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Skeletor
7hr ago
It’s not [Mark] Andreessen, by the way. I think Andreessen is not the antichrist. Because you know, the antichrist is popular.
God damn.
Fruck
Lacks all conviction
7hr ago
Yep that's the West today, two different cultures that hate each other and don't understand each other's mythology (not implying symmetrical ignorance, because one side understands the other a lot better than the other way around, but broadly speaking) laughing at how stupid each other is.
Skeletor
7hr ago
Better death at the hands of an American God than life at the feet of a Chinese one. Onward to ruin.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
7hr ago
Communication absolutely works that way. What you're missing is it's quite possible that ChickenOverlord and sarker realized the implicit comparison was being made, felt it was wrong, but couldn't challenge it without it being made explicit -- and the best way to make it explicit was to treat it as if it hadn't been made.
In this case, it's even less reasonable because erwgv3g34 in fact DID make explicit the comparison -- he said one person could produce 1000x the value of a "regular man". Then SubstantialFrivolity denied that it was possible for one person to produce 1000x the value of another, leaving out the "regular man", which is denying the specific (that someone could make 1000x the value of a "regular man") by claiming a general rule (that no one can make 1000x the value of anyone else). Basically your interpretation privileges the "this phenomenon does not exist" side.
magic9mushroom
If you're going to downvote me, and nobody's already voiced your objection, please reply and tell me
7hr ago
Stanislav Petrov and Stanislav Petrov alone prevented nuclear war.
No, that's not understanding it correctly. Petrov reporting what he saw faithfully wouldn't necessarily have resulted in nuclear war; it was the Soviet leadership's job to decide whether to launch on that information and it's entirely plausible that they wouldn't have.
Vasily Arhkipov is an obvious but-for case, but not Stanislav Petrov.
Skeletor
7hr ago
If Thiel is worried about a one-world state,
Naw dog, all states are one-world states, at least so far. He's worried about a one-state world.
dr_analog
top 1% of underdog fetishists
7hr ago
I wonder if "build more housing!" is the "decriminalize drugs!" of the latest generation and once we finally kick that into high gear we'll reap a bunch of unintended side effects that are horrible but nobody wanted to think about at the time.
ulyssessword
7hr ago
I want Walmart. Unfortunately due to physical limitations it's impossible to have everyone live 2 minutes from a decent sized store.
A two-minute walk will very literally not get you across the parking lot of the local Wal-Mart Supercenter, but that's not quite a physical limitation. Let's take a closer look.
A two-minute walk is about 160 meters (at 3 mph), which means there is 80240 m^2 within a two-minute walk of any specific point. Given a population density of 100k/square mile (0.039/m^2) (fourth highest in the world), that would mean 3100 people in range of the store.
Locally, each Wal-Mart serves 100k people. You can play around with the numbers a bit by counting Wal-Mart or Costco or etc, and also reduce their required population, and also increase the density above 100k/mi^2 and also this, and also that, but it gets really hard to make up a >30-fold difference by playing around the edges like that.
A 10-minute walk would be approximately possible, but not two.
faul_sname
Fuck around once, find out once. Do it again, now it's science.
7hr ago
Huh, nice.
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
8hr ago
Yeah agreed. I think the hatred against fake email jobs is somewhat warranted for a small amount of positions, but it's nowhere near the majority.
muzzle-cleaned-porg-42
8hr ago
changed which side of the road they drive on, adopted the metric system, or switched the alphabet used to write their official language, so clearly such reforms are possible
Examples of big, dramatic changes. It is obvious to people that they need to adjust, so they will. You could do a same thing with US currency, reinvent all new coin and bill designs and issue them.
In comparison, it is not a surprise why introducing a singular new denomination won't catch on if it is not immediately needed and people can keep using the coins and banknotes they are used to.
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
8hr ago
I personally suspect he seems himself as more of a Leto II character, from Dune.
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
8hr ago
This seems to be a very bad misreading of Thiel from my perspective, it seems obvious you just don't like him, or don't understand the religious themes he's pointing at, or both. I should say that I don't necessarily love Thiel, I disagree with him on many things, but I'm familiar with his overall line of argumentation.
Theil's whole shtick is that he's using the narrative and mythopoetic archetype of the antichrist as a sort of lens to understand the dangers of the modern world. I actually think he's quite right that the sort of eschatological reasoning and arguments that many technologists make around AI map quite well onto Christian apocalypse narratives, and combining these two lenses can open up a greater understanding of how these narratives of the end of the world can hijack our thinking.
The overall argument he makes is that while WW3 would indeed be horrible, the destruction may lead to a renewal down the road whereas the antichrist would lead to a permanent stagnation and total surveillance state, which could perpetuate unfathomably long amounts of time or perhaps eternally. In his view the latter is a far worse outcome, and I tend to agree.
As for the Dr. Strangelove piece, it's obvious he's just referencing Dr. Strangelove as a sort of archetype of the crazy scientist as well. This is an incredibly minor nitpick.
