Comment by kdheiwns
3 days ago
Tech companies in the early 2000s were nerds who grew up in an environment where tech was for losers and a waste of time. A lot of those people had strong values and did it because they enjoyed it and wanted other nerds like themselves to have cool stuff.
Now companies are dominated by MBAs and nepotism. Most join tech for a quick cash out. Having values is seen as a loss, because if you can get a billion, why not? You're invincible if you're rich and none of these downsides apply to you. Screw everyone else. They could just be a billionaire themselves if they don't like it.
As a result, zoomers today meme about people like the unabomber making a good point.
> As a result, zoomers today meme about people like the unabomber making a good point.
I don't blame them.
As a nerd I think my spirit was broken by the absolute apathy of the normies. It was easy to ignore up until the early 2000s. It's become unbearable after social media and the iPhone reached the masses. It's not nerd stuff anymore. They influence every design now. They shape every decision. They are actively exploited at every turn. They are profiled, surveilled, controlled. It's gotten to the point even we nerds can't escape this fate no matter how much we want to. We try to tell them about it and we're made out to be tinfoil hat nutjobs. It's happening and they don't care.
It feels so hopeless and it's honestly very radicalizing. It breeds sociopathy. In the end I can't find the will to blame the billionaires either. I think I'd do the same if I could. Make billions and then just create a small paradise for me and all the people I care about. A subset of society where the principles I hold dear actually apply. Society is too fucked up and nobody cares, so I'll just create my own fiefdom.
On the plus side, llms do everything normies do for pennies on the dollar. We just need to outlast them as they fade into irrelevance.
Democracies make this impossible. Those people vote and they will bring into power politicians who will tax productive people to pay for their own survival.
My country is heading down this path as we speak. President literally gave a speech where he asked something like "who will ensure the survival of the millions of useless people created by technology?" They're obviously going to make us pay for it. The actual billionaires will simply leave before they get taxed, of course. Whoever stays gets to foot the bill.
3 replies →
The problem is not that the normies don't care, the problem is a society that seems to need that to function well for everybody. The problem is the existence of government. Instead of a state we need a society based on private property, that would solve these problems. It is about who has the possibility to apply force and a state government enables that in a wrong way.
Abolish the state and just let greedy ultra billionaires go wild with private property and make the existing problems even worse. Yeah, I'll pass. The only reason things are still somewhat functional is because a few people within the state are pushing back against the ultra wealthy who are trying to dismantle the state so they can get exactly that fiefdom.
When companies can buy up entire cities you've basically just reinvented city states.
Ask Italy how that ends.
Rights only exist as they are enforced. Who would protect the property rights?
That can be so far from the truth it hurts thinking about it. Governments passed laws that mandated that businesses must legally comply with DOJ or Government Investigates on people of interest. Otherwise they will be blocked in those countries. No users = No money. Most government consider they're extending you the privilege to conduct business with their citizens, and by virtue of granting you those rights you're burden with complying with the countries laws/security and/or audits.