrote: post #254
estearum wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Sexism, anti-establishmentism, anti-plutocratism, racism, anti-elitism, etc. Not sure it matters too much in the sense that it's much easier to change the candidate than the electorate.

Yeah, Trump's election says very awful things about all of us, and especially his voters.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#284

Post by tavavex »

bamboozled wrote: post #257
smallmancontrov wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

'Care' is a human concept. Robots, even extremely advanced ones, will not necessarily come bundled with aspirations. Giving a robot the capacity to care and want change, if it's even possible, would be extremely dangerous. It's completely realistic to imagine a world where robots just do what they're told because it's what they're made to do, because they lack any incentive to do anything else.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#285

Post by estearum »

triceratops wrote: post #258
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.

> Making fun and ridiculing the low status You mean like how Trump mocked a disabled reporter at one of his early campaign rallies?

No, I don't mean that. Being a cheat is low-status. Being disabled is not.

Americans actually agree on this, by and large.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#287

Post by lenkite »

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 ?

Slaves. They will call 'em by another acceptable word though.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#288

Post by lenkite »

megaman821 wrote: post #233
ryandrake wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea, at some point, these guys won't really need the vast majority of us to buy from them. They'll be buying from and selling to other wealthy people.

That makes litteraly no sense. All the biggest companies are driven by middle-class purchases. Rich-only companies are boutique and are order-of-magnitude smaller than mass market companies.

This is actually changing. Many consumer and retail companies are already shifting their focus from the mass middle class toward high-income and affluent segments. Businesses find higher profit margins and more resilient demand in premium goods. And in enterprise, companies just pay other rich companies who pay them. (sometimes just directly).

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#289

Post by georgemcbay »

megaman821 wrote: post #233
ryandrake wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea, at some point, these guys won't really need the vast majority of us to buy from them. They'll be buying from and selling to other wealthy people.

That makes litteraly no sense. All the biggest companies are driven by middle-class purchases. Rich-only companies are boutique and are order-of-magnitude smaller than mass market companies.

50% of all consumer spending now is done by the top 10% and this keeps shifting up.

We've got a horribly K-shaped economy even before AGI.

Post reply on HN