8 ms·

I've been having similar feelings about the state of the world for the past few years, and that's only been amplified by revelations like Cambridge Analytica an

by jgh 8y ago

I've been having similar feelings about the state of the world for the past few years, and that's only been amplified by revelations like Cambridge Analytica and hysteria around GDPR. We're in a dystopian world now, one that could have been written about in the 70s or 80s when people feared technology, except worse. In those dystopian visions the world was chaotic. Today we are seeing the surveillance and panopticons that were envisioned in those dystopias, but we are, largely, comfortable. So it's almost illusory. Am I paranoid, or is the world really walking down a dark path towards....what?

netsharc 8y ago
Makes me think of the intro movie to the game Syndicate Wars: the world looks shiny and beautiful, until an agent hacks your chip, and you see that you're walking a dystopian world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGvIrf86g4Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGvIrf86g4Y . Another thesis which basically supports Charlie's is: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/25/13-crises-we-face-trump-soil-loss-global-collapse https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/25/13-cri...
- bhouston 8y ago
  > Makes me think of the intro movie to the game Syndicate Wars: the world looks shiny and beautiful, until an agent hacks your chip, and you see that you're walking a dystopian world: Our existing dominant forms of escapism, video games & TV, have accomplished this fairly well already.
bhouston 8y ago
> So it's almost illusory. Am I paranoid, or is the world really walking down a dark path towards....what? It is just change. It was hard for the world to adapt to the idea of nuclear weapons, and before that the awesome power of mechanized war.
- AlexandrB 8y ago
  > It was hard for the world to adapt to the idea of nuclear weapons, and before that the awesome power of mechanized war. These are interesting examples because in both cases society only adapted to the new technology after it had been deployed to catastrophic or near-catastrophic effect. What is going to be the panopticon equivalent of WWI? I fear we're in for some interesting times.

by jgh 8y ago

netsharc 8y ago

Makes me think of the intro movie to the game Syndicate Wars: the world looks shiny and beautiful, until an agent hacks your chip, and you see that you're walking a dystopian world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGvIrf86g4Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGvIrf86g4Y . Another thesis which basically supports Charlie's is: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/25/13-crises-we-face-trump-soil-loss-global-collapse https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/25/13-cri...

bhouston 8y ago
> Makes me think of the intro movie to the game Syndicate Wars: the world looks shiny and beautiful, until an agent hacks your chip, and you see that you're walking a dystopian world: Our existing dominant forms of escapism, video games & TV, have accomplished this fairly well already.

bhouston 8y ago

> So it's almost illusory. Am I paranoid, or is the world really walking down a dark path towards....what? It is just change. It was hard for the world to adapt to the idea of nuclear weapons, and before that the awesome power of mechanized war.

AlexandrB 8y ago
> It was hard for the world to adapt to the idea of nuclear weapons, and before that the awesome power of mechanized war. These are interesting examples because in both cases society only adapted to the new technology after it had been deployed to catastrophic or near-catastrophic effect. What is going to be the panopticon equivalent of WWI? I fear we're in for some interesting times.