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I truly appreciate humanity's ability to dream up spaces of infinite possibility. And then to turn around and artificially limit those spaces such that people c

I truly appreciate humanity's ability to dream up spaces of infinite possibility. And then to turn around and artificially limit those spaces such that people can indulge their lizard-brain urges to treat absolutely everything as exclusive territory/property. Quickly followed by support for primate dominance hierarchies, so that people can rank-order themselves and be guaranteed to feel superior to somebody.

ineedasername 4y ago
Well, sure absolutely. I mean, a database might hold an arbitrary # in a given row & column but what would be the point of letting users of, say, Reddit manipulate their cell in the database freely? If that were possible then they couldn't lord their internet points over all the other redditors with fewer upvotes. And if you don't have the validation of masses of faceless internet users quantifies in this way where's the fun of social interactions? Are we supposed to go back to the barbaric days where you didn't know how many people approved of a family photo you physically showed to a coworker? Civilization didn't spend thousands of years advancing to this point merely to fall back on analog & non-discrete valuations on human worth.
deleted 4y ago
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Enginerrrd 4y ago
Honestly, I think human brains are just wired such that things without constraints or scarcity just aren't that interesting to us. I think if you want to successfully launch a VR world, artificial scarcity is necessary in order to create interesting interactions within your world. The real threat to your platform is actually likely the inevitable money-motivated removal of those scarcity limitations. ("Oh look we found more widgets, you can buy them from us for x$")
hypertele-Xii 4y ago
Primate dominance hierarchies are a bit of a myth. Many people have this old-fashioned concept that monkeys form social hierarchies based purely on violent domination. It's true that territorial primates are observed to wage war against their neighbors, but many also partake in time-sharing of resources (groups of monkeys taking turns visiting a fig tree, rather than fight over it), and within groups of primates it is actually altruism and caring that promotes an individual to the top, not brute strength. Or that's what I've been hearing recently.
- soulofmischief 4y ago
  To be honest, I can't take a post seriously which debunks one claim and replaces it with an equally dubious, uncited claim, that the poster has "been hearing recently."
  - hypertele-Xii 4y ago
    I'd cite more but don't have the $4200 to read this paper. https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-319-19650-3_2536 https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-3...
    - hansvm 4y ago
      $5k for me. Do they discriminate on estimated geography?
- wpietri 4y ago
  You seem to be constructing a straw man. I didn't say and never would have said anything like "purely on violent domination".

ineedasername 4y ago

Well, sure absolutely. I mean, a database might hold an arbitrary # in a given row & column but what would be the point of letting users of, say, Reddit manipulate their cell in the database freely? If that were possible then they couldn't lord their internet points over all the other redditors with fewer upvotes. And if you don't have the validation of masses of faceless internet users quantifies in this way where's the fun of social interactions? Are we supposed to go back to the barbaric days where you didn't know how many people approved of a family photo you physically showed to a coworker? Civilization didn't spend thousands of years advancing to this point merely to fall back on analog & non-discrete valuations on human worth.

deleted 4y ago

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Enginerrrd 4y ago

Honestly, I think human brains are just wired such that things without constraints or scarcity just aren't that interesting to us. I think if you want to successfully launch a VR world, artificial scarcity is necessary in order to create interesting interactions within your world. The real threat to your platform is actually likely the inevitable money-motivated removal of those scarcity limitations. ("Oh look we found more widgets, you can buy them from us for x$")

hypertele-Xii 4y ago

Primate dominance hierarchies are a bit of a myth. Many people have this old-fashioned concept that monkeys form social hierarchies based purely on violent domination. It's true that territorial primates are observed to wage war against their neighbors, but many also partake in time-sharing of resources (groups of monkeys taking turns visiting a fig tree, rather than fight over it), and within groups of primates it is actually altruism and caring that promotes an individual to the top, not brute strength. Or that's what I've been hearing recently.

soulofmischief 4y ago
To be honest, I can't take a post seriously which debunks one claim and replaces it with an equally dubious, uncited claim, that the poster has "been hearing recently."
- hypertele-Xii 4y ago
  I'd cite more but don't have the $4200 to read this paper. https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-319-19650-3_2536 https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-3...
  - hansvm 4y ago
    $5k for me. Do they discriminate on estimated geography?
wpietri 4y ago
You seem to be constructing a straw man. I didn't say and never would have said anything like "purely on violent domination".