5 ms·

Every time I read another headline like this (and the healthcare one from yesterday) think of that scene from the Matrix. I realize it's not exactly a perfect

by CPLX 7y ago

Every time I read another headline like this (and the healthcare one from yesterday) think of that scene from the Matrix. I realize it's not exactly a perfect metaphor, but nonetheless I have visions of an Agent Smith character saying something like this: I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify Google and Amazon and Facebook and I realized that you're not actually businesses. Every business on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. A disease, a cancer of this planet.

trevyn 7y ago
Also humans!
- khawkins 7y ago
  Below replacement birth rates in 1st world societies seem to disprove the idea that humans inevitably expand to the point of environmental collapse. Further, having as many children as the environment can support, regardless of the consequences for the environment or its destruction, is natural for nearly every life form. Look at invasive species like Asian carp or zebra mussels.
  - SEJeff 7y ago
    Or other invasive species like Middle Management
  - ceejayoz 7y ago
    > Below replacement birth rates in 1st world societies seem to disprove the idea that humans inevitably expand to the point of environmental collapse. Or they're a warning sign of it. https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/10/sperm-counts-continue-to-fall/572794/ https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/10/sperm-cou... > As new data emerge, however, many scientists now believe sperm counts have indeed fallen—and continue to fall. As a story in GQ noted earlier this year, a widely cited study published in 2017 by researchers from the Hebrew University and Mount Sinai’s medical school found that among nearly 43,000 men from North America, Europe, New Zealand, and Australia, sperm counts per milliliter of semen had declined more than 50 percent from 1973 to 2011. And not only that, “but total sperm counts were down by almost 60 percent: We are producing less semen, and that semen has fewer sperm cells in it,” wrote the GQ contributor Daniel Noah Halpern. When Halpern asked several scientists why, they presented a united front: It was the unprecedented amount of chemicals now routinely entering the human body.
andrepd 7y ago
Ironically, that's the exact definition of a business in modern neoliberal growth capitalism. Grow grow grow, consume all resources, eat all competition. "Natural equilibrium with the environment"? Please...
- imglorp 7y ago
  Until the antitrust department wakes up (if it's not corrupted). On that note, a faang oozing into banking should absolutely raise antitrust questions.
- lm28469 7y ago
  I don't get the downvotes, it's painfully obvious that any company that is not on an exponential growth path is a failure in today's world. And the opposite, a failed company (uber & co) on an exponential growth path is almost praised as a divinity. There is no end game, we need more superfluous gadgets, faster things, smarter things, for what ? God knows, but it seems we can't do without it. We won't stop until we're forced to.
  - AnimalMuppet 7y ago
    > it's painfully obvious that any company that is not on an exponential growth path is a failure in today's world. I dramatically disagree with that characterization. VCs and the startup world think that it's "growth or failure". There are a massive number of businesses where stable is fine (though mild growth would be preferable). You just don't hear about them.
PavlovsCat 7y ago
> Order is the tide of creation, but yours is a species that worships the one over the many. You glorify your intelligence because it allows you to believe anything. That you have a destiny. That you have a right. That you have a cause. That you are special. That you are great. But in truth... you are born insane. -- Starship Troopers 2
dadoge 7y ago
Sears took the same approach starting over 100yrs ago of bundling a bunch of disparate services - clothes, tires, appliances, etc. At the time it seemed equally all consuming. We’re basically seeing another iteration of this now with Amazon, Google and Facebook
- hanniabu 7y ago
  Sears was ahead of its time but then never embraced technology. Makes me wonder where they'd be now and what they would be offering if they did.
  - sct202 7y ago
    They had some bumbled early attempts to get online that probably were held up as examples of why their retail business would succeed. Sears was a co-founder of Prodigy the online service and had a web store on it in the late 80s/early 90s.
teddyh 7y ago
True, Google often evokes comparisons with The Matrix: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14363093 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14363093 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9780632 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9780632

by CPLX 7y ago

trevyn 7y ago

Also humans!

khawkins 7y ago
Below replacement birth rates in 1st world societies seem to disprove the idea that humans inevitably expand to the point of environmental collapse. Further, having as many children as the environment can support, regardless of the consequences for the environment or its destruction, is natural for nearly every life form. Look at invasive species like Asian carp or zebra mussels.
- SEJeff 7y ago
  Or other invasive species like Middle Management
- ceejayoz 7y ago
  > Below replacement birth rates in 1st world societies seem to disprove the idea that humans inevitably expand to the point of environmental collapse. Or they're a warning sign of it. https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/10/sperm-counts-continue-to-fall/572794/ https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/10/sperm-cou... > As new data emerge, however, many scientists now believe sperm counts have indeed fallen—and continue to fall. As a story in GQ noted earlier this year, a widely cited study published in 2017 by researchers from the Hebrew University and Mount Sinai’s medical school found that among nearly 43,000 men from North America, Europe, New Zealand, and Australia, sperm counts per milliliter of semen had declined more than 50 percent from 1973 to 2011. And not only that, “but total sperm counts were down by almost 60 percent: We are producing less semen, and that semen has fewer sperm cells in it,” wrote the GQ contributor Daniel Noah Halpern. When Halpern asked several scientists why, they presented a united front: It was the unprecedented amount of chemicals now routinely entering the human body.

andrepd 7y ago

Ironically, that's the exact definition of a business in modern neoliberal growth capitalism. Grow grow grow, consume all resources, eat all competition. "Natural equilibrium with the environment"? Please...

imglorp 7y ago
Until the antitrust department wakes up (if it's not corrupted). On that note, a faang oozing into banking should absolutely raise antitrust questions.
lm28469 7y ago
I don't get the downvotes, it's painfully obvious that any company that is not on an exponential growth path is a failure in today's world. And the opposite, a failed company (uber & co) on an exponential growth path is almost praised as a divinity. There is no end game, we need more superfluous gadgets, faster things, smarter things, for what ? God knows, but it seems we can't do without it. We won't stop until we're forced to.
- AnimalMuppet 7y ago
  > it's painfully obvious that any company that is not on an exponential growth path is a failure in today's world. I dramatically disagree with that characterization. VCs and the startup world think that it's "growth or failure". There are a massive number of businesses where stable is fine (though mild growth would be preferable). You just don't hear about them.

PavlovsCat 7y ago

> Order is the tide of creation, but yours is a species that worships the one over the many. You glorify your intelligence because it allows you to believe anything. That you have a destiny. That you have a right. That you have a cause. That you are special. That you are great. But in truth... you are born insane. -- Starship Troopers 2

dadoge 7y ago

Sears took the same approach starting over 100yrs ago of bundling a bunch of disparate services - clothes, tires, appliances, etc. At the time it seemed equally all consuming. We’re basically seeing another iteration of this now with Amazon, Google and Facebook

hanniabu 7y ago
Sears was ahead of its time but then never embraced technology. Makes me wonder where they'd be now and what they would be offering if they did.
- sct202 7y ago
  They had some bumbled early attempts to get online that probably were held up as examples of why their retail business would succeed. Sears was a co-founder of Prodigy the online service and had a web store on it in the late 80s/early 90s.

teddyh 7y ago

True, Google often evokes comparisons with The Matrix: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14363093 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14363093 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9780632 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9780632