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The Techno-Optimist Manifesto

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Re: The Techno-Optimist Manifesto

#11

Post by what-no-tests »

Only someone in league with or benefiting from the centralization of power, mass surveillance, wealth, and the use of technology to further the rapid concentration and centralization of such could write such a one-sided piece.

Unless they're somehow unaware that, in its current manifestation, technology is a tool that converts knowledge into power.

An improved and expanded strategy for -- with articulated tactics to achieve -- the decentralization of power and wealth, a dismantling of hierarchy, and increasing personal agency, privacy and freedom must not be sacrificed in favor of technology for technology's sake.

Can we even do this? I don't know.

Re: The Techno-Optimist Manifesto

#14

Post by BobbyJo »

sph wrote: post #4

Techno-optimism manifesto written by a multi-billionaire founder of a venture capital. It doesn't get more dystopian than this. Where have the hackers gone?

You can't buy a crappy house for less than 1mil in SV. The hackers are all on corporate payrolls.

Re: The Techno-Optimist Manifesto

#15

Post by hemloc_io »

sph wrote: post #7
hemloc_io wrote: post #5

Really more of an e/acc manifesto. Interesting to see a twitter thing slowly leak into the mainstream one step at a time.

WTF is e/acc for people that don't live on Twitter?

It's a twitter thing, that was picked up by the more twitter brained VCs.

Mostly an AI thing originally I think? (I'm addicted to the site, but don't follow the d list celeb drama lol.)

Stands for effective accelerationism, more or less what you read in this Manifesto (Marc Andresson said he identified it a while ago too so makes sense.)

Re: The Techno-Optimist Manifesto

#16

Post by shuckles »

BobbyJo wrote: post #14
sph wrote: post #4

Techno-optimism manifesto written by a multi-billionaire founder of a venture capital. It doesn't get more dystopian than this. Where have the hackers gone?

You can't buy a crappy house for less than 1mil in SV. The hackers are all on corporate payrolls.

You sure it isn’t because they just grew up, like the hippies?

Re: The Techno-Optimist Manifesto

#19

Post by Balladeer »

> Markets prevent monopolies and cartels.

A lot of the optimism seems to rely on this statement and...I'm not convinced? But I also admit I'm not well informed on the topic. Does anyone have suggested reading on 'market discipline', as they're calling it?

I mean, the first person on their "Patron Saints of Techno-Optimism" is Jeff Bezos, who is actively dealing with an antitrust lawsuit from the FTC regarding Amazon's frequent and regular push toward monopoly power.

Re: The Techno-Optimist Manifesto

#20

Post by riskable »

More like a Techno-Capitalist Fantasy. This part had me laughing out loud:

> Markets prevent monopolies and cartels.

No, markets naturally culminate into monopolies and cartels. That's just human nature.

History has shown over and over again that monopolies and cartels are naturally occurring and that the only successful way to deal with them is to break them up via government intervention. Sure, some monopolies may eventually dissolve due to things like technical obsolescence but that's the type of thing that takes so long that entire generations can come and go, suffering the effects the entire time, before they break up.

This manifesto also doesn't seem to have a solution to "natural monopolies" like ISPs or utilities (water, sewer, electricity). It just pretends such things don't exist.

It also doesn't have anything at all to say about economic externalities (e.g. pollution/downstream impacts), policing of bad behavior, or "tragedy of the commons" sorts of problems.

If you had a technology-oriented country that sends all of its pollution to another country it could be the perfect world envisioned by this "Techno-Optimist Manifesto".

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