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ForumsDiscussion Forum → Inauguration Day, Inauguration Hooooooraaay!
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Inauguration Day, Inauguration Hooooooraaay!
2017-07-05, 10:02 PM #2841
"futurism" = wanking about how great life's gonna be for white, college-educated men
2017-07-05, 10:02 PM #2842
"meme" = a pictorial catchphrase that is rapidly becoming nothing more than a shibboleth for racist, impulsive 14 year olds
2017-07-05, 10:11 PM #2843
Originally posted by Jon`C:
"futurism" = wanking about how great life's gonna be for white, college-educated men


Has the subject really changed much since the time of H.G. Wells? I wonder if one could level the same criticism just as easily back then. In fact it would probably be easier.

At any rate, most fantasies about the future are going to be wrong anyway, but more to the point I'll readily admit that lack of a dystopian component is going to be symptomatic of privilage-induced blind optimism.
2017-07-05, 10:27 PM #2844
I probably misread you a bit there, since I imagine you are less thinking of actual science fiction writers and visionaries, and more of their groupies.
2017-07-05, 10:47 PM #2845
Transhumanists, moreso - like Ray Kurzweil
2017-07-05, 11:32 PM #2846
Ah, Ray Kurzweil. The man has an impressive resume and is impossibly ambitious. Probably living in a bubble of his own cleverness, though, and the notion of a "singularity" seems to me the mother of all hand-waving concepts (never read the guy's books though). Bill Joy countered Kurzweil's ideas with some common sense in a famously pessimistic essay.

Although Kurzweil was a prodigy in math and science, I am can't help but imagine he's had a skewed outlook that could have benefited from more lessons from the humanities. Could have benefited from a dose of the humility this perspective might have imparted....

Bill Joy 2000 cites Carl Sagan as a much more humanistic thinker in contrast to Kurzweil.
2017-07-06, 1:39 AM #2847
Originally posted by Jon`C:
"futurism" = wanking about how great life's gonna be for white, college-educated men


"Life's gonna be great when I voluntarily have my brain physically connected to "the cloud", and thus become part of the Internet of Things. Thank you, based Elon."

How's this for wanking off:

Quote:
Not only is Elon’s new venture—Neuralink—the same type of deal, but six weeks after first learning about the company, I’m convinced that it somehow manages to eclipse Tesla and SpaceX in both the boldness of its engineering undertaking and the grandeur of its mission. The other two companies aim to redefine what future humans will do—Neuralink wants to redefine what future humans will be.

The mind-bending bigness of Neuralink’s mission, combined with the labyrinth of impossible complexity that is the human brain, made this the hardest set of concepts yet to fully wrap my head around—but it also made it the most exhilarating when, with enough time spent zoomed on both ends, it all finally clicked. I feel like I took a time machine to the future, and I’m here to tell you that it’s even weirder than we expect.

But before I can bring you in the time machine to show you what I found, we need to get in our zoom machine—because as I learned the hard way, Elon’s wizard hat plans cannot be properly understood until your head’s in the right place.

So wipe your brain clean of what it thinks it knows about itself and its future, put on soft clothes, and let’s jump into the vortex.


For once I am at a loss for words.

https://waitbutwhy.com/2017/04/neuralink.html



"Dude, you're getting a wizard hat!"

2017-07-06, 8:08 AM #2848
wait but why is the worst. I read that guy's 20,000 word slob-fest about Elon Musk's multi-planet species ambitions, and it was so awful. Could have been 1,000 words and not lost anything important. I like Elon Musk quite a bit, but good lord does that WBW writer have an unhealthy worship of him.
2017-07-06, 11:26 AM #2849
Originally posted by Jon`C:
By your/Reddit's interpretation of the law (and I'm not sure what this has to do with New York, since CNN is in Georgia - is this some racist Jew York reddit ****?) then CNN would also be guilty if they had published the name, because it would be a standing threat to all other r/td posters that their personal information would be leaked if they didn't stop posting. In fact practically ANY investigative journalism would consititute coercion by your interpretation, for the same reason.

But hell, I'm not a lawyer either. I guess you think you'd be able to convince a prosecutor, grand jury, and a judge/jury that what CNN did passes the same bar as revenge porn, though? Because that's how criminal law gets "applied".

CNN says the person who made the gif is an adult male and they've spoken directly with him. I don't know who this "4chan" person is, but I'm pretty sure they're lying (like they do constantly).

I didn't know CNN was Georgia based, I just assumed nobody would be stupid enough to post laws from the wrong state. But I guess it's stupid to trust the efficacy of Reddit posts, ever.
2017-07-06, 12:01 PM #2850
Originally posted by saberopus:
wait but why is the worst. I read that guy's 20,000 word slob-fest about Elon Musk's multi-planet species ambitions, and it was so awful. Could have been 1,000 words and not lost anything important. I like Elon Musk quite a bit, but good lord does that WBW writer have an unhealthy worship of him.


