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Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

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Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#101

Post by [deleted] »

amberjack wrote: post #72
psunavy03 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the author was trying to make a point (as many sci-fi authors were), it's totally reasonable to call out someone who misses the point. Like the people calling Starship Troopers fascist. Or even funnier, the people calling Heinlein a fascist for writing Starship Troopers, which just proves they haven't read any of the rest of his work.

It depends on how good the point is, doesn't it? I am more aiming at the "Torment Nexus" type of argument which essentially assumes that writers know technology better than technologists and the mere existence of scifi dystopia that somebody thought up is a good reason ipso facto to not do something.

[deleted]

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#103

Post by mnmnmn »

yoyohello13 wrote: post #25

In the US at least, we've been brainwashed to think that government, by definition, must be bloated, corrupt and inefficient. Believing this axiom, people vote to hand over every possible service to private enterprise. Now we are in a situation where a handful of unelected business men have more power over our lives than the elected government.

[dead]

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#104

Post by arduanika »

mistrial9 wrote: post #21

Does this article mention Adam Becker at all ?

So, a cool shortcut is that you can go to a website and press "Ctrl-F", which will let you search for a given string on the page.

It's okay that you didn't know that! https://xkcd.com/1053/

But the answer is, no, it doesn't. I would say that Becker covered a lot of the same ground, and does it better.

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#105

Post by bawolff »

Feels like a bit of a strawman.

Just because the PR dept of a company spouts some bullshit doesn't mean that it actually represents the company's views. A super bowl advert referencing 1984 does not literally mean the company sees itself as the protagonist of 1984

I see no evidence they even read these SciFi books in the first place let alone misunderstood them.

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#106

Post by msabalau »

GMoromisato wrote: post #42

This was a fascinating interview, and there were a lot of ideas packed into it. Honestly, it makes me want to read her book. That said, I disagree with a lot of her conclusions. Contra her assertions, I believe that technological change is the principal cause of historical change. Lawrence Lessig wrote Code is Law, which highlights how specific software system decisions constrained the available legal regimes that co…

I happened to read an ARC of her forthcoming book. Lapore is well aware and discusses in detail the history of technocratic dreams dating back centuries.

The book also deep and wide-ranging analysis of tech oligarchs ability to misread science fiction. So detailed and consistent is her coverage of the genre that I can actually imagine the book being assigned in a survey course on SF.

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#107

Post by Barrin92 »

lapcat wrote: post #23

I don't think there's anything deep here. Good fiction is entertainment. The author may or may not also intend to send a message or teach a lesson, but above all fiction has to be entertaining, or it won't get read. A sense of morality is obviously not required to be entertained. People like Musk are science fiction fans who also happen to be morally bankrupt. I believe those two factors are mostly unrelated. Space,…

>but above all fiction has to be entertaining

As Neil Postman points out in Amusing Ourselves to Death that is an artifact of modern mass media. In the Abrahamic traditions idolatry and an aversion to imagery exists exactly for this reason, because it leads to a culture in which people cease to be able to distinguish how something appears from what it's supposed to point to.

They aren't unrelated at all. People like Musk or Zuckerberg are the way they are, because they grew up in an environment that disregards the moral, intellectual, religious and even aesthetic dimensions of fiction (or non-fiction) and are effectively overgrown toddlers as a result, and in that they're just like most people now, except with more power.

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#108

Post by hunterpayne »

Jtsummers wrote: post #95
hunterpayne wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's true for one specific kind of wealthy person. Specifically those born into it. Its absolutely not true for the self-made. I do have a solution to this. If you haven't paid your own bills with money you earned (no jobs from family) for the last 10 years, you can't run for office. Literally the mayor of Seattle has never paid her own bills and her husband has never worked either. There is no universe whe…

> Literally the mayor of Seattle has never paid her own bills and her husband has never worked either. Where is your evidence for this? It's a pretty strong claim.

The fact that its been verified by multiple sources, including the mayor herself.

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#109

Post by WalterBright »

newspaper1 wrote: post #53
WalterBright wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

It's not doxxing, it's posting public information and it's 100% free speech.

It certainly is doxxing (although there is no legal definition of it that I'm aware of). I also wrote that X has the least censorship of any social media platform. If you have to dig down to elonjet, it just affirms my statement.

Elon also has legitimate concerns for his safety.

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#110

Post by lisper »

jfengel wrote: post #61
epgui wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of “shallow philosophy” seems more like “pseudo-philosophy”. I feel like a lot of people just take “thoughts” and label that philosophy.

People really don't get how poorly freshman philosophy presents the field. It's not even a survey of an introduction to a prologue. So every passing thought feels like "philosophy".

It doesn’t help that a lot of philosophy is actually bullshit.
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