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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

#81

Post by ReptileMan »

Trasmatta wrote: post #36

I think some of them intentionally model themselves after the evil characters in fiction. I remember seeing Musk talk one time about how he loves the game Deus Ex. And there's an almost uncanny resemblance between his actions and Bob Page's. The other canonical example of this is the naming of Palantir, of course. In many cases I think it's less that they misread the fiction, and more that they intentionally model th…

Of the 5 users of the Palantirs that we know of 2 are good, 2 are evil, and one is tragic.

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#82

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

jltsiren wrote: post #55
yks wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 mos…

If I was a semi-rich thug boss I'd hire out my thugs as security to all the nervous billionaire nerds. Including cybersecurity.

Then I could make a move whenever.

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#83

Post by jhbadger »

GMoromisato wrote: post #42

This was a fascinating interview, and there were a lot of ideas packed into it. Honestly, it makes me want to read her book. That said, I disagree with a lot of her conclusions. Contra her assertions, I believe that technological change is the principal cause of historical change. Lawrence Lessig wrote Code is Law, which highlights how specific software system decisions constrained the available legal regimes that co…

What we call "globalization" is the really the second version of globalization. In the late Victorian period goods from all around the world were available in the West, and even to a degree the other way around (a trick of colonization was to process the raw materials from the colony in the home country and sell the finished products back to the colony). What killed the first version of globalization were the world wars.

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#84

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

aleph_minus_one wrote: post #77
lenerdenator wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what happens when you have VCs putting on hackathons at NorCal universities and scooping people off the campuses before they ever get their degrees. If you take a guy under the age of 25, give him millions of dollars, and tell him he's a genius, he's going to develop a personality disorder.

> This is what happens when you have VCs putting on hackathons at NorCal universities and scooping people off the campuses before they ever get their degrees. > If you take a guy under the age of 25, give him millions of dollars, and tell him he's a genius, he's going to develop a personality disorder. I think it is a little bit more complicated: I think there exists some very specific personality trait (my guess is…

I had a friend who tried to get a job as a trader with one of the big banks. They fired him after six months because he "wasn't hungry enough."

People with NPD make terrible leaders and they literally have a very tenuous grip on reality.

These are exactly the people who get promoted to billionaire status, which hugely amplifies their ability to damage everything and everyone.

The entire system is insane.

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#85

Post by hunterpayne »

jmyeet wrote: post #62

Silicon Valley has been heavily influenced by a different author. It just happens to be Ayn Rand. Ayn Rand sold this idea that selfishness is a virtue. Taken further, you see a strong thread between objectivism and transhumanism. In the early days of Silicon Valley, tech companies were disrupted. But we shouldn't forget that the true origins of Silicon Valley were in defense contracting. Modern tech companeis have be…

[flagged]

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#86

Post by taude »

blitzar wrote: post #71
swiftcoder wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don’t even think most of it is deeply philosophical. Part of the problem is that a lot of it is shallowly philosophical. I used to attend Zuckerberg town halls, and as smart as the guy may be, it's pretty evident that he dropped out of Harvard after 1st-year philosophy

He's gonna be convinced of that 'til next month when he get to James Lemon, and then he's gonna be talkin' about how the economies of Virginia and Pennsylvania were entrepreneurial and capitalist way back in 1740. That's gonna last until next year -- he's gonna be in here regurgitating Gordon Wood, talkin' about, you know, the Pre-revolutionary utopia and the capital-forming effects of military mobilization.

I like apples.

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#89

Post by paleotrope »

philipwhiuk wrote: post #75
GMoromisato wrote: post #42

This was a fascinating interview, and there were a lot of ideas packed into it. Honestly, it makes me want to read her book. That said, I disagree with a lot of her conclusions. Contra her assertions, I believe that technological change is the principal cause of historical change. Lawrence Lessig wrote Code is Law, which highlights how specific software system decisions constrained the available legal regimes that co…

> the invention of containerized shipping plus the internet led to globalization Did it? Or did the globalisation invent the need for containerisation?

Americans needing fresh bananas did it.

Re: Silicon Valley misreads science fiction and undermines democracy

#90

Post by bonsai_bar »

hunterpayne wrote: post #66
JohnFen wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're talking about a specific form of the larger problem. The very wealthy only know the world of the very wealthy. They know nothing, let alone care, about people who aren't "in the club". Every worse, they -- like pretty much all of us -- tend to think that most people are just like them, so they think not only that they understand normal people, but that they are normal people. And the ones that don't ei…

I think that's true for one specific kind of wealthy person. Specifically those born into it. Its absolutely not true for the self-made. I do have a solution to this. If you haven't paid your own bills with money you earned (no jobs from family) for the last 10 years, you can't run for office. Literally the mayor of Seattle has never paid her own bills and her husband has never worked either. There is no universe whe…

You're making it seem like the mayor is an out of touch nepo baby when she's living a regular life dedicated towards helping others.

You may want to get your info from more places than Fox News.

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