I watched his TED talk on procrastination, for which he admitted, half way through, to only having choosen the topic of as a last ditch effort, after having (surprise!) procrastinated too long to pick a real topic. It really showed that he had procrastinated, though, because the talk itself was pretty much devoid of content and just reapeated itself. :-/
2017-07-06, 12:18 PM #2851
hehehe
former entrepreneur
2017-07-06, 2:42 PM #2852
Kudos to the GOP for stewarding the continuing necrosis of the government's remaining faculties of checks and balances.
2017-07-06, 10:35 PM #2853
Today I came across an interesting piece of trivia: Palpatine's first name. It's Sheev. Which is incredibly close to Steve. Coincidence?
2017-07-07, 3:47 AM #2854
And Donald Trump's name starts with a D, so that means he's just like Darth Vader!

Darth Vader : Emperor Palpatine :: Donald Trump : Sheev Bannon

spooky
former entrepreneur
2017-07-07, 8:32 AM #2855
you rang?

Have you ever heard the tragedy of Roy Cohn the wise? It's not a story the democrats would tell you.
Epstein didn't kill himself.
2017-07-07, 12:16 PM #2856
Originally posted by Reverend Jones:
Today I came across an interesting piece of trivia: Palpatine's first name. It's Sheev. Which is incredibly close to Steve. Coincidence?


There's no connection here. Move along. :ninja:
2017-07-07, 12:55 PM #2857
Why is it that Sith lords always step out of the shadows when you least expect it, at last revealing themselves after silently lurking behind you the entire time?

2017-07-07, 1:23 PM #2858
I love democracy. I love the republic. Believe me, we've got the best republic, you wouldn't believe it.
2017-07-07, 1:33 PM #2859
Spooky
former entrepreneur
2017-07-07, 1:53 PM #2860
Yes?

We have the best sand, it's coarse and rough and irritating and gets everywhere. Not like here, here everything is soft and smooth. We have the best sand.
Epstein didn't kill himself.
2017-07-07, 1:55 PM #2861
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Twitter attacks fired off the in the wee hours of the morning. I watched CNN hosts whisper my name in the dark as I lay awake inside my bed near the White House gate. All those feels will be lost in time, like tweets in rain.
2017-07-07, 2:04 PM #2862
I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere.

When the Mexico sends its sand, they’re not sending their best grains. They’re sending sand that has lots of problems, and we're bringing those problems home inside our swim trunks. They’re bringing tar. They’re bringing dust. They’re coarse. And some, I assume, are good grains.

I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great great wall around sand and I’ll have the ocean pay for that wall.
2017-07-07, 2:34 PM #2863
I had a Clinton supporter tell me today that the reason the country swung far right was a reaction against the fringe left policies of Sanders.

It's so rad listening to how these people deflect criticism.
2017-07-07, 2:37 PM #2864
That's a totally reasonable reaction from somebody who genuinely liked Clinton's platform. Clinton was a Goldwater girl as a child and a neoliberal as an adult, which is sort of the antithesis of the socialist identity of Sanders.
2017-07-07, 2:45 PM #2865
Ugh, Sanders literally created #GamerGate and #Breitbart.

This same person told me the solution is to dissolve the fringe left in the democratic party and go hard center. So yeah, these same Clintonites are literally just moderate Republicans, who are basically just upper middle class suburbanites who believe the economy is meritocratic, but it has structural problems still because there aren't enough woman and black CEOs.
2017-07-07, 2:46 PM #2866
It so rules when privileged Clinton supporters privilegesplain racial politics to other white people.
2017-07-07, 2:56 PM #2867
Originally posted by Reid:
Ugh, Sanders literally created #GamerGate and #Breitbart.

This same person told me the solution is to dissolve the fringe left in the democratic party and go hard center. So yeah, these same Clintonites are literally just moderate Republicans, who are basically just upper middle class suburbanites who believe the economy is meritocratic, but it has structural problems still because there aren't enough woman and black CEOs.


Identity politics is the only reasonable answer when you believe the economy is (and should be) meritocratic capitalist. The only market failure one must address in a meritocracy is an insufficiently neutral apportionment of merit.

The fact that this only shifts the axes of discrimination is completely lost on them.
2017-07-07, 2:58 PM #2868
To be quite honest Reid you sound a bit sandy right now to me.

But anyway I'm not on the side of your Clinton apologist.
2017-07-07, 3:02 PM #2869
Neoliberalism is a radical position, and its adherents have absolutely no rational claim to centrism, and are absolutely unwelcome in any political party or movement that purports to be "left" or "progressive" - or even supportive of democracy, science, intellect, or any other righteous thing. They are beasts and should be treated as beasts.
2017-07-07, 3:03 PM #2870
Originally posted by Reverend Jones:
That's a totally reasonable reaction from somebody who genuinely liked Clinton's platform. Clinton was a Goldwater girl as a child and a neoliberal as an adult, which is sort of the antithesis of the socialist identity of Sanders.

