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“When we all have pocket telephones”

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Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#61

Post by oneoff786 »

nonrandomstring wrote: post #7

Lately, stand-up comedians have been saying they're out of a job, because the absurdity of reality is escaping parody. Nothing stays funny for long, because soon enough it's true, and then banal. In a world where all things are absurd, ipso facto nothing is absurd. An interesting question becomes what remains? What are the solid relations that underpin our humanity? Having a boss that tells you what to do? No, long s…

It’s just another wave of some people getting older and decrying all change as bad. Comedy is thriving. The world is fine.

Also, are you complaining that you cannot be mugged as easily?

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#62

Post by jsrcout »

trashtester wrote: post #26
nuggetys wrote: post #4

When we all have telephones embedded into our brains, linked in to our neural circuitry. When Google advertises to you in your dreams, daydreams and nightmares. When Huawei gives their government control over their citizens' thoughts, and feelings and desires. When Samsung kills millions with a botched over-the-air firmware upgrade.

> When Google advertises to you in your dreams, daydreams and nightmares. If we let them wire something into our brains, it's a lot easier to connect it to the happiness centres: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3984894/ If you can gain networked control of such a device, you could easily gain complete control of their motivations and disires. Much more strongly than with any drug. Not only would you be a…

I'd be stunned if there aren't well-funded groups working on this as we speak.

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#63

Post by cainxinth »

googlryas wrote: post #12
nonrandomstring wrote: post #7

Lately, stand-up comedians have been saying they're out of a job, because the absurdity of reality is escaping parody. Nothing stays funny for long, because soon enough it's true, and then banal. In a world where all things are absurd, ipso facto nothing is absurd. An interesting question becomes what remains? What are the solid relations that underpin our humanity? Having a boss that tells you what to do? No, long s…

Stand up comedians are saying this while they're...performing standup?

No, they say it on podcasts mostly… where many of them they are making more money than they they ever did at standup.

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#64

Post by bluGill »

nonrandomstring wrote: post #7

Lately, stand-up comedians have been saying they're out of a job, because the absurdity of reality is escaping parody. Nothing stays funny for long, because soon enough it's true, and then banal. In a world where all things are absurd, ipso facto nothing is absurd. An interesting question becomes what remains? What are the solid relations that underpin our humanity? Having a boss that tells you what to do? No, long s…

> Lately, stand-up comedians have been saying they're out of a job, because the absurdity of reality is escaping parody. Nothing stays funny for long, because soon enough it's true, and then banal.

I've heard them say that as long as I've been alive. I'm sure 3000 years ago traveling bards were saying the same things. There is a lot of comedic value from the statement, so of course any good one will use it from time to time. That doesn't mean it is true.

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#65

Post by areyousure »

eesmith wrote: post #60
ekianjo wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taking extremes is a strawman. What matters is what most people pay.

"Average federal tax rates for all households, by comprehensive household income quintile. 1979 to 2018" at https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/statistics/historical-averag... "Average Total Federal Tax Rate (percent)" is lower for every percentile from 1979 to 2018. Year 1979 2018 Lowest Quintile 9.3 0.0 Second Quintile 15.0 8.1 Middle Quintile 19.1 12.8 Fourth Quintile 21.7 16.7 Highest Quintile 27.1 24.4 All Quintiles…

In case anyone was curious, United States federal tax receipts were $463 billion in FY1979 and $3.33 trillion in FY2018, a growth of a factor of ~7.2 = ~5.2%/year. The population has grown by a factor of ~1.44 = ~0.95%/year and the effect of inflation has been a factor of ~3.63 = ~3.36%/year, which multiply together to a factor of ~5.2 = ~4.33%/year. The receipts grew faster by a factor of ~1.38 = 0.82%/year.

This calculation does not consider the growth of expenditures specifically (as opposed to receipts) and similarly does not consider the growth of GDP (as opposed to inflation).

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#66

Post by sidewndr46 »

eesmith wrote: post #13
bsza wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet it predicted the future more accurately than Blade Runner (1982) where people still use pay phones in 2019.

Picking nits while skipping how we don't have off-world colonies or replicants? In that case, the comic got things wrong too. You'll be hard pressed to find people wearing those clothes these days, especially the nurse's headgear. Canes and briefcases are also rare, though I suspect that those rare few wearing a bowler hat might still use them. Also, few people use a bell as their ringtone.

My understanding is in the blade runner universe the off world colonies aren't somewhere you'd want to live & the replicants are banned on earth. In other words, two things to be avoided.

So we could easily advance past those points without touching them entirely.

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#67

Post by [deleted] »

nonrandomstring wrote: post #7

Lately, stand-up comedians have been saying they're out of a job, because the absurdity of reality is escaping parody. Nothing stays funny for long, because soon enough it's true, and then banal. In a world where all things are absurd, ipso facto nothing is absurd. An interesting question becomes what remains? What are the solid relations that underpin our humanity? Having a boss that tells you what to do? No, long s…

[deleted]

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#68

Post by thesuitonym »

aikendrum wrote: post #40
robertlagrant wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it's like saying "CEOs saying they're out of a job while being CEOs".

Standup comedian is a freelance job. It's perfectly possible to be unable to perform and still be a comedian, whether due to lack of material or lack of opportunity.

Tale as old as time... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF2RYhNhBdw

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#69

Post by ltbarcly3 »

eesmith wrote: post #60
ekianjo wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taking extremes is a strawman. What matters is what most people pay.

"Average federal tax rates for all households, by comprehensive household income quintile. 1979 to 2018" at https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/statistics/historical-averag... "Average Total Federal Tax Rate (percent)" is lower for every percentile from 1979 to 2018. Year 1979 2018 Lowest Quintile 9.3 0.0 Second Quintile 15.0 8.1 Middle Quintile 19.1 12.8 Fourth Quintile 21.7 16.7 Highest Quintile 27.1 24.4 All Quintiles…

I don't know if taxes are higher now vs some point in history (probably higher than some, lower than others) but your implicit claim that 'taxes' == 'US Federal Income Tax Rate' is so laughable I can't believe you can make it with a straight face. Not everyone is from the US, and the people from the US know that there are like 5 levels of taxation, from local sales tax to property tax to state income tax, state personal property tax, taxes relabeled as 'fees' to circumvent state rules about new tax creation, tariffs, payroll taxes, etc etc etc etc etc. Then there are taxes like social security, disability insurance, unemployment insurance, etc.

Even if all we look at is US federal income taxes, you don't include them all. Social security is a sum of 12.4% of your income (and it is regressive!). Medicare is 2.9%. These have gone up considerably since 1979 (8.1% total in 1979, 15.3% now)

Re: “When we all have pocket telephones”

#70

Post by hammock »

googlryas wrote: post #12
nonrandomstring wrote: post #7

Lately, stand-up comedians have been saying they're out of a job, because the absurdity of reality is escaping parody. Nothing stays funny for long, because soon enough it's true, and then banal. In a world where all things are absurd, ipso facto nothing is absurd. An interesting question becomes what remains? What are the solid relations that underpin our humanity? Having a boss that tells you what to do? No, long s…

Stand up comedians are saying this while they're...performing standup?

No. They say it in interviews, on podcasts, etc.

Most comedians refuse to play shows on college campuses now (once a highly lucrative venue for them) because of the audience

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