With regards to 'ending all technology,' Thiel has argued at length along with others that the stagnation hypothesis is real, in that technology has already been massively stagnating by a number of metrics including total factor production, and that if we stymie technology anymore it will basically end technological society as we know it. Or, at the very least stop progress.
I think overall the problem here, and with the Guardian article in general, is that you aren't very familiar with Thiel's overall thought and so do not understand the points he is making in their broader context. Perhaps part of why he tried to ban recording of his talks...
Skeletor
8hr ago
The solution in that case is carpooling. You can get an additional three or four Mad Max cannibals to the grocery store if you just allow them to hang from the sides of your dump-truck-with-a-flamethrower.
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
8hr ago
THIS IS GREAT WOAH!!!! Ty sir.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
8hr ago
I think we should build housing on the roofs of megamarkets like Walmart and Costco.
There was a news story about this back in 2023.
The nation’s first mixed-use development to feature 800 apartments above a Costco Wholesale store is in the works in south Los Angeles.
The community will include 184 apartments, or 23% of the total units, dedicated to low-income households. There will be a mix of offerings at 30%, 50%, and 80% of the area median income (AMI) levels, with the exact unit allocation still be to be finalized. Plans call for the remaining 616 units to be non-subsidized affordable and workforce housing, serving households around the 120% to 150% AMI levels.
The project is being developed by Thrive Living, a national real estate firm that acquires underutilized properties in urban markets with significant housing affordability gaps. The Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles is a partner in the project.
Like Thrive’s other projects, the development is privately financed without the use of government subsidies such as low-income housing tax credits, according to officials.
A groundbreaking ceremony was held for the 5035 Coliseum development last September. Construction is expected to take up to two-and-a-half years as the team transforms an old commercial site into a new retail and housing community.
However, Google Maps does not indicate that construction has progressed very far.
Jiro
8hr ago
Including that comparison without making it explicit isn't a reasonable thing to do
Communication doesn't work that way. Unless something legal is involved, being too literal is a bad thing and ignores what is actually being communicated.
Skeletor
9hr ago
All I'm saying is, if you want me out of my hobbit hole you better bring a flamethrower.
faul_sname
Fuck around once, find out once. Do it again, now it's science.
9hr ago
Living a block from (the entrance of) a Walmart is actually an amazing thing for QOL if you can manage it. I walked to Walmart a lot when I was living right next to one.
I think we should build housing on the roofs of megamarkets like walmart and costco.
I had a culture war thread idea which would be along the lines of "we all live in a honor culture." In the first part of The Leviathan, Hobbes spells out how honor works and it occured to me that in contrast to how "honor culture" is used as a kind of derisive term towards various outgroup-type targets, viewing even the enlightened classes through the lens of honor culture feels like it could be a fairly profitable essay topic. I'm curious if anyone here has thoughts or reading suggestions on that.
LazyLongposter
9hr ago
Lights back up
That's just LA.
That is decidedly not all LA was. As I mentioned in my reply to remzem's comment, the LA I grew up in was not overcrowded as a whole. It was population dense, but not overcrowded except for the most touristy/central spots (Hollywood, downtown).
The question of whether the up-zoning improved quality of life can be answered right now, because it's been going on for over a decade: It decidedly has not. The LA I visit occasionally is unrecognizable in the most in-your-face, uncomfortable way. The streets cannot support it, and barring a radical shift in the entire city council's (and let's be frank, populace's) attitudes toward law enforcement, no amount of transit overhaul will fix the problem.
I will probably get drunk and annoyed enough to write a top-level post about this because watching LA go from a quiet post-90s crime wave city with a ton of culture and places worth visiting to a homelessness, crime, and overpopulation-ridden nightmare has been a huge lesson inspiring my disenchantment with the idea that people on the whole will work to better things.
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
9hr ago
I grew up in the Los Angeles area during the best time to grow up there (I might make a top level post about this some time) and it is essentially unrecognizable.
Please do, I would love to read that!
Goodguy
9hr ago
If Thiel is worried about a one-world state, I find it rather strange that he has worked closely with the US national security / intelligence apparatus, which out of all currently existing political entities is probably the one that is most likely to bring about a one-world state and indeed is constantly working to extend Washington DC's domination to every corner of a planet. Not that I think that the US national security / intelligence apparatus has any serious chance of bringing about a one-world state, but it's more likely to do it than any other political entity I can think of. Does Thiel think that he can get on this giant tiger's back and steer its direction?
As for science and atheism being incompatible, it really depends on what Thiel means by atheism. Science is certainly not incompatible with rejection of organized religions like Christianity and Islam. But one could make an argument that, because of the hard problem of consciousness, science is incompatible with dogmatic materialism/physicalism.
I wish I could see a full transcript, it's hard to come to any conclusions without one.
I’ve been given a free bus pass with juror summons every time.
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