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Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

techcrunch.com

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Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#121

Post by RunSet »

> “But what’s funny about Musk is, the stuff he likes actually completely defeats and defies all of his political beliefs,” she said.

Musk is only the most recent in a long line of semiliterates to have latched on to the lingo of Stranger in a Strange Land while apparently never having read a sentence of Heinlein's prose. As a rule of thumb, those who say "grok" do not.

And it's always Stranger in a Strange Land for the messiah figure. Here, have a better Heinlein story.

https://archive.org/details/Unknown_v04n06_1941-04_PDF_unz.o...

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#122

Post by flir »

ETH_start wrote: post #114

The government has expanded by any objective measure: From 20% of GDP to 40% of GDP today From a 34 regulatory agencies/offices to 77 today. From 5 percent of occupations needing a license in 1950 to 23 percent today From zero federal environmental review in 1950 to 26 months today for major projects. From almost zero collective bargaining agreements in the public sector in 1950 to approximately 36 percent of public…

So you're saying it's improved.

(If you're not, I think you have to explain why the expansion of between say, 6k YBP and 1950 was good expansion, and the growth between 1950 and today was bad expansion. Otherwise it looks like you're picking an arbitrary point and saying it was "best")

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#123

Post by slopinthebag »

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.

We believe it because it’s true. I think it’s actually way more common for people to have your opinion that governments are not bloated or inefficient as a general rule. And you always criticize the private industry and not the government when it’s the government who has this power in the first place. That’s like over feeding your cat and then blaming the cat.

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#124

Post by slopinthebag »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #98
brcmthrowaway wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a certain school of economics that achieved this brainwashing. I forget the name, but it's the one of Milton Friedman. But the trouble is, weren't they right during the Cold War?

No, the Chicago monetarists and neoliberals have never been right. Their dogma, and that entire school, is literally the creation of the banker class who got together after WWII because they didn't want to see Western civilisation degenerate into (the horror...) social democracy. They're the source of all of decades of nonsense about "small government" and "inefficiency" and "rational markets." They pretended to be l…

Yea the economic ideology that seems most correct is the Austrian school.

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#125

Post by slopinthebag »

quantified wrote: post #120
SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t really understand this perspective? I’m not a small government guy, I think the government ought to play an important role in providing a good regulatory framework and a strong social net. But if someone’s going to have direct power over my life, I’d much prefer a business owner or boss I can freely choose in principle rather than a government official who may not view me as part of their winning coalition.

How do you ever choose your boss at work? Never. Oh, by quitting that job and getting another? That's called "moving" when applied to politics. Which is super unattractive in much of regular life, unless you don't need people.

Getting a new job is completely different from denouncing your citizenship and moving to a different country. Oh also there are no territories without government so you can’t even do that.

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#127

Post by ETH_start »

flir wrote: post #122
ETH_start wrote: post #114

The government has expanded by any objective measure: From 20% of GDP to 40% of GDP today From a 34 regulatory agencies/offices to 77 today. From 5 percent of occupations needing a license in 1950 to 23 percent today From zero federal environmental review in 1950 to 26 months today for major projects. From almost zero collective bargaining agreements in the public sector in 1950 to approximately 36 percent of public…

So you're saying it's improved. (If you're not, I think you have to explain why the expansion of between say, 6k YBP and 1950 was good expansion, and the growth between 1950 and today was bad expansion. Otherwise it looks like you're picking an arbitrary point and saying it was "best")

I'm not making a normative claim. I'm saying that the narrative in the article — that the private sector has taken over functions of the government and the government has been in retreat — is exactly the opposite of what the statistics show.

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#128

Post by demilicious »

lisper wrote: post #110
jfengel wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

mind defending that? I suspect that opinion would only come from one who took philosophy 101 and stopped there. If all you took was philosophy 101, this sounds a lot more reasonable and runs right into the point made by the pos you just responded to

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#129

Post by tacomonstrous »

jimbob45 wrote: post #37
lenerdenator wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what happens when you have VCs putting on hackathons at NorCal universities and scooping people off the campuses before they ever get their degrees. If you take a guy under the age of 25, give him millions of dollars, and tell him he's a genius, he's going to develop a personality disorder.

Same with D1 NCAAF athletes. They’re getting millions starting at age 18 from NIL. There’s just no way that’s healthy even if we all agree NIL was the morally correct path forward.

The true morally correct path would have been to take big money out of college sports (not to mention high school sport) entirely. Of course this is now essentially impossible without what I imagine will be extensive rioting countrywide.
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