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The Techno-Optimist Manifesto

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Re: The Techno-Optimist Manifesto

#8
I guess some people have an inherent inability to adopt some kind of middle ground stance.

It's either exponential growth forever and colonizing Mars or "why do you want to drag us back to the caves".

Having a conversation for the 1000th time with such people who don't recognize nuance is very tiresome and not worth it.

Re: The Techno-Optimist Manifesto

#9
post #2

Somehow this reminds me of pre-y2k Nick Land ( Meltdown [0] etc.) (Hope that doesn't correlate with the emergence of a 'post-y2k-Landian' Andreesen-Horowitz!) [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiaWsgtJrNI

Yeah, I have a soft spot for this kind of thinking but it always goes off the rails. It either gets unhinged and culty or flips and goes hard-reactionary or even luddite.

I think the fallacy might be a little too much "magic happens here." Yes you can be optimistic about the future, but a good future is not automatically guaranteed. It requires very hard work and constant vigilance. It's not just a matter of having faith and waiting for the messiah.

Both blind optimism and blind pessimism are easy when you're not the one doing the work. Those doing the work tend toward realism.

Re: The Techno-Optimist Manifesto

#10

I guess some people have an inherent inability to adopt some kind of middle ground stance. It's either exponential growth forever and colonizing Mars or "why do you want to drag us back to the caves". Having a conversation for the 1000th time with such people who don't recognize nuance is very tiresome and not worth it.

Social media does not promote middle ground because that doesn't maximize engagement.

Everything must be maximally divisive, maximally triggering, and compressible into <200 characters.

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