4 ms·

This is "A Modest Proposal" style satire.

ad404b8a372f2b9 4y ago
I considered it but, as others have commented, the author works in Defense. You don't usually satirize a system or culture you're actively and willingly building.
- kelseyfrog 4y ago
  You usually don't, but the system doesn't care either way. The system packages up critique and commodifies it into benign impotence regardless.
- jongjong 4y ago
  Yeah, this is as low-brow as joking about war horrors. This has potential to be truly horrific. Imagine political and war prisoners and their entire families being strapped to this thing and then enslaved for their entire lives on the threat of having their brains blown to bits at any second. Surely this is worse than any form of torture imaginable and worse than death. It's difficult to see the funny part.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - Tronno 4y ago
    Luckey's suicide device is indeed disturbing, but this scenario is just outlandish sci-fi. Why jump through all the technical hoops when you can pay a goon to pull a trigger? Historically, this has already happened a million times.
    - imtringued 4y ago
      You don't have to pay the goon if he wears that.
    - Brian_K_White 4y ago
      It's not about the death it's about the slavery. Yoking a human brain to perform tasks that only a human can get right, but not having to pay them, a basically get to use them like software. About the only thing keeping this from becoming a reality is it probably costs more in labor to maintain the bodies than to just have desperate people perform the same tasks for extremely low pay. Then again, Palmmer's current company builds automated weapons. Imagine a missile guided by an on-board human. Not remote, on-board. The Japanese did manage to employ Kamikaze's but generally it would be pretty hard to source a supply of willing and trained volunteers for that. But you could stick someone in this, run them through training games more or less perpetually, until one day it's not a game and the victim simply does their usual job unaware they are a human bullet this time. Still probably impractical because of the life support, but maybe not. You don't need any more life support than an ordinary jet fighter for a short one-way trip, and what was impractical yesterday is no longer impractical tomorrow. It should be thought about, because it can actually be done roght now, which means someone somewhere will do it, or already has.
      - Tronno 4y ago
        Imprisonment and forced labor already exist. Remote control weapons already exist. Nobody is wearing explosive collars. You should think about solving these problems in the real world, not a fantasy cyberpunk dystopia.
        autoexec 4y ago
        > Nobody is wearing explosive collars. They've been used repeatedly in real life. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Brian_Douglas_Wells https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Brian_Douglas_Wells is probably the most famous example, but they've been used even more recently by ISIS
        Brian_K_White 4y ago
        Consciousness in a box used as an appliance is no worse than ordinary slavery eh? Moron.
- godelski 4y ago
  > You don't usually satirize a system or culture you're actively and willingly building. I feel like that's the most common time for you to satire a culture. You know all the intimate details.
- kstenerud 4y ago
  I absolutely would. This is Andy Kaufman level comedy, which isn't to everyone's tastes, but does get under one's skin. In this particular case, it's specifically designed to make you VERY uncomfortable, to show what could be if we're not vigilant. Pushing it in peoples faces makes it into a kind of inoculation, hopefully preventing it from actually happening. As for the industry the author is in, this kind of product wouldn't even fit into a defense company's line. Defense companies produce products to neutralize an enemy, something for which an exploding headset would fall laughably short (maybe as a James Bond style assassination device?). A product like this would be more in line with a police/prison equipment supplier (for coercing people already under your physical control).
  - etrautmann 4y ago
    yeah this is performance art/trolling. It clearly seeks a reaction, which is amplified by the casual description.
  - nrp 4y ago
    If it was anyone but Palmer, my assumption would be that it is satire. However, since it is Palmer, my assumption is that he did actually build enough of it for it to be lethal if fully armed, and that it is genuinely a tribute to SAO rather than a warning about VR.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- colechristensen 4y ago
  You’re wrong. When you work in defense or are a soldier, you make jokes about the system you’re in. When you’re in any field you make dark jokes about the field you’re in. I’ve done it, I’ve seen it, from time to time something goes too far if viewed from the outside. I’ve seen it essentially everywhere, including working in defense briefly. A dark sense of humor reflects actually thinking about the the more complex aspects of the work you do.
jonathankoren 4y ago
A Modest Proposal was satirizing how the English treated the Irish. What’s being satirized here? The whole write up is basically a love letter to Sword Art Online. If I made a game that shocked the players like in Never Say Never Again (which I have thought about doing multiple times since I was a kid), it wouldn’t be a satire. It would just be a thing. Satire has a message. It has a target. What’s the target here?
nonethewiser 4y ago
It's really not. "A Modest Proposal" was a criticism of people and society. It was so ridiculous you'd have to sympathize with the point he's making or be devoid of morals. What's the point the author is making? It's just a morbid fixation that he says he got from video games.
vijaybritto 4y ago
Pretty sure this is not how satire is written. Was looking for an ice breaker throughout the blog which never came. Then I realised he is casually talking about killing people in real life as if its a video game
readthenotes1 4y ago
"The good news is that we are halfway to making a true NerveGear The bad news is that so far, I have only figured out the half that kills you." Clearly satirical

