It's like all of those breathless journo articles about insect protein: they sound fine until the word "replace" comes in. Maybe some folks are jazzed about eating bugs, but I am not, and would prefer not to have my meat replaced by insect protein to keep someone else's utopia going, but someone is going to have the bright idea to make the choice for me.
Where we're heading, our top castes will comprise mostly of people who are manipulative, short-term thinkers, vengeful, insecure, arrogant and psychopathic. Not great for society.
It really does make you think about their world at the end. And its not really evil oppressive world like 1984. Its just purely mechanical construction that to us look like dystopia.
I agree we are and are heading is technological aristocracy where tech is used to keep people in line. Divided over crazy theories, societal issues and squabbling over leftovers.
Just give them youtube and they come up with the 'hidden truths' and then they fight with secret kabals and 'morons' who don't see the signs.
Meanwhile amazons googles and other industries are literally squeezing all small business out of existence.
Do you think an Amazon Town could be created where all you shopping has to be done via amazon but you get 20 or 50% off. How far are we from that reality?
What I would disagree with is that the people who push this system forward are far from short-term thinkers, vengeful, insecure. They schemed this system up long time ago and look for every angle to push it ahead.
How quickly 9/11 from tragedy was turned into patriot act opportunity?
The modern reformulation would be genetic engineering or at least genetic screening. I'm sure we're not that far away from the wealthy classes testing their embryos and only implanting the ones that have the highest intelligence, least propensity for disease, etc.
Arrive on time, don't question authority, learn to follow what you are being told.
After that they are lead to believe living on dept and credit cards is the only way to be happy.
And they are stuck in shitty job that they cannot quit since they have interest to play. So they keep their heads down and just keep going.
They also forgoed a lot of automation and engineered society to make use of the stunted lower classes. I recall a scene where they had elevator operators, even though automatic elevators had been invented when the book was written.
> The modern reformulation would be genetic engineering or at least genetic screening. I'm sure we're not that far away from the wealthy classes testing their embryos and only implanting the ones that have the highest intelligence, least propensity for disease, etc.
That's literally the backstory of the movie Gattica. Though I think the genetic engineering in that movie controlled recombination, so engineered children got all the best genes of their parents. IIRC, people who weren't engineered (like us) lived in slums and were only given menial jobs regardless of talent.
Every single person in that world IS selected for their role in society based on merit. There is no asterics attached there with +1 conditions.
I am not saying that it is a good system as a matter of fact I call it dystopian, only that everyone in it was rather content with their lives.
Unfortunately a bunch of folks read that and thought it was a great idea.
Something that rings very true for me: Sharing is amazingly underutilized (unfortunately I feel it's a deeply cultural problem right now, but oh well, over time things change): I have absolutely no inherent need to own a car. I don't need to own a Hammer. I don't need to own a bicycle pump. Actually, it's intensely inefficient how many things I do have to own and store right now, to be able to only use 5 Minutes every other week or maybe even only half a year.
What I instead need is convenient access to these things. If you can show me a model where I can have that without the burden and cost of solo-owning it – something the author is implying will be a solved problem – I am all for that.
It's like a "Book Library", (eg centralised local place for storage and co-ordination) but for tools. There's one here in Melbourne (Australia) with about 400 members, and over 1000 tools:
* https://www.brunswicktoollibrary.org
* https://brunswicktoollibrary.myturn.com/library/inventory/br...
They have power tools (~200), hand tools (~600), garden tools (~200), automotive stuff, electrical/soldering gear, etc.
And they have occasional um... workshops (or something similar) teaching people how to repair things. eg:
* Bike repair (Sep 2020) - https://www.facebook.com/events/728114278044351/
* General repair (Feb 2020) https://www.facebook.com/events/613979845834779/
Seems to work really well, at least in this case. :)
The lack of environmental problems and abundance of clean energy also sounds good, though it just appears magically in the essay, so we can't say much about it.
Lack of privacy is terrible, and we can make it much better. Flying cars are terrible. Not owning everything is terrible. I'm the complete opposite of a materialist person, but I can understand how it's very useful to own some things. I mean, besides your underwear. Some might have sentimental value, and others are used so much that it's more practical to own them and know they are always available at the place you left them.
I think the author purposefully avoided saying anyone that.
But the part of the story that stood out to me viscerally was the neglect of maintenance crews and the design work, etc and how that plays into a status hierarchy. It is the same frustrating arrogance I sometimes see in city dwellers who just don't understand how many people are physically labouring to to maintain the artificial environment of a large city.
A handwave and "robots will do all that stuff by 2030" is too fantastic to stomach.
You will own nothing, you will be worthless. You won't even be able to have a girlfriend/boyfriend or friends for that matter; real human relationships are reserved for the elites. You will get as many VR friends as you want though.
Already it's kind of happening. Look at how many friends rich people have; a lot. Look at how many friends poor people have; very few.
Of course, they're not real friends, but still more real than light projected into your eyeballs.
Trying to censor information is just not going to work. Controlling the media is not going to help beyond a certain point. People know what's going on and they'll be taking the real conversations offline. When everyone collectively realizes what's been happening, the backlash is going to be terrifying and unforgiving. The more you suppress the truth, the worse it will be when it all comes out.
The current elites don't have the ability to suppress billions of people who were raised on freedom as the central principle of their existence.
That sounds like a problem that could be solved through military automation. (!)
I hope I'm not too cynical, but I think "freedom" is more of a meme than something that most people value. Whenever there are news stories about governments spying on their own citizens or restricting free speech, most people seem to just shrug and move on with their lives.
BTW why am I hearing this 'freedom is not important' stuff from so many people on HN? Is that what your leaders are preaching? I'd be suspicious of your leaders if that were me.
Mostly, yes.
Most items people own seem like clutter to me. I would much rather own the absolute minimum and then get anything else as I need it, rather than have to own a lot of stuff.
More stuff = more problems.
And when it turns, turning it back is HARD / near impossible.
Do people read this and think that is the sort of life they would want in the future?