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Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

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Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#421

Post by ryandrake »

account42 wrote: post #414
robocat wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hacking and cheating are different things. Hacking is looking at the rules and finding smart ways of following them. A lawyer or accountant finding legal loopholes is hacking. The clearest place to see hacking is within games where one follows the rules and does not cheat. Avoid thinking that hacking is unethical behaviour. A common mistake of people that don't understand the culture. Like many great words, the meani…

Cheating is giving yourself an unfair advantage to the detriment of others, whether any explicit rules are clearly broken or not. That covers your definition of "hacking".

Yea, I include "rules lawyering" to be a mild form of cheating. The fact that it's socially acceptable is not much of a flex, to be honest.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#422

Post by chaseadam17 »

plaidthunder wrote: post #366
chaseadam17 wrote: post #253

On one hand, VCs that fund thousands of early-stage startups are inevitably going to fund some bad stuff, even if they try hard to avoid it. On the other, the older I get the more I worry about the decline of spirituality in the West. Especially in tech, I sometimes feel like I’m living in a hyper rational snowglobe of people optimizing a local maxima, not even considering (and often looking down on) the possibility…

These same VCs have been pushing spirituality on the US via socially conservative politics. It's highly possible that they are only instrumentalizing a value system that they don't really personally buy into, but their strategy does beg a lot of questions. One of which is what role spirituality can actually play in helping here. For example, Peter Thiel has gone out of his way to give something like sermons on "the a…

Yeah, I agree. I meant spirituality in the wholesome sense, not the spiritual bypass or Christian bc the party that supports my company is Christian sense.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#423

Post by chermi »

bugglebeetle wrote: post #122
consensus1 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And thank god they did. I'm old enough to remember the hell of the taxi cartel.

I’m old enough to remember the heavenly times before people repeated phrases like “the taxi cartel” as if they were original thoughts vs. cooked up by Uber’s comms team.

It was a literal cartel. It could not more clearly be a cartel.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#424

Post by chermi »

Valakas_ wrote: post #59

For me it's insane, how in this day and age, we don't conduct DSM-V / ICD tests (interviews) that screen for Cluster B personality disorders on everyone , and bar, at least those with anti-social PD, psychopathy, or extreme forms of narcissism, to work in positions of influence or power over others.

Lol. This is so incredibly backwards and stupid. Have you ran through any part of how this would work in your head? Not to mention how insane it is to ban people based on a test that is not scientific to begin with, not to mention gameable to the point it would have the exact opposite effect you desire.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#425

Post by andriy_koval »

account42 wrote: post #395
ornornor wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We’re already heading into a certain demographics crisis. It’s not only about the pyramidal system that retirement is but also about who will be your nurse when you’re old, make your car, be your doctor, etc if there aren’t enough people anymore? Every developed country is well below replacement rate with no real plans from the powers that be to address it because it’s so far in the future that it’s the next best guy…

Countries are not doing anything about low replacement rates because its currently in the interest of the elite to keep them low so that they can sell the need to import lower paid foreigners instead.

Elite is interested to have their country to win the race and not other, and healthy menpower is still essential for this.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#426

Post by andriy_koval »

sznio wrote: post #166
ceejayoz wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If much of the population is too poor to buy anything, too sick to consume much etc - who is left to buy anything at all? No one. That's the idea. A low-population paradise. Venice without its pesky people to mess with Bezos's wedding. Bora Bora without the peasants.

how's Bezos going to fund his wedding if there's no population of proles buying from Amazon, nor anyone putting their retirement into a fund that buys Amazon stock? does he just plan to use force rather than money at this point?

> how's Bezos going to fund his wedding if there's no population of proles buying from Amazon

there will be new economy around satisfying super rich and few layers of their servants. You can think about shifting production and distribution to more luxury cars/clothes/jets etc for them.

Bezos and Andreesen won't live alone on planet, there still be population, just much smaller.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#427

Post by Timon3 »

voakbasda wrote: post #420
Timon3 wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many years remain where the population actually still has any way to kick them out? Once military robots are sufficiently advanced, we've lost. We'll be fully at their mercy. Optimistically speaking, that's maybe 5-10 years out?

Are there any robots that can withstand a 50 caliber rifle slug? Don’t rule out ‘muricans just yet!

Unfortunately, even if a unified resistance formed by all gun-owning Americans were to march against them, it would buy the labor class a few months at most. Once enough capacity has been established (either production or troops) our only possible recourse would be to hijack/destroy their control, and that's unlikely to be possible if e.g. communication & compute originate from satellites.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#428

Post by K0balt »

hattmall wrote: post #373
K0balt wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really wish that logic held. Automation doesn’t need customers. Automation just needs more automation, and access to energy and natural resources, both of which don’t require money if you have enough automation. Ultimately, Money is only used to pay wages, nothing else… so no wages to pay, no money required. In the post employment scenario, money is not needed by industry. You don’t pay the forest to cut the trees,…

Wouldn't everyone else just restart the same economy with what resources they do have?

Sort of, maybe to a 1900s kind of economy.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#429

Post by gkoberger »

franktankbank wrote: post #415
gkoberger wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh everyone I know in YC answered this in an ethical way. In fact, I suspect YC keeps this wording to catch people admitting to something unethical while rewarding people who see something in a system that could be different. My answer that got me accepted was that there was a lip syncing competition at my college that was dwindling because everyone had to submit a CD and sign up in advance. It also was held in an au…

How is that hacking?

That's my point.

Here's pg's definition of a hacker: https://www.paulgraham.com/gba.html

I left out that the rule at the time was all songs had to be reviewed by the administration, which I didn't comply with. I'm not saying my story is the greatest; quite the opposite. I was trying to show that "hacking" isn't inherently unethical or even particularly interesting.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz is investing billions into a bleak future

#430

Post by andriy_koval »

hackable_sand wrote: post #330
danparsonson wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is possible, but sadly the alternative is easier.

I disagree. It is always easier to make the world a more peaceful, happy place, always .

wondering if you have a chance to support your opinion with any evidence or data points?
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