That's exactly the problem, these are almost all privileged people.
2017-07-07, 3:04 PM #2871
Originally posted by Reid:
That's exactly the problem, these are almost all privileged people.


Eat the rich
2017-07-07, 3:08 PM #2872
Originally posted by Reverend Jones:
To be quite honest Reid you sound a bit sandy right now to me.

But anyway I'm not on the side of your Clinton apologist.


I am a bit. Though I did listen to the person say that the fact blacks overwhelmingly voted for Hillary in the primary is evidence of Sanders' white nationalism. I try not to really romanticize Sanders, nor do I think he's a particularly fantastic politician or person. It's that I find the Clintonite reaction to Sanders to be the most vicious and undeserved. Even Trump supporters aren't so hard on him. And the problem I see going into the future is exactly what I said, these people put all of the blame for losing an election to the worst candidate in U.S. history on Sanders and Russia. So not only do their policies often suck, their utter incompetence has subjected us to possibly the worst administration in American history. And they aren't learning any lesson about themselves, it's just blame.
2017-07-07, 3:10 PM #2873
I've recently arrived at what feels like a clearer picture of where our troubles come from.

I think the big sin of American politics is politicians who promise jobs. Jobs are boring and slowly going away. But the rich don't want to share the wealth, and telling people that they have to work means that workers will blame themselves for inequality. Meanwhile, people are too dulled by working so much that they can't think with enough clarity or accept that this way of life was unnecessary or even immoral, and resign themselves to passive forms of entertainment like television or now YouTube and reddit.

For example, there are a lot of redundant jobs in computer software that don't provide a net gain for society. But the rich have got us blinded by the allure of making money, and this is how it has been from the very earliest days of silicon valley.
2017-07-07, 3:14 PM #2874
Originally posted by Reid:
Though I did listen to the person say that the fact blacks overwhelmingly voted for Hillary in the primary is evidence of Sanders' white nationalism.


Well in that case this person is simply an honest-to-God moron.
2017-07-07, 3:18 PM #2875
Originally posted by Reverend Jones:
I've recently arrived at what feels like a clearer picture of where our troubles come from.

I think the big sin of American politics is politicians who promise jobs. Jobs are boring and slowly going away. But the rich don't want to share the wealth, and telling people that they have to work means that workers will blame themselves for inequality. Meanwhile, people are too dulled by working so much that they can't think with enough clarity or accept that this way of life was unnecessary or even immoral, and resign themselves to passive forms of entertainment like television or now YouTube and reddit.

For example, there are a lot of redundant jobs in computer software that don't provide a net gain for society. But the rich have got us blinded by the allure of making money, and this is how it has been from the very earliest days of silicon valley.


What I am saying is that if you replace the classic econonics fable of the crowded theater with a person shouting fire, but instead replace the person with a politician shouting "jobs" (or riches, if you're a go big or go home kind of guy / temporary embarrassed billionaire), you basically can see the problem here.
2017-07-07, 3:21 PM #2876
Originally posted by Reverend Jones:
What I am saying is that if you replace the classic econonics fable of the crowded theater with a person shouting fire, but instead replace the person with a politician shouting "jobs" (or riches, if you're a go big or go home kind of guy / temporary embarrassed billionaire), you basically can see the problem here.



G R O W T H

R

O

W

T

H
Epstein didn't kill himself.
2017-07-07, 3:22 PM #2877
Originally posted by Reid:
And the problem I see going into the future is exactly what I said, these people put all of the blame for losing an election to the worst candidate in U.S. history on Sanders and Russia.


That's funny, because I put all the blame on Clinton, and TBQH I thought it was sort of a consensus that she was a ****-tier candidate.
2017-07-07, 3:23 PM #2878
Originally posted by Spook:
G R O W T H

R

O

W

T

H


We have a name in biology for uncontrolled growths: cancer.

Or, if you prefer a thermodynamics metaphor: rapid oxidization.
2017-07-07, 3:27 PM #2879
Whoa, I think I just realized something bizarre: the prisoner's dilemma in the burning crowded theater isn't that people defect to stampede each other on their way to the exit. It's inside the fire itself, where the individual molecules defect from the Coalition of Molecules Against Rapid Oxidization (CMARO).
2017-07-07, 3:30 PM #2880
But seriously, I think that the meme of freedom in the USA is really just symbolic of giving up on coordination and resigning ourselves to an uncontrolled burn. So America is the fart of Western Civilization (that was lit on fire by neoliberalism?).
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