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Someone once said, "A one-way trip to Mars would actually be okay if it had smoking-hot Wi-Fi." Do you think that the Internet has made people feel more content

Someone once said, "A one-way trip to Mars would actually be okay if it had smoking-hot Wi-Fi." Do you think that the Internet has made people feel more content, wherever they are?

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
Broken_Hippo 7y ago
I think that is a mixed bag. I think it is really easy to feel objectively worse about your surroundings because if you are poor, you more easily see how much your are missing. You are continually surrounded by images of folks who have enough space, who are lucky enough to own a place, whose place looks clean when they clean (you can't always clean the cockroaches away nor paint away the dingy walls). But on the other hand, you are more likely to be able to keep in touch with people. You are more likely to have some entertainment without leaving the house. You are more likely to be able to fix the loose table leg with the basic, cheap tools that you have or mend your clothes if you need really need to. When I was poorer, I would eat cheaper food to be able to afford internet just because it could distract me from my life. If you are lucky enough to have some weed as well, it makes for a much more comfortable life, even if imperfect. (Weed/hash makes me more OK with what I have and I can generally afford it before I could afford a monthly, steady rise in general household bills). In other words: Only if you have a certain life satisfaction in the beginning. I think the quote about mars is more indicative of the entertainment and communication that the internet brings and its innate ability to help time pass more quickly.
- sysbin 7y ago
  I’m not sure about that. A lot of friends from poor families that couldn’t get out are turning to suicide or the drugs that will lead them to it eventually. This era is likely the worse one for the poor.
  - Broken_Hippo 7y ago
    I did mention weed/hash, and explained the effects it has on life. Alcoholism is an option, but harder drugs generally are more expensive. A lot of poor folks don't do drugs simply because they can't afford them. IIRC, poor folks do drugs at the same rate as better off folks, though. Sometimes you are more likely to get caught because of the situations you use them in... plus the businessman has more to lose so tends to be more secluded unless you are trusted. As far as worse, I don't know, man. The depression was pretty bad. The 1800's were pretty bad. The US is worse than Norway, just because of the lack of safety net, and both of these places are better than anywhere facing near-famine or actual active war. And so on. It is really hard to say, "worse".
    - sysbin 7y ago
      There will always be people somewhere around the world that are suffering from famine or living in extreme poverty. I’ve noticed in the USA specifically from where I grew up (that wasn’t a huge city), that all friends from families that were not well off have an even harder time leaving parents. Even the lower middle class people seem to nowadays stay with parents until late 20s and even with decent degrees; so they can afford a home. Upper class has parents that are loaning a couple hundred grand to their kids to purchase a home. The poor are aware of their situation more so because of the internet and see no escape contrary to the previous generations. I disagree about access to drugs from affordability. Somehow there is always a way from what I’ve observed.
    - throwaway0x69AF 7y ago
      > Alcoholism is an option, but harder drugs generally are more expensive. Are you sure? In my experience, a tab of acid costs $5-10, and the effects last about 5 hours. That's way cheaper than alcohol. [1] shows a breakdown of cost per hour for a bunch of drugs I've never touched, and most of them look to be pretty cheap under this metric. Compared to movies, sitting around in coffee shops, etc., they're remarkably cheaper than a lot of legal forms of entertainment. [1] https://www.addictionresource.net/blog/cost-of-illegal-drugs/ https://www.addictionresource.net/blog/cost-of-illegal-drugs...
kryptiskt 7y ago
The interplanetary internet will not be smoking hot with latencies counted in minutes. I guess we will need another protocol too, at least for the CDNs.
- adrianN 7y ago
  https://sites.cs.ucsb.edu/~ebelding/courses/595/s04_dtn/papers/TCP-Planet.pdf https://sites.cs.ucsb.edu/~ebelding/courses/595/s04_dtn/pape... and also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Internet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Internet

Someone once said, "A one-way trip to Mars would actually be okay if it had smoking-hot Wi-Fi." Do you think that the Internet has made people feel more content, wherever they are?

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

Broken_Hippo 7y ago

I think that is a mixed bag. I think it is really easy to feel objectively worse about your surroundings because if you are poor, you more easily see how much your are missing. You are continually surrounded by images of folks who have enough space, who are lucky enough to own a place, whose place looks clean when they clean (you can't always clean the cockroaches away nor paint away the dingy walls). But on the other hand, you are more likely to be able to keep in touch with people. You are more likely to have some entertainment without leaving the house. You are more likely to be able to fix the loose table leg with the basic, cheap tools that you have or mend your clothes if you need really need to. When I was poorer, I would eat cheaper food to be able to afford internet just because it could distract me from my life. If you are lucky enough to have some weed as well, it makes for a much more comfortable life, even if imperfect. (Weed/hash makes me more OK with what I have and I can generally afford it before I could afford a monthly, steady rise in general household bills). In other words: Only if you have a certain life satisfaction in the beginning. I think the quote about mars is more indicative of the entertainment and communication that the internet brings and its innate ability to help time pass more quickly.

sysbin 7y ago
I’m not sure about that. A lot of friends from poor families that couldn’t get out are turning to suicide or the drugs that will lead them to it eventually. This era is likely the worse one for the poor.
- Broken_Hippo 7y ago
  I did mention weed/hash, and explained the effects it has on life. Alcoholism is an option, but harder drugs generally are more expensive. A lot of poor folks don't do drugs simply because they can't afford them. IIRC, poor folks do drugs at the same rate as better off folks, though. Sometimes you are more likely to get caught because of the situations you use them in... plus the businessman has more to lose so tends to be more secluded unless you are trusted. As far as worse, I don't know, man. The depression was pretty bad. The 1800's were pretty bad. The US is worse than Norway, just because of the lack of safety net, and both of these places are better than anywhere facing near-famine or actual active war. And so on. It is really hard to say, "worse".
  - sysbin 7y ago
    There will always be people somewhere around the world that are suffering from famine or living in extreme poverty. I’ve noticed in the USA specifically from where I grew up (that wasn’t a huge city), that all friends from families that were not well off have an even harder time leaving parents. Even the lower middle class people seem to nowadays stay with parents until late 20s and even with decent degrees; so they can afford a home. Upper class has parents that are loaning a couple hundred grand to their kids to purchase a home. The poor are aware of their situation more so because of the internet and see no escape contrary to the previous generations. I disagree about access to drugs from affordability. Somehow there is always a way from what I’ve observed.
  - throwaway0x69AF 7y ago
    > Alcoholism is an option, but harder drugs generally are more expensive. Are you sure? In my experience, a tab of acid costs $5-10, and the effects last about 5 hours. That's way cheaper than alcohol. [1] shows a breakdown of cost per hour for a bunch of drugs I've never touched, and most of them look to be pretty cheap under this metric. Compared to movies, sitting around in coffee shops, etc., they're remarkably cheaper than a lot of legal forms of entertainment. [1] https://www.addictionresource.net/blog/cost-of-illegal-drugs/ https://www.addictionresource.net/blog/cost-of-illegal-drugs...

kryptiskt 7y ago

The interplanetary internet will not be smoking hot with latencies counted in minutes. I guess we will need another protocol too, at least for the CDNs.

adrianN 7y ago
https://sites.cs.ucsb.edu/~ebelding/courses/595/s04_dtn/papers/TCP-Planet.pdf https://sites.cs.ucsb.edu/~ebelding/courses/595/s04_dtn/pape... and also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Internet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Internet