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I want

dcurt.is

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Re: I want

#31

Post by SnacksOnAPlane »

martypitt wrote: post #30
gbog wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And farting, too? Seriously, if you want even more restrictions on what your fellow human beings are allowed to do and enjoy, you should be very happy in North Korea and I can only invite you to prepare your visa application papers. Wait, US citizen are not allowed in NK. Hope you are not US citizen?

Hey there, Captain Overreaction. Cigarettes are something that have nothing but negative consequences - for the smoker, for those in the vicinity of the smoker, and for the impact on the health system supporting the smoker. It defies reason that these small poison sticks are still sold, especially to younger people who have not yet developed the crippling addiction held by those who have been smoking for years. It's…

If they had nothing but negative consequences, no one would smoke them. Obviously the people who do smoke them are getting some kind of value from them.

Re: I want

#33

Post by sampl »

What about political change? Learning languages? Making loving relationships? Protecting and exploring our natural world? Traveling farther into our solar system? Eliminating poverty, oppression, or eradicating disease?

Perhaps his imagination is already capped. In a world of mind-boggling convenience, access to data, and cross-country mobility, he wants more of the same--with less human interaction and less reflection. Lots of these ideas have fantastic benefits, but lots of them inflict obvious harm. "I want," he says; less thought for others and more for himself.

I'd rather design things that help people start meaningful discussions with caregivers, not eliminate them. I'd rather enjoy the journey, not anxiously await the destination. I'd rather reduce the stream of useless (but entertaining!) data coming at me from my devices and focus on that tiny percentage of content that shows me things worth knowing.

In the future, maybe we will be able to stuff ourselves with guilt-free calories, buy shit we don't need when computers tell us to, and have our hedonistic wishes instantly gratified by swarms of flying robots, as Curtis suggests. In the meantime, I'll keep dreaming about technology's potential for true good--and teaching myself to be happy with what I have.

Re: I want

#34

Post by cypherpunks01 »

fudged71 wrote: post #26
cypherpunks01 wrote: post #24

Nice list of shiny things, some that are entirely attainable and may very well come true soon. One nitpick, though: "I want my watch, glasses, toaster, light switches, thermostat, and door locks to use connectedness to make the world a better place–by reducing energy usage, decreasing waste, and improving my happiness and convenience." If you think that your toaster is going to improve your happiness , well, I'd have…

That depends on the person, I suppose http://dcurt.is/the-best

Sure. We really have to dissect what happiness (or "liberation") really means here, to answer the question. There seems to be a conflation between convenience/lack-of-frustration and happiness. I don't believe that happiness (the real, sustainable kind) can come to anyone from the feeling that the flashlight they own is bright enough, or that the fork they own touches their teeth in the right way. Having reliable stuff can certainly make life convenient like he notices—but happy? Seems like wishful thinking.

Just take the classic HN thread "how did your life change after FU money?" (http://bit.ly/1dEVs7x). PG writes that "a lot of annoyances are removed" which seems like the same realization that Dustin has here in many fewer words—that money can buy him nice silverware and he never again has to be annoyed at failing silverware. Take a look at Aaron's comment and you'll find more concisely what I am trying to say:

"My sense is that it bears out what the happiness research says: dispositional factors are much more important than situational ones. PG was an abnormally happy person before he got rich and he's still abnormally happy. I was pretty miserable before and I'm still miserable."

Re: I want

#35

Post by x0x0 »

rquantz wrote: post #22
jw_ wrote: post #13

I would like the trend towards ever-concentrated power and wealth to be reversed. I would like people to be able to expect their interactions online to be private instead of operating under the assumption that intelligence agencies are scooping up all of their private information. On a much more selfish and trivial note, I would also like an plugin-electric 4x4 so I can drive around the woods AND drive a futuristic T…

I remember reading a marxist-oriented article about the trend toward apocalyptic movies and books, and the quote that stuck out for me was, "It has become easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism." I suppose it's possible the things on this list could happen outside the framework of an ultra-capitalist society, but they are so consumer-focused it is hard to imagine them in any other context.…

I would not be surprised if capitalism ends in the united states in our lifetimes, either peacefully or through violence. Consider the rapid onset of robotization, creating a largely unemployed (and unemployable) populace, with the intersection of current republican party attitudes towards the nonwealthy, which I think can be mostly summarized as "fuck you I got mine".

You may find a book called "Does Capitalism Have a Future?" by Immanuel Wallerstein, et al interesting; I did.

   But a favorable alternative may be quite likely: the institutional 
   transformation from capitalism to a noncapitalist system of political 
   economy—an institutional revolution—could come about through peaceful 
   political process. If the crisis of capitalism is severe enough—a majority 
   of the population structurally unemployed, robots and computers doing almost 
   all the income-generating work but owned by a small number of wealthy 
   capitalists, the economy in deep depression—at some point a political party 
   could win electoral power on an anticapitalist program. Some governing party 
   or coalition would have to replace capitalist production, distribution, and 
   finances with a system that redistributes wealth outside the system of labor 
   market and profit-taking.
re-excerpted from: https://www.salon.com/2013/11/24/millennials_rise_up_college...

book: http://www.amazon.com/Does-Capitalism-Future-Immanuel-Waller...

Re: I want

#37

Post by dmazin »

"I want to have something to eat, to go to school, and healthcare" said a lot of other people.

Re: I want

#38

Post by [deleted] »

goldenkey wrote: post #10

This is what this post meant to me: I want to be a soul-less cyborg empress given the ultimate in life by mechanical minions. I want the world in my palm, with no struggle, no meaning to mean. I am _RoboRock_

[deleted]

Re: I want

#40

Post by agumonkey »

fudged71 wrote: post #7

I want things like Uber, Lyft, and Taskrabbit to exist in my city. I want services like Pandora and Google Music to not be restricted in my country. I want people around me to understand what's possible with today's technology. I want the industries in my city to move to Excel rather than tons of paper. For now, all I want is the present to be evenly distributed.

Minor warning, people need to be taught a little bit of ~database like ideas before using Excel, otherwise it's gonna be a printer-fest backfire.

It's so absurd it made me numb, but when people interact through Excel they accumulate very large matrices of redundant rows and columns that are unsuited for LCD/keyboard interactions thus ending up killing trees again.

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