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Operating systems in 2020 have evolved into thought systems that enable our lives in the emergent digital economy. Think of it like real-estate in the "real" world. People hate billboards because they're gaudy, yet they relish Times Square. Operating Systems are like the Times Square of the computing world, allowing us to navigate and consume and vote with our dollars. It makes total sense for them to contain advertisements. In fact, I encourage it.
This acquisition is a shame.
But on a more serious note, it is great that we are seeing thought leaders counter-act the media propaganda frenzy regarding this situation. The "big evil businessman" know best that our economy is on shaky ground, and that continuing social distancing measures will immeasurably damage America's position as a global power (and thus its citizens security and freedom) more than a few tens of thousands of deaths will. I, for one, am proud to go back to work. Staying at home isolated is merely fomenting unnecessary chaos and social unrest.
Just like some people are more intelligent than others, or more athletic than others... some are more self-motivated and can work through their own initiative rather than relying on external input (such as managers).
That's not a bad thing, either! We should encourage those self-motivated people to work however makes them the most productive members of our economy. That is incredibly crucial for the times that we live in.
This, too, would help with the learn-to-code movement (a skills gap that I consider essential to close). This could have far-reaching effects and do wonders to lift the next generation of poor out of poverty and into more lucrative white collar jobs.
His "guzzling" jets as you call them are a minor convenience in order to facilitate quicker, more efficient transport to enable the evolution and development of Tesla and SpaceX.
Do you expect him to drive everywhere? Not only would that be worse for the environment, but it would mean more of Elon's precious time wasted and thus also our time wasted because a brilliant man is stuck in traffic.
Besides, he just had a child! What a wonderful gift to the world. I hope his child grows up to be as wise and down-to-earth as his father. :)
A startup to facilitate this is tantamount to government intervention in the economy: it is bastardizing a perfect natural order. This company idea seems naive at best and basically grifting at worst.
Of course the rabid capitalists on this forum would fall over themselves to exploit this for financial gain. There may even be quite a few who see this sociopathy as a badge of honour.
Articles like this make me want to sniff glue. What should be written — and disseminated widely — is the truth that climate catastrophe is on our doorstep.
Who gives a shit if Norway is warmer and warmer, or if some other place is colder due to the chaotic nature of weather? The point is, "global warming" is rapidly destabilizing — no, destroying — ecosystems that we depend upon for our survival, and unleashing feedback loops that we are helpless to stop.
It's only going to get worse. Most articles don't go far enough in explaining the severity of the situation, because it'll frighten the neoliberals and trigger the neocons.
If Hacker News is still around in the next decade, I can't wait to read all the comments by the people here who love to bikeshed about "optics" and bullshit when actual widespread famine is beginning to rear its ugly head. I'm afraid most of you will turn inside out with all that navel-gazing.
What is sad, though, is the distinct lack of empathy that this ideology instills in its adherents. Leaving people behind is not a sign of progress; instead, it's a sign of an ill society.
Life is no longer distinct from a William Gibson novel.
And the problem with that is, when nobody conforms, no profit can be made. A large part of Silicon Valley is predicated on people conforming (Facebook/Instagram, Twitter,WeWork, Snapchat, Amazon, Microsoft).
Judgment has been carefully bred in us, otherwise neoliberal capitalism would be unable to function and so the fat cats wouldn't be able to get their salami.
Absolutely agree. We need an efficient algorithm for matching based upon common interests, agreeability, and politeness.
I wonder if matchmaking algorithms from video games would come in handy for this? I think the League of Legends queue algo would be perfect for this.
Heck, I recommend everyone set up a blog. It can be totally pseudonymous, that's fine. Just collect your thoughts and write little personal think pieces that you publish into the void. If they gain traction somewhere like HN, great! But it's not the main attraction.
Forgive my ignorance, but this seems to lend credence to the popular idpol claim that the white guys programming AI are ignorant of the inherent bias their models might have.
Sure, I mean you can use statistics and wave your magic eugenics wand around but I see right through you. It's a disgrace that in the modern neoliberal hegemony a crock of shit like this gets published in an outlet like Scientific American.
Like everyone else here, I sing high praise of Tony. His absolutely lovable one-in-a-million combative yet beautifully intelligent personality is perfect. I've developed a recent intense interest in revisiting my garden, which I attribute exclusively to stumbling upon his videos. Sometimes YouTube's Big Algorithm does something right. :)
The TV you watch, whether it's CNN or FOX or MSNBC or CNBC has more of an outsize effect on how you develop your personal beliefs than any of this nonsense. The biggest thing to come out of America's Second Red Scare is that people are more likely to listen to others when they spout propaganda that they already believe.
To think it's the FSB or GRU is somehow responsible for a defect in the design of elections in a democratic republic is laughable. If anything, the "Russians" are doing what Siberia and their rough country taught them: make the best of a bad situation.
David Foster Wallace is the embodiment of a particular 20th and 21st century zeitgeist, and one that if you read between the lines, predicts all the ailments we will be facing in the decades ahead.
They experience a barrage of negative press because they deserve it. The ultra-wealthy of the world (I'm not talking SV tech salaries, those are practically working class in comparison) are the ones doing the majority of harm to this pale blue dot we all have to live on. Climate catastrophe is well on its way to undermining society, and it could have easily been addressed decades ago if the ultra-wealthy weren't Biblical levels of greedy.
That I can agree with you on. It is certainly dense material that frightens away those unwilling to be linguistically challenged when reading a book.
> interesting
Absolutely not. Look, I get Stirner is neat for being a proto-anarchist and all, but his value ends there. You seem preoccupied with the "fashion" of it (which itself raises questions) instead of with the philosophy being discussed. Engage with the ideas instead of resorting to this rhetorical BS that we both know you're pulling.
For example, your point that Stirner grounds his philosophy merely in self-interest -- what exactly does that prove? That his ideas are derivative and trite? I understand that Baudrillard's writing is a tough nut to crack, but to think that his work (and the rest of the French canon) is irrelevant because it requires more than egotism as its foundation is absurd.
Edit: See this [1] lovely video to learn why it's a common misconception that his work has any relevancy to the Matrix franchise beyond superficial pop philosophy.
What intrigues me the most is that it is sort of implicitly the de facto standard. Curious how cultural mores develop!
But really the true culprit is just the youth, and always has been. Ever since the early 1900s traditional family values and social community/cohesion has been seriously on decline. Say what you will about Ted Kaczynski, but his essay/book Industrial Society and its Future is a wealth of knowledge on this subject (strange I know coming from a Christian woman).
But look at it this way: people resort to drugs because reality sucks. Why does reality suck? Well, we live in a society, and this very society (and its implicit social network) causes our youth to suffer.
Just look at how much the new Joker movie resonated with kids, teenagers and young adults! Heck, my niece of 12 years was itching to put on a mask and march in the street after she walked out of the theater. It was terrifying.
Now just to have an "I'm not actually at my desk I just ate too much Mexican food for lunch and so will work out of the bathroom for the afternoon." lol
Seriously, I've eaten protein processed from insects plenty of time and it's in no way disgusting. People need to get over their ridiculous culinary phobias.
If we are to survive climate apocalypse and accelerating population growth, we're gonna need to learn to eat bugs instead of cows.