I considered it but, as others have commented, the author works in Defense. You don't usually satirize a system or culture you're actively and willingly building.

kelseyfrog 4y ago
You usually don't, but the system doesn't care either way. The system packages up critique and commodifies it into benign impotence regardless.
jongjong 4y ago
Yeah, this is as low-brow as joking about war horrors. This has potential to be truly horrific. Imagine political and war prisoners and their entire families being strapped to this thing and then enslaved for their entire lives on the threat of having their brains blown to bits at any second. Surely this is worse than any form of torture imaginable and worse than death. It's difficult to see the funny part.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- Tronno 4y ago
  Luckey's suicide device is indeed disturbing, but this scenario is just outlandish sci-fi. Why jump through all the technical hoops when you can pay a goon to pull a trigger? Historically, this has already happened a million times.
  - imtringued 4y ago
    You don't have to pay the goon if he wears that.
  - Brian_K_White 4y ago
    It's not about the death it's about the slavery. Yoking a human brain to perform tasks that only a human can get right, but not having to pay them, a basically get to use them like software. About the only thing keeping this from becoming a reality is it probably costs more in labor to maintain the bodies than to just have desperate people perform the same tasks for extremely low pay. Then again, Palmmer's current company builds automated weapons. Imagine a missile guided by an on-board human. Not remote, on-board. The Japanese did manage to employ Kamikaze's but generally it would be pretty hard to source a supply of willing and trained volunteers for that. But you could stick someone in this, run them through training games more or less perpetually, until one day it's not a game and the victim simply does their usual job unaware they are a human bullet this time. Still probably impractical because of the life support, but maybe not. You don't need any more life support than an ordinary jet fighter for a short one-way trip, and what was impractical yesterday is no longer impractical tomorrow. It should be thought about, because it can actually be done roght now, which means someone somewhere will do it, or already has.
    - Tronno 4y ago
      Imprisonment and forced labor already exist. Remote control weapons already exist. Nobody is wearing explosive collars. You should think about solving these problems in the real world, not a fantasy cyberpunk dystopia.
      - autoexec 4y ago
        > Nobody is wearing explosive collars. They've been used repeatedly in real life. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Brian_Douglas_Wells https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Brian_Douglas_Wells is probably the most famous example, but they've been used even more recently by ISIS
      - Brian_K_White 4y ago
        Consciousness in a box used as an appliance is no worse than ordinary slavery eh? Moron.
godelski 4y ago
> You don't usually satirize a system or culture you're actively and willingly building. I feel like that's the most common time for you to satire a culture. You know all the intimate details.
kstenerud 4y ago
I absolutely would. This is Andy Kaufman level comedy, which isn't to everyone's tastes, but does get under one's skin. In this particular case, it's specifically designed to make you VERY uncomfortable, to show what could be if we're not vigilant. Pushing it in peoples faces makes it into a kind of inoculation, hopefully preventing it from actually happening. As for the industry the author is in, this kind of product wouldn't even fit into a defense company's line. Defense companies produce products to neutralize an enemy, something for which an exploding headset would fall laughably short (maybe as a James Bond style assassination device?). A product like this would be more in line with a police/prison equipment supplier (for coercing people already under your physical control).
- etrautmann 4y ago
  yeah this is performance art/trolling. It clearly seeks a reaction, which is amplified by the casual description.
- nrp 4y ago
  If it was anyone but Palmer, my assumption would be that it is satire. However, since it is Palmer, my assumption is that he did actually build enough of it for it to be lethal if fully armed, and that it is genuinely a tribute to SAO rather than a warning about VR.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
colechristensen 4y ago
You’re wrong. When you work in defense or are a soldier, you make jokes about the system you’re in. When you’re in any field you make dark jokes about the field you’re in. I’ve done it, I’ve seen it, from time to time something goes too far if viewed from the outside. I’ve seen it essentially everywhere, including working in defense briefly. A dark sense of humor reflects actually thinking about the the more complex aspects of the work you do.

jonathankoren 4y ago

A Modest Proposal was satirizing how the English treated the Irish. What’s being satirized here? The whole write up is basically a love letter to Sword Art Online. If I made a game that shocked the players like in Never Say Never Again (which I have thought about doing multiple times since I was a kid), it wouldn’t be a satire. It would just be a thing. Satire has a message. It has a target. What’s the target here?

nonethewiser 4y ago

It's really not. "A Modest Proposal" was a criticism of people and society. It was so ridiculous you'd have to sympathize with the point he's making or be devoid of morals. What's the point the author is making? It's just a morbid fixation that he says he got from video games.

vijaybritto 4y ago

Pretty sure this is not how satire is written. Was looking for an ice breaker throughout the blog which never came. Then I realised he is casually talking about killing people in real life as if its a video game

readthenotes1 4y ago

"The good news is that we are halfway to making a true NerveGear The bad news is that so far, I have only figured out the half that kills you." Clearly satirical