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PaperclipPerfector  4mo ago (text post)   24089 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 8, 2026

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Add on "Prediction markets are going to change EVERYTHING" (mostly used for sports gambling, unfortunately), the Internet of Things is going to change EVERYTHING (I will now spend EXTRA money for a toaster that isn't wifi connected), OMG we might have found a room-temperature superconductor, VR/AR tech is going to blow your mind, Crypto hype moved from Blockchain hype, to DApp Hype, to DAO Hype, to NFT Hype, to Stablecoin Hype, and it was all illusory.

WHAT THE FUCK WAS WEB3?

Its funny, I MOSTLY could spot when a trend was more hype than real.

I sold all my crypto in 2019. Never bought an NFT. I thought Metaverse would become something but nobody had a good vision for it, 3D printing is indeed a cool, useful tech but don't bet the farm on it.

But I feel sketchy now because all those hype cycles leave you suspicious if the next big thing is actually arriving or there's just people who make a lot of money if you believe it is.

SpaceX seems to be real, but maybe still overhyped.

GLPs ARE the real deal, and there's some other neat drugs in the pipeline.

Smartphones continue to be a boon... if you can avoid all the gamified apps designed to suck your attention and money.

Quadcopter tech is pretty damn mature now, and is finally achieving some market penetration.

Right now, I'm still contributing to my 401(k), Roth IRA, and HSA investments for the tax advantage, but I'm being more conservative in my taxable brokerage.

It feels absurd to focus on that right now, when the way things are going we're either going to get crash and hyperinflation wiping out a ton of that nest egg, or a new industrial revolution that goes exponential and so even modest market holdings will make you wealthy over the next 10 years.

The ONE thing that doesn't seem likely to happen is just steady 7% growth in the market (on average) over the next 25 years.

I'm old enough to remember the first VR hype in the early nineties. They made it sound like totally realistic VR sex with partners you created yourself, was only two or three years away. Seems like that isn't even on the farthest horizon now.

Around 5 years ago, I saw part of a huge tech webinar where a woman, presumably SF based, was talking in a very emotionally charged tone about how she would be really down on the world and its future if not for the promise of Web3 and its salvationist glory. I had no idea what that could possibly mean at the time. What difference could it make to real lives? Was I missing something important? Time would tell, I figured.

I don't think I was missing much. The promise of web3 was "decentralization" and getting away from the control of the biggest tech companies by using blockchain networks to build sites. But the companies operating the stablecoins and whatever, were mega companies like Coinbase. And the movement was marked by really low ease of use (complex seed phrases, "gas fees," etc.), and massive grift. Much like nfts, a few early ponzi schemers made obscene sums while many suffered.

But the companies operating the stablecoins and whatever, were mega companies like Coinbase.

Or they were inherently unstable. RIP Luna.

Its interesting that while the fundamental tech behind Bitcoin has proven utterly sound, the inability of the tech to compensate for the human/cultural element of the community we build around it has made it less effective at its generally intended purpose. I mean, it still functions as a currency, yet that's arguably the least common use case for it these days.

Either way, there was absolutely a tipping point when the core operators in the environment stopped being a majority of those who understood and supported the technology and got outnumbered by those who were about the price and keeping it pumped even at the expense of the tech, or just straight up scamming.

It feels absurd to focus on that right now

What else am I going to do with it? My house is just about paid off. I've got several months worth of food and water. My car is in good shape. I'm pretty well set for guns and guitars.

Hookers and blow aren't really an option either. I don't do drugs, and I live out in the sticks where the quality of prostitute is so low that I'd pay them to not fuck me.

Charitable giving? Precious metals? More expensive food?

I already donate to my local homeless shelter and animal shelter. I guess I could do more.

For now I'm just saving like crazy and trying to speed run retirement.

Solid question, in that case.

Could do what I did. Buy a classic muscle car. Gives you something to work on and fun as hell to drive, especially on backroads.

LARP as a moonshiner.

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