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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

#51

Post by newspaper1 »

WalterBright wrote: post #24
RevEng wrote: post #8

They know exactly what they are doing. Elon Musk talks a lot about freedom but he has never practiced it with regards to others, only himself. He has always considered the technologically well educated to be superior. He is also an egotistical narcissist. You can't believe anything he says he believes because he projects what he wants others to believe of him, not what he truly believes. The same is true of many of t…

[flagged]

X has massive censorship. Not only are pro-Palestinian accounts regularly banned, reach is restricted on any anti-Israel content. They even censored the Iranian flag! If you post it, X replaces it with their own, incorrect version.

Here's an example of recent censorship: https://x.com/PushDemsLeft/status/2085803160342241367

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#52

Post by swiftcoder »

croes wrote: post #4

With Musks ideas I often think I saw that movie/read that book. For his Mars plans I see the Mars colony from Total Recall, the Schwarzenegger film Like Zuckerberg‘s shift to VR that looks like he came out of the theater of Ready Player one.

> Like Zuckerberg‘s shift to VR that looks like he came out of the theater of Ready Player one.

They took most of us employees to see Ready Player One in the cinema when it came out (sometime after the Oculus acquisition, but before "the metaverse")

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#54

Post by ygjb »

swiftcoder wrote: post #48
ygjb wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jokes on you. When there isn't a functional system of government there is nothing to stop rich psychopaths from paying poor psychopaths killing those who get in there way and declaring themselves dictators. In the absence of effective laws to align people in the direction of the society they want, and constant effort to realign in response to pressure, we will fall back to tribalism and all of the attendant forms of…

> or those with the resources to buy might This feels a bit like those rich survivalists who think they are going to fix bomb-collars to their bodyguards to ensure loyalty in the apocalypse... stock certificates aren't worth a whole lot in a world where the rule of law has broken down

I said resources not money. Charisma, religion and promoting hate have empowered just as many psychopaths in history as wealth.

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#55

Post by jltsiren »

yks wrote: post #34
ygjb wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jokes on you. When there isn't a functional system of government there is nothing to stop rich psychopaths from paying poor psychopaths killing those who get in there way and declaring themselves dictators. In the absence of effective laws to align people in the direction of the society they want, and constant effort to realign in response to pressure, we will fall back to tribalism and all of the attendant forms of…

In societies like that, Silicon Valley’s rich nerds might discover that they’re not the ones with the real might, see Putin’s Russia, which many of them adore. Money is but one of the facets of power.

Russia is a country with a strong centralized government capable of enforcing laws whenever it wants.

In the absence of effective laws, one of the biggest threats to rich people would be their own hired thugs. If the thugs decide that they don't respect you and they would make better rich assholes, they will kill you and take your property. Historically, societies like that were often ruled by the biggest and the most charismatic thugs, who could command the respect of lesser thugs. Or warrior nobility, if you want a fancier term. Today's billionaire nerds would not be among those.

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#56

Post by gaigalas »

steveBK123 wrote: post #3

I don’t even think most of it is deeply philosophical. They just got uberrich and now worry more about the concerns of the uberrich than the concerns they had when they were normies. Rule of law, functioning government providing services, functioning public commons, free press, freedom of speech for all, any social safety net, etc don’t matter when they are so far removed from the public they can just go buy yourself…

Sci-fi works are surfaces in which you can project future realities allegorically. Every single person has the right to project what they want.

The issue here is that people don't have the education to make those projections, so they borrow for meaning they can't derive for themselves. Wealthy people know this and abuse this effect.

It is, however, a self-correcting mechanism (you can't actually conjure realities, opinions are very ephemeral things). Might take a couple of centuries, but reality will show itself.

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#57

Post by newspaper1 »

WalterBright wrote: post #45
watwut wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> It has pro-far-right censorship which is something different. Just what is he censoring? I've seen plenty of far-out posts from both the left and right on X.

Here's one example: https://x.com/PushDemsLeft/status/2085803160342241367

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#58

Post by swiftcoder »

ilamont wrote: post #22

I think it’s true that when Musk or Altman is just unambiguously being like, “Yes, this story is a template for what I should do with my company,” that’s bonkers. But there is [also] this technocratic libertarian thread in science fiction that they are picking up on. Is there some evidence for this claim? Lepore in her reply says "I guess Bezos is a big Robert Heinlein fan" and then there is a lot of talk about Asimo…

Did you also get hold of a billion dollars at some point? For some reason, those of us who work for a living seem less inclined to such psychosis

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#59

Post by hunterpayne »

croes wrote: post #39
fallinghawks wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heck, we're living Idiocracy right now.

Camacho made the most intelligent man secretary of the interior, Trump would never do that. So it’s kind of worse than Idiocracy

Brought to you by Carl's Jr.

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#60

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

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.

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.
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