To your comment about vacations, the issue is people subconsciously want to ensure their trip value is "maximized" - oh no, do I have time to see all 10 best spots in the city? Or some historical building is closed, and you read online how it's a lifechanging experience to see, and now you feel left out. So you have to push that aside, follow the 80/20 rule, and appreciate what you ARE able to do on your trip.
HN front page is almost slow-moving enough to replicate this experience! (This appears to be by design?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvclV0_o0JE
Here’s the thing: We don’t need an actual multiverse to put cracks in the clay pot of our mind when we already have devices for careening through the endless imaginations of the multitudes, when we exist in an environment where you can encounter the personal stories and experiences from people on every continent, all who are living their own unique life in just a few minutes, all from the comfort of your own toilet. When more interesting ideas and concepts, and people and places can fly by in the space of one 30 minute TikTok binge then some of our ancestors experienced in the entirety of their localized illiterate lives.The internet, for those who are inspired to spend lot of time on it and use it in a certain way, for those who envelope themselves in it’s self-referential world of constantly evolving novelty and imagery, will inevitably have a profound effect on the way you see the world.
Check out the works of S. Gautama on the topic; it's enlightening! :)
Setting aside empathy, giving some thought about how we can slow the rate of change and/or cushion the fall for those affected is also in our self-interest.
As the number of people who have little left to lose grows, it destabilizes society and sets the stage for populism and revolution. Are cheap goods really so important that we're willing to leave our children to deal with another round of communism vs fascism?
Nevermind that there does not have to be any cross purposes in those two sides! We don't have to get our clogs out and beat up the AI machines, we just have to "take care of" the people who's jobs the AI machines made redundant!
Adequate social welfare and safety nets, significant opportunities to retrain in new (and otherwise expensive) fields, funding for re-homing people and entire towns that have been made redundant.
And also a willingness to agree that "tech advancement" isn't morally neutral by default.
> Mankind has ah only one mm-m-m science," the Count said as they picked up their parade of followers and emerged from the hall into the waiting room - a narrow space with high windows and floor of patterned white and purple tile.
> "And what science is that?" the Baron asked.
> "It's the um-m-m-ah-h science of ah-h-h discontent," the Count said.
There are various ways to interpret that, but I prefer a more Stoic or Buddhist view, where it's a bad habit but we can be better at it. (As opposed to a more god-worm-totalitarian one, where humans are dissatisfied cattle to be managed.)
Indeed, desire and dissatisfaction are quite productive forces! They don't necessarily entail dysphoria, though. Or more pithily if you prefer, "lack is a kind of abundance."
GP's "near infinite backlog" framing still implicitly hints at something like an underlying state of pure satisfaction if only we could address all the issues or whatnot. IMHO, desire actively functions in its own peculiar ways, and the personal narratives we attach to those functions can frame them as a helpful, collaborative things, rather than obstacles to be overcome.
ie isn't the key trick, in both software and life, to distinguish between busy work, 'nice to have' new features and true value?
This applies to any activity, leisure emphatically included. Travel became simpler → more vacations now involve flying a plane and thus obtaining tickets online and thus comparison-shopping, aggregating reviews of faraway places, etc → omg, vacation travel is complex again. It just allows to fulfill more of a dream.