It has been quite interesting to observe Marc Andreesen's idealogical arc over the past 5 years. An article from a mainstream VC citing Nick Land and Nietzche definitely points to a "vibe shift" occurring, with new ideas gaining hold after a long period of stagnation.
The Techno-Optimist Manifesto
51–60 of 414 posts
Re: The Techno-Optimist Manifesto
#52I appreciate the optimism, and sometimes its great to put out a manifesto filled with hope.
But this part: [The Enemy] Our enemies are not bad people – but rather bad ideas.
This is true - but it really doesn't engage with how the Enemy operates, and why many Bad ideas do MUCH better than good ideas.
Re: The Techno-Optimist Manifesto
#53> Markets
> We believe central economic planning elevates the worst of us and drags everyone down; markets exploit the best of us to benefit all of us
> We believe central planning is a doom loop; markets are an upward spiral
There's many things off with this. The USSR from the 1920s to early 1950s had enormous economic growth - particularly in the 1930s when so-called free markets in the West had collapsed, by the 1950s and early 1960s it was sending satellites and men to space - before the West. Also, the PRC had enormous economic growth from the early 1950s to late 1970s (and afterward as well).
Also, the US economy is centrally planned. Billions are flowing to military contractors for Israel right now as they were to the Ukraine before - the US is pumping over $800 billion (really over a trillion) this year into this centrally planned economy, and it also de facto plans for the giant medical sector. The Internet we type on was built over decades with government money.
But most importantly, as these are more minor issues - it is a false comparison. The Soviet Union had markets selling radishes for rubles, just like the US does (for dollars). So both had markets.
The difference is the USSR from the 1920s to mid-1960s made production decisions based on the general welfare, the desire for a space program etc. Workers on collective farms made their own decisions, with perhaps some government quotas. In the US decisions are made to benefit the heirs who own companies as opposed to the workers who do the work.
But that is a minor point. The point is that both had markets, little different from one another. But the distribution portion of the economy for the US is compared to the centrally planned production if the other economy. It makes no sense. The US production controlled by and for the benefit of heirs is unmentioned. The USSR-like market identical to to the US market is unmentioned. We compare US production to USSR-like distribution. The comparison makes no sense. Purposefully.
Re: The Techno-Optimist Manifesto
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think that's wholesale falsehood. The wins in the last 200 years are so dramatic for the average person, especially in the West. Infant mortality rate and the chance of survival to adulthood alone are such glorious victories against Death that I would gladly vote for any system that would give us those wins and create a trillionaire. All that wondrous science has come from this system. No. Evidence is evidence. Thi…
At the scale of 200 years, you have some absolutely staggering human atrocities, fueled by technology. Colonialism, modern warfare, carpet bombing/nukes, industrialized genocide, truly ghastly urban factory life. We can maybe look at the past few decades as the point at which most of the world finally began to enjoy the effects of the industrial revolution. Although the cost may be the collapse of the carrying capaci…
It is possible, in this world, for you to move to a less civilized part of the world and emulate the life of 200 years ago. We can have both if we so desire. But your children will almost all die before they see 5 winters. Behave in line with your convictions if you so desire.
Re: The Techno-Optimist Manifesto
#55Techno-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?
Yeah, this being written by Andreesen is a non-starter for me. I have no interest in what he has to say at this point - hard pass.
Re: The Techno-Optimist Manifesto
#56I'm really a bit shocked this was flagged. A blog post (marketed as a manifesto no less!) from the founder of Netscape and one of the biggest VCs in the business about the future of technology. I understand its potential for flame wars, but how could this not be on-topic for HN?
Re: The Techno-Optimist Manifesto
#57This is a profession of faith for tech bros so devoid of meaning and humanity in their lives that they have to worship "progress" to justify their existence.
touche`
Re: The Techno-Optimist Manifesto
#58I'm really a bit shocked this was flagged. A blog post (marketed as a manifesto no less!) from the founder of Netscape and one of the biggest VCs in the business about the future of technology. I understand its potential for flame wars, but how could this not be on-topic for HN?
[deleted]
Re: The Techno-Optimist Manifesto
#59Keep in mind that they changed the header in this, so thankfully Erin Kissane shared the original header for the record: https://mas.to/@kissane/111245487051384089
Talk about a falling off the rails type of piece, this is it.
Re: The Techno-Optimist Manifesto
#60Gosh this is weird. So many of the points here seem really good and important, yet many of the other points here are so distorted as to be almost unrecognizable. It reads to me like bad religion. E.g. he knows about the Aral sea and yet argues against the "Precautionary Principle"!? (It seems strange to me to mention the Aral sea as an example of Soviet ecological incompetence, which it surely is, but then fail to me…
i have some spiritual practice suggestions:
1. maintain and improve your emacs&nixos configurations,
2. create a personal database and add new capabilities to it (for example you could start by making a database to track github stars that could for instance store hashes of specific commits)
3. with your newfound data model and programmable/configurable environment, slowly integrate AI into your life