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Comment by krapp

3 years ago

The problem isn't imagining and building the future, it's the particular political narrative out of which the tech class is trying to build the future.

The problem is the future is being created by sociopathic, crony capitalist neo-reactionary cultists who want to rule over a broken world as its brutal philosopher kings, and consign everyone else into the mouth of Moloch. These are the people for whom the meme "Please don't create the Torment Nexus" was made. These people are the reason Ted Kaczynski is so popular amongst the tech underclass.

I don't know what the alternative is, but we should be concerned.

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krapp

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sjfjsjdjwvwvc  3 years ago

Well sure but why blame it on sci-fi? Sounds to me like those people would create the torment nexus with or without sci-fi. It’s not like it’s super hard to come up with the concept of e.g. colonising Mars.

  • swayvil  3 years ago

    Scifi can deliver an illusion of understanding. A metaphorical description of something very strange that the reader never actually experienced firsthand.

    That's a deep kind of dream. Not saying the vision is entirely invalid, but maybe it isn't as intimate an understanding as the reader thinks.

    It's a bit like religious literature that way.

  • krapp  3 years ago

    The article isn't blaming sci-fi, it's blaming tech elites for missing or ignoring the deeper implications and warnings in what they read, and twisting it into some wierd, dark mirror utopian fetish.

    I mean, one could just as well be a fan of sci-fi and realize the torment nexus is a bad thing, and not create it, even if one is a nerd with all the time, power and money in the world.

tnecniv  3 years ago

…is Ted Kaczynski popular among tech workers? Even the hardcore socialists I know aren’t really fans beyond acknowledging he had a good point or two.

  • j0hnyl  3 years ago

    At this point most people don't even know who he is let alone read his writing.

    • krapp  3 years ago

      I've seen the preamble to his manifesto quoted enough to know that isn't the case. Kaczynski's views on "the left" are point for point mainstream within internet culture now, and plenty of people will defend his views on technology, if not his violence.

      There was a recent thread about him here[0,1]. Plenty of people denouncing him, of course, but also lots of sympathy. I've also noticed a trend to reform (and excuse) his violent actions as being the effect of psychological torture by the CIA and MKULTRA. The linked article goes a bit deeper into how influential his manifesto has been on the culture.

      [0]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36392976 [1]https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/19/unabomber-te...

jcgrillo  3 years ago

Unions and taxes are the alternative. Nobody should be a billionaire. If there wasn't such a concentration of wealth among a few, detached sociopaths we wouldn't have to worry about their pseudo-religious delusions.

  • danaris  3 years ago

    Exactly—and I would add onto that regulations with teeth, especially antitrust regulations.

    The gutting of antitrust under Reagan was instrumental in allowing the massive hyperconsolidation in all markets, with tech very prominent among them. The Biden administration's repudiation of the intellectually and morally bankrupt Chicago school interpretation of antitrust paves the way for a much better future, but it's going to take time, and it's going to need our support.