I think I’ve come to realize it’s actually the other way around. People create some cool things. Good Sci-fi uses that technology to reveal things about our culture and society. Bad Sci-fi just makes it the most evil villainous thing out for reasons. There is a lot of bad Sci-fi. We all grow up reading and watching it. The people who create stories for other shows we watch, all grew up reading and absorbing it. It then becomes our zeitgeist that any new tech will ultimately be our doom. Its a tyrannical chicken dystopian egg problem.
ultimately the technology that we all should have been concerned about was books.
As suspected, society falling apart really boils down to a bunch of shit heels with poor reading comprehension.
Corporations are more efficient than governments. Getting rid of governments and moving towards corporate dominance is the only move forward.
Now please excuse us while we charge twice as much for this previously government run service and run it so poorly that it slowly collapses.
The previous experience shows that in most cases services run privately are better quality and cheaper. Unless you live in a 3rd world country like the US.
My water is privatised. My waterways are full of shit. Every single one. The companies are bitching about needing money to fix the pipes even though they are getting more money than ever before but the CEO is getting a bonus for doing such a “good job”. Fuck off.
Oh my Internet is also privatised too and I have two options dog shit speed or dog shit stability.
The buses are privatised the timetable says a bus every 20 minutes. They show up every hour on a good day and you have to check their site and guess when the bus is going to pull to your stop based on where it is on the route.
Trains are most expensive in europe. Technically they are state owned. Foreign state owned. But hey atleast the track is still state owned.
Privatisation is bollocks. You don’t get the competition lowers cost when your options are a single company. Even then they would collude on pricing or mopolise anyway.
Plantir
Yeah, Peter Thiel didn’t even try to hide his agenda. He just straight up announced himself as Sauron.
I feel like anyone would be pissed off if some hack ‘journalists’ spilled the beans that you were gay while you were physically inside a country which murders homosexuals.
I don’t have the context to process this, but I’m very much for civil rights as a minimum standard. Thiel should be banished to a small island off the shores of Antarctica, but not because he’s gay.
To be fair (🎶), the palantíri were made by the elves, and only later used for evil after falling into the wrong hands.
(hey, something to think about the next a government wants to place backdoors in encryption protocols)
The elves are better humans, ubermenschen if you want. It makes even more sense.
Cyberpunk’s also a manual, but to break the megacorp machinations, not comply with’em.
“but all the corporate espionage will be sooo cool”
the problem is william gibson’s seedy underworld does genuinely seem cool. but i take that to mean cool people will always do cool shit. punks will always resist authorities. but the technoligarchs had a different takeaway: “we need to bring about this nerdy tech future because it’s cool”
they don’t notice nuance, subtlety, or context
This isn’t just limited to the game. Tech Bros seem either incapable of interpreting the nuance, subtlety, or context and any of the cautionary tales of science fiction.
My favorite example is how Elon Musk often cites Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series as a major influence on his worldview, especially regarding the way in which he uses his wealth to promote his own beliefs about what the long-term goals for humanity should be. It seem like he hasn’t actually finished the series, or at the very least, didn’t understand its message. While the first 2 books set up the idea of saving civilization through authoritarian rational planning and scientific foresight, the rest of the series explicitly challenges and ultimately rejects the idea that one person (or system, for that matter) should guide humanity’s destiny.
The series does not end with an endorsement of Elon’s belief in central planning or empire-building, but with a clear message that we should move toward a more collective society. It directly contrasts and critiques the manipulative tactics of the first two books. The final conclusion couldn’t be a more clear rebuke of top-down technocracy and the idea that a singular genius can or should steer the course of civilization.
When Musk points to Foundation as a model for how he wants to guide humanity, he is missing the point (based on his actions, at least). The series ends with the realization that societies dominated by control and order are ultimately limited and dangerous. The series isn’t meant to be a roadmap for becoming a galactic engineer of society (building the torment Nexus), but a cautionary tale warning humanity against one person or system guiding all of humanity.
If Musk stopped reading after the first or second book, then his actions make sense. However, if he DID finish the series and STILL walked away with his shitty takeaway, then it’s hard not to believe that he didn’t get it or didn’t read the other books. I feel that, just as with his actions surrounding The Age of Exile, he’s more interested in promoting his own brand of genius than the burden of actually understanding the philosophical message of the series.
I don’t think Musk reads books. I think he’s stupid. Intellectually deficient. Maybe he read a couple pages, then got bored and read half the wikipedia summary.
That’s why I subscribe to !aboringdystopia@lemmy.world That is the message that should sent about the drift we are experiencing.
