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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

#401

Post by wolvesechoes »

estearum wrote: post #397
wolvesechoes wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ricardo, Mill, and Smith all saw this dynamic, but "capitalists" like Andreessen have shown zero interest in combatting it for the health of the capitalist system as a whole. They just tried to cope by denying the essence of capitalism, just like wannabe commies cope by proclaiming that "it wasn't a true communism". Andreessen just follows the system to its natural conclusion.

Is saying that cancer is bad and should be mitigated simply "denying the essence of cell division?" Nope. There is no system on the planet, big or small, that can be stabilized by a reinforcing feedback loop.

The difference is that capitalism is a human creation, whereas mitogenesis is not. And this kind of naturalization is one of the reason we end up in the current situation, where it is easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#402

Post by account42 »

augment_me wrote: post #244
stackbutterflow wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still can't wrap my head around it. So we're all dead, robots take care of the infrastructure and healthcare, and there's maybe 50-100 billionaires left on the planet. Then what? They drive their sports car, do bungee jumping, sip cocktails and watch ai made movies. They don't have children? The human race dies with them? Or they have children, somehow avoid the trap of inbreeding and their children in turn have ch…

When you have everything, you want something new and different. The whole Epstein scandal is literally about this, you want to kill babies, r*pe the kids, do sacrifice rituals, etc because nothing gives you sensory satisfaction anymore. In the view of the commenters above, humanity will just be the final playtoy, let's have a little nuclear bomb in that town and film it in 4k, etc.

Why the Orwellian self-censorship?

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#403

Post by estearum »

wolvesechoes wrote: post #401
estearum wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is saying that cancer is bad and should be mitigated simply "denying the essence of cell division?" Nope. There is no system on the planet, big or small, that can be stabilized by a reinforcing feedback loop.

The difference is that capitalism is a human creation, whereas mitogenesis is not. And this kind of naturalization is one of the reason we end up in the current situation, where it is easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism.

Even assuming that difference is real (seems questionable IMO), why is it relevant?

Same thing with a manmade thing: Is saying that you ate too many breadsticks just denying the essence of Olive Garden's unlimited breadstick basket?

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#404

Post by account42 »

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

Considering that many people are not able to accumulate any real assets beyond their ability to generate wealth which is then captured by others, what meaningful comparison would you suggest.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#405

Post by Timon3 »

CM30 wrote: post #371
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.

But why wouldn't the rest of society kick them out before that point? Like at some point, there's going to be a lot of political pressure to fix things, especially if the majority of the population is going hungry or struggling to find work. Feels like at some point, some 'rogue' political figure will win election by saying the elites need to be overthrown, and the latter's influence will burn to the ground. If even…

How many years remain where the population actually still has any way to kick them out? Once military robots are sufficiently advanced, we've lost. We'll be fully at their mercy. Optimistically speaking, that's maybe 5-10 years out?

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#406

Post by l8rlump »

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…

https://www.esv.org/Psalm+73/

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#407

Post by account42 »

genxy wrote: post #102
AJMaxwell wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, we really should hate the players. They are keeping the game from changing.

A small number of players set the rules of the game.

A players collectively choose that everyone must follow those rules.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#408

Post by account42 »

rglover wrote: post #153
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.

That's not what I said. I didn't say anything about leaving society, I alluded to leaving their society. That's the thing: people keep giving these guys money and attention. If you take that away, they become more than irrelevant. Simplified: if they're going West, you go East. The more "small time" people reject this narrative that we need a bunch of elitist white guys shoving their mediocrity down our throats, the…

They can still buy laws that negatively affect me as long as enough others are giving them money.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#409

Post by account42 »

merelydev wrote: post #180
cpt_sobel wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes this is their reasoning, it doesn't mean we shouldn't hate the players and the game alike

That is like hating a hacker who hacks into your vulnerable server that is outdated and allows ssh password login. If there is vulnerabilities in the system someone will eventually exploit them, sure not you or me but there is always someone out there that will.

Security is always about tradeoffs and in a functioning society you don't need to have perfect security (and pay the extreme cost required for it) because we do indeed put blame on individuals that abuse the system.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#410

Post by account42 »

merelydev wrote: post #311
toomanyrichies wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That same hacker can choose to responsibly disclose the vulnerability through the proper channels, or take advantage of it to benefit themselves at the expense of others. Which one they choose objectively determines the quality of person they are.

That is how we find ourselves in this mess, we design systems thinking only of everything that can go right and not what can go wrong.

Protecting yourself from every possibility where things can go wrong is not something anyone can afford.
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