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Honestly? Take the mentality you see in the world - the bottom line comes first, the consumer wants easy consumption, security comes first, whatever else - and

Honestly? Take the mentality you see in the world - the bottom line comes first, the consumer wants easy consumption, security comes first, whatever else - and try to imagine where that comes in conflict with the things you love. What would have caused that conflict? What, if anything, do you see coming out of it? And if you think Stallman was the tinfoil-hat prophet, you gotta hear about this guy Karl Marx. He predicted the economic turmoil of automation back when the US had a war over "States' Rights" to choose whether Slavery was Legal. I predict that the US will slide further and Further into being a 3rd world nation, until suddenly, another collapse happens. US citizens wont break right away... No, they'll suffer it for a while. They'll even go hungry for a while - and I'm not talking about Detroit or Chi-raq. Im talking Seattle, Houston, NYC looking like the Rust belt, complete with bridge collapses and deaths-via-crumbling infrastructure. China's upcoming divorce from the US markets will insulate them from the crash, but their involvement in our real estate market will only worsen the crisis for Americans. Russia, China, and the Eurozone will finally band together with their currency-basket idea upstaging the dollar. And Americans will still think we're special. Then, when the Hoovervilles have swollen enough to be dangerous, someone will have the bright idea to mobilize and radicalize us. Still, we'll do nothing, even in the absence of Netflix and Cable TV. But that wont stop the government from trying to herd us into camps, just like the immigrants... And in those, with the forced absence of soap, sleep, food..., something will snap, and the guillotine will be reborn in fire and fury. The Climate Change problem? Will get so bad it starts on Xenocide before anyone does anything effective - the sole exception being economic collapse. And we're going to have to shoot a few CEOs for the rest of them to take any of it seriously. Everything from human trafficking to drug use is going to boom. You know slavery - just barely behind propaganda, it was the second biggest influence on modern management practices. Psychology just taught us how to sugar coat it better. Speaking of Propaganda, 1984 aint got shit on 2019. And 2030 is gonna make today look adorable.

solotronics 7y ago
I wonder what companies would be good investments to hedge for this possible future.
- AndrewUnmuted 7y ago
  Amazon. Failing infrastructure that other companies rely upon and expect to function adequately, will not pose the same challenges. They deal with the logistics of delivering items of necessity to people all over the globe at enormous scale. They have their own fleets, their own delivery people, and their own automation approach. In a decade Amazon won't need the post office or UPS. The barriers to entry in taking that on are enormous to the point of near impossibility. Heck, even their ability to sell counterfeit garbage to customers without significant penalty on themselves shows they even know how to disappoint people correctly...
  - solotronics 7y ago
    Good points, I wonder what a government run by Amazon would look like...
pksadiq 7y ago
> ... security comes first, whatever else... Really? the feeling of being secure may come first. Think of how much modems/routers/phones or any other embedded device comes with obsolete software pieces with lots of security bugs. The non-free methodology of software development, I feel, is actually killing security, and making everybody more vulnerable. Most firms don't like giving the source code of the devices away. I understand that they have their own reasons for that (whether it is right is another thing). But at least, there should be an official way to unlock those devices and run custom software pieces (which of course, voids warranty). These days more people are moving to "Open Source," but not "Free Software." See how Linux & busybox essentially making any hardware non-free. Hope people understand the difference and help make the world better.

solotronics 7y ago

I wonder what companies would be good investments to hedge for this possible future.

AndrewUnmuted 7y ago
Amazon. Failing infrastructure that other companies rely upon and expect to function adequately, will not pose the same challenges. They deal with the logistics of delivering items of necessity to people all over the globe at enormous scale. They have their own fleets, their own delivery people, and their own automation approach. In a decade Amazon won't need the post office or UPS. The barriers to entry in taking that on are enormous to the point of near impossibility. Heck, even their ability to sell counterfeit garbage to customers without significant penalty on themselves shows they even know how to disappoint people correctly...
- solotronics 7y ago
  Good points, I wonder what a government run by Amazon would look like...

pksadiq 7y ago

> ... security comes first, whatever else... Really? the feeling of being secure may come first. Think of how much modems/routers/phones or any other embedded device comes with obsolete software pieces with lots of security bugs. The non-free methodology of software development, I feel, is actually killing security, and making everybody more vulnerable. Most firms don't like giving the source code of the devices away. I understand that they have their own reasons for that (whether it is right is another thing). But at least, there should be an official way to unlock those devices and run custom software pieces (which of course, voids warranty). These days more people are moving to "Open Source," but not "Free Software." See how Linux & busybox essentially making any hardware non-free. Hope people understand the difference and help make the world better.