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> he admitted he knew what they were doing, but had an insane burn rate (wife, kids, expensive house and shit) so he couldn't just quit. A core belief I have,

> he admitted he knew what they were doing, but had an insane burn rate (wife, kids, expensive house and shit) so he couldn't just quit. A core belief I have, and I try to spread it where possible, is that a person owes it to themselves and to those around them to live in such a way that they have personal freedom. This is precisely the way in which debt is pernicious. This man is trapped in a debt cycle - just as those below him are. We really don't need a lot to get by. But people find ways of trapping themselves - golden handcuffs - it's the house, or the car, or the kids, whatever.

deleted 7y ago
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api 7y ago
These entities are very much like hostile AIs, or at least the closest we have to them in our world. Since solid state AI is not yet good enough, they use tactics like the ones you describe to assimilate meat brains and use them as components. The whole financial industry seems very much like this. There are all these conspiracy theories that propose that someone -- some group of actual humans -- is on top, but look closely and it seems that in reality the entities themselves are on top and the whole system exists to feed itself as an end in itself.
- alexis_fr 7y ago
  Throughout civilization we’ve sorted all the simple problems. What should we do when someone murders? Solved. What if it’s because they were bullied? Solved. How do we identify corruption? Solved. How do we deal with alcohol? We have a half-working answer. What do we do with dictators? Solved. How do we compete to create better industries but no so much as not to have thug mentality, employees burning out at their desk and without depleting Earth’s resources? The remaining problems are the hard ones. No surprise they are hard to solve. Ones that can be solved with our current intelligence already have a known solution.

deleted 7y ago

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api 7y ago

These entities are very much like hostile AIs, or at least the closest we have to them in our world. Since solid state AI is not yet good enough, they use tactics like the ones you describe to assimilate meat brains and use them as components. The whole financial industry seems very much like this. There are all these conspiracy theories that propose that someone -- some group of actual humans -- is on top, but look closely and it seems that in reality the entities themselves are on top and the whole system exists to feed itself as an end in itself.

alexis_fr 7y ago
Throughout civilization we’ve sorted all the simple problems. What should we do when someone murders? Solved. What if it’s because they were bullied? Solved. How do we identify corruption? Solved. How do we deal with alcohol? We have a half-working answer. What do we do with dictators? Solved. How do we compete to create better industries but no so much as not to have thug mentality, employees burning out at their desk and without depleting Earth’s resources? The remaining problems are the hard ones. No surprise they are hard to solve. Ones that can be solved with our current intelligence already have a known solution.