You are correct, and in company of intelligent people. It's just that most of the HN crowd really really doesn't like being caught cheering on naked emperors.

You are correct, and in company of intelligent people. It's just that most of the HN crowd really really doesn't like being caught cheering on naked emperors. > If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed. Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution. So far, the trend seems to be toward the second option, with technology driving ever-increasing inequality. -- Stephen Hawking And I'll add this, in light of how the comments that have value regularly get greyed out, while the gimmicks get discussed endlessly: > Of course, the terrible things I heard from the Nuremberg Trials, about the six million Jews and the people from other races who were killed, were facts that shocked me deeply. But I wasn't able to see the connection with my own past. I was satisfied that I wasn't personally to blame and that I hadn't known about those things. I wasn't aware of the extent. But one day I went past the memorial plaque which had been put up for Sophie Scholl in Franz Josef Strasse, and I saw that she was born the same year as me, and she was executed the same year I started working for Hitler. And at that moment I actually sensed that it was no excuse to be young, and that it would have been possible to find things out. -- Traudl Junge Any bright teenager can notice the rising inequality and extrapolate trends, and do quick thought experiments about throwing hi-tech into the mix. Any decent (and intellectually honest) adult would have to concede it when pointed out to them even if they didn't already see it themselves. Continue to chose quality over quantity. Continue to "weep with the wise rather than laugh with fools". You may not be able to save the world, but you can prove with every breath what cowardly traitors to themselves and life so many people are, and that in contrast to them at least some people would deserve living in a better world. I salute you.