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The Techno-Optimist Manifesto

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Re: The Techno-Optimist Manifesto

#161

Post by dinvlad »

llamaimperative wrote: post #130

I agree with the overall thrust of this, or should be easy to convince, but boy does this lack of self-awareness just shout “distance yourself and run, don’t walk!” > Our enemy is the ivory tower, the know-it-all credentialed expert worldview, indulging in abstract theories, luxury beliefs, social engineering, disconnected from the real world, delusional, unelected, and unaccountable – playing God with everyone else’…

I gotta admit, I'm really impressed by Marc's ability to completely subvert so many historical facts and figures to "support" his self-contradictory line of thought. This is just on a whole other level - even Trump would be jealous.

The e/acc crowd is just _completely_ insane, at this point. I'd laugh hard if not for the fact that people like Marc have economic power over the rest of us.

Re: The Techno-Optimist Manifesto

#162

Post by rileyphone »

greenie_beans wrote: post #67
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.

it's ironic, because wouldn't marx be considered the OG accelerationist?

The philosophy goes back to him by Deleuze and Guattari via Nick Land, though most lump Marx's thought with the sins of the 20th century.

Re: The Techno-Optimist Manifesto

#163

Post by skulk »

stevenhuang wrote: post #131
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that's "the purest form" of something, give me the dirty version any day. An utterly useless human activity, that does nothing for actual humanity but simply serves as a wealth redistribution technique shared among a tiny number of highly-self-interested individuals ... it might be "pure" but it's not "pure" in any way.

You don't understand market making and it's not ok to pretend you do.

Instead of reaching for this horribly irritating snark (I'm sure GP understands market making enough to understand why HFT exists), why not be charitable and consider the opportunity cost of the smartest people spending their mental energy to create a slightly more efficient market? Is this really a responsible use of this resource?

Re: The Techno-Optimist Manifesto

#164

Post by hotnfresh »

dinvlad wrote: post #161
llamaimperative wrote: post #130

I agree with the overall thrust of this, or should be easy to convince, but boy does this lack of self-awareness just shout “distance yourself and run, don’t walk!” > Our enemy is the ivory tower, the know-it-all credentialed expert worldview, indulging in abstract theories, luxury beliefs, social engineering, disconnected from the real world, delusional, unelected, and unaccountable – playing God with everyone else’…

I gotta admit, I'm really impressed by Marc's ability to completely subvert so many historical facts and figures to "support" his self-contradictory line of thought. This is just on a whole other level - even Trump would be jealous. The e/acc crowd is just _completely_ insane, at this point. I'd laugh hard if not for the fact that people like Marc have economic power over the rest of us.

I like how “we” prefer intrinsic motivation (near the end) but UBI is a bad idea (earlyish-middle, I think) because people need work to be happy (it’s for their own good, you see) and they won’t do any work if we don’t threaten them with poverty—the huge amounts of unpaid work ordinary people already perform, despite needing to also work for pay, is evidently invisible to our economic genius and Randian-Nietchien super-man, Mr Horowitz.

Clearly has a different sort of people in mind with these two ideas. Friggin’ elitist masquerading as some savior of humanity. Gross.

Re: The Techno-Optimist Manifesto

#165

Post by Karrot_Kream »

llamaimperative wrote: post #130

I agree with the overall thrust of this, or should be easy to convince, but boy does this lack of self-awareness just shout “distance yourself and run, don’t walk!” > Our enemy is the ivory tower, the know-it-all credentialed expert worldview, indulging in abstract theories, luxury beliefs, social engineering, disconnected from the real world, delusional, unelected, and unaccountable – playing God with everyone else’…

> but boy does this lack of self-awareness just shout “distance yourself and run, don’t walk!”

This feels a bit of an extreme reaction to me, I don't try and read into gotchas in writing and use them to "run away". Instead it makes me:

1. View the writing with skepticism

2. Try to understand what Andreessen thinks makes him not one of those ivory tower figures, because I certainly think of him as one.

2 seems the more insightful one to me, but certainly 1 qualifies how I view his writing.

Re: The Techno-Optimist Manifesto

#166

Post by woodruffw »

This was deeply depressing to read, and indicates that the trend of disengagement between VCs (and SV tech culture, more generally) and our larger society is continuing apace.

Rather than doing anything else, a man worth approximately $1.8B[1] is posting screeds wherein he churlishly tells the rest of us to read Internet-poisoned reactionaries. No sane culture would be optimistic about any system or scheme that produces such results; we do much better to run screaming in the exact opposite direction.

[1]: https://www.forbes.com/profile/marc-andreessen/

Re: The Techno-Optimist Manifesto

#167

Post by Liron »

This is decent as a "rah rah techno-optimism" piece, but it continues Marc's pattern of cheapening the discourse when opining on the topic of AI existential risk.

It's easy to mistake this piece as making an argument for accelerating AI development by touting the virtues of techno-optimism. It's not, though.

The claim that "AI has a high risk of becoming unaligned & uncontrollable in our lifetimes", if sufficiently true (e.g. 99% confidence), implies that the current speed of AI development is unwise, independent of how much one likes techno-optimism in general.

Re: The Techno-Optimist Manifesto

#168

Post by hotnfresh »

elihu wrote: post #154

> We believe energy should be in an upward spiral. Energy is the foundational engine of our civilization. The more energy we have, the more people we can have, and the better everyone’s lives can be. We should raise everyone to the energy consumption level we have, then increase our energy 1,000x, then raise everyone else’s energy 1,000x as well. Let's not do that on Earth please. If you want to build a planet-sized…

Assuming the CO2 stat is even true (that stood out to me, too, so I did a search, but couldn’t find a good source either way) I 100% guarantee it’s sophistry: carbon produced in the US per-capita is perhaps down—that’s not impossible, at least—but I’ll eat my hat if carbon released due to US consumption is down.

Re: The Techno-Optimist Manifesto

#169

Post by survirtual »

In a world where abundance reigns, the old structures and the leaders who champion them fade into obsolescence. The energy that once went into seeking more begins to flow into sharing, nurturing, and sustaining. In this transformed landscape, resource hoarding and centralized control are not just out of place; they become barriers to the collective human journey toward wisdom and spiritual fulfillment.

When everyone's basic needs are met effortlessly, the focus of life shifts from surviving to thriving, from acquiring to becoming. In such a world, market mechanisms and venture capital don't just lose relevance; they begin to feel like vestiges of an era defined by limitations that no longer exist. The skills once lauded for amassing resources lose their sheen when the quest becomes one of meaning, connection, and collective wellbeing.

The hearts and minds of people turn toward unlocking human potential, fostering creativity, and deepening relationships. In this new reality, leaders who can guide us toward spiritual and emotional enrichment will supersede those who have mastered the art of material accumulation.

In this context, the prominence of individuals like Andreessen, along with constructs such as markets and money, would naturally diminish into insignificance. The irony lies in the fact that such a manifesto would even be conceived, indicating a profound disconnect from the emergent realities of a post-scarcity world.

Re: The Techno-Optimist Manifesto

#170

Post by gorwell »

llamaimperative wrote: post #130

I agree with the overall thrust of this, or should be easy to convince, but boy does this lack of self-awareness just shout “distance yourself and run, don’t walk!” > Our enemy is the ivory tower, the know-it-all credentialed expert worldview, indulging in abstract theories, luxury beliefs, social engineering, disconnected from the real world, delusional, unelected, and unaccountable – playing God with everyone else’…

He's perfectly self aware that he has rejected his own class. It's weird that people think that's impossible or something and insist that he must be one in the same.
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