12 ms·

> The two reports, released by the CDC on Thursday, show deaths from COVID-19 and drug overdoses, most notably synthetic opioids like fentanyl, were the primary

> The two reports, released by the CDC on Thursday, show deaths from COVID-19 and drug overdoses, most notably synthetic opioids like fentanyl, were the primary drivers of the drop in life expectancy. Not entirely surprising wrt COVID. The drug overdose deaths are a sad situation. I remember first hearing about the epidemic of ODs a couple of years back. There is a bit of a common theme between this article and the other current article about the planned obsolence and inherent crappiness of most modern products. (This one: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34092749 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34092749). I have noticed this gloomy attitude from many people my age, a sort of existential despair and belief that we sit somewhere near the end of the world as we know it. I don't personally share this belief (maybe just out of stubborn naivete and optimism), but I do understand why people feel it. The modern media seems to love these kinds of stories, and there's always some crisis being pushed between global warming, economic woes, and the rise of some fairly troubling and extreme candidates in American politics. Not sure what my point is here, but there's definitely a contingent of young folks (late millenial to gen-z seems to be the main demographic) who seem to have lost hope in the future. I hope we can find our way to a more hopeful collective spirit. One last comment on this already rambling post: when I recently watched Apollo 11 I was quite moved by the spirit pervading the whole enterprise - this idea that we sent people to the moon with hopes for the whole world. That everyone was watching, hoping, praying for the success of the mission. That is a sort of unity that is awfully hard to find today.

prottog 4y ago
> That is a sort of unity that is awfully hard to find today. We sacrificed that sort of unity -- for exactly what I still don't understand, but sacrificed it nonetheless. For a misguided sense of diversity, perhaps? American society can no longer even agree that working hard and being punctual are virtues, with a not-insignificant minority describing those characteristics as white supremacist. More broadly, as Kemi Badenoch of England put it eloquently, there is a loss of epistemic authority in the modern West, maybe especially in the Anglosphere. When people no longer believe that anything can be true, there can be no rallying cause around which we form a sense of unity.
- prairiedogg 4y ago
  I'm curious where I could find an example of someone saying that working hard and being punctual are white supremacist.
  - agentwiggles 4y ago
    It's a real example of the kind of woke nonsense that gets bandied around by a certain segment of too-online activists (on both sides of the issue). Try a quick Google for something like "toxic whiteness objectivity sense of urgency" or similar and you should see some of the examples, and also commentary from both sides on the ideas. Disclaimer: I don't mean to imply that all the ideas under the umbrella of "wokeness" are nonsense, there's good and bad stuff in that category - but this particular example is, to my eye, pretty damn silly.
    - shrimp_emoji 4y ago
      It probably draws from the notion of non-Western cultures' polychronic time (vs. Western monochronic time): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronemics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronemics ``` The United States considers itself a monochronic society. This perception came about during the Industrial Revolution. Many Americans think of time as a precious resource not to be wasted or taken lightly.[5] As a communication scholar Edward T. Hall wrote regarding the American's viewpoint of time in the business world, "the schedule is sacred." Hall says that for monochronic cultures, such as the American culture, "time is tangible" and viewed as a commodity where "time is money" or "time is wasted." John Ivers, a professor of cultural paradigms, agrees with Edward Hall by stating, "In the market sense, monochronic people consume time."[6] The result of this perspective is that monochronic cultures place a paramount value on schedules, tasks, and "getting the job done."[full citation needed] Monochronic time orientation is very prominent in North European cultures, Italy, Greece, Spain, England, and the Scandinavian countries.[7] For example, a businessperson from the USA has a meeting scheduled, they then grow frustrated because they are waiting an hour for their partner to arrive. This is an example of a monochronic time oriented individual running in with a polychronic time oriented individual.[8] The interesting thing is that even though America is seen as one of the most monochronic countries it "has subcultures that may lean more to one side or the other of the monochronic-polychronic divide" within the states themselves. One can see this as they compare the southern states to the northern ones. John Ivers points this out with comparing waiters in the northern and southern restaurants. The waiters from the north are "to the point": they will "engage in little" and there is usually "no small talk." They are trying to be as efficient as possible, while those in the south will work towards "establishing a nice, friendly, micro-relationship" with the customer. They are still considerate of time, but it is not the most important goal in the south.[6] The culture of African Americans might also be seen as polychronic (see CP Time) ``` ``` A polychronic time system is a system where several things can be done at once, and wider view of time is exhibited and time is perceived in large fluid sections.[4] Examples of polychronic cultures are: Latin American, African, Arab, South Asian, and Native American cultures. These cultures' view on time can be connected to "natural rhythms, the earth, and the seasons". These analogies can be understood and compared because natural events can occur spontaneously and sporadically, just like polychronic time oriented people and polychronic time oriented cultures.[9] A scenario would be an Inuit working in a factory in Alaska, the superiors blow a whistle to alert for break times, etc. The Inuit are not fond of that method because they determine their times by the sea tides. How long it takes place and how long it lasts. In polychronic cultures, "time spent with others" is considered a "task" and of importance to one's daily regimen.[8] Polychronic cultures are much less focused on the preciseness of accounting for time. Polychronic cultures are more focused on tradition and relationships rather than on tasks. Polychronic societies have no problem being late for an appointment if they are deeply focused on some work or in a meeting that ran past schedule, because the concept of time is fluid and can easily expand or contract as need be. As a result, polychronic cultures have a much less formal perception of time. They are not ruled by precise calendars and schedules.[5] ```
lapcat 4y ago
> when I recently watched Apollo 11 I was quite moved by the spirit pervading the whole enterprise - this idea that we sent people to the moon with hopes for the whole world. That everyone was watching, hoping, praying for the success of the mission. That is a sort of unity that is awfully hard to find today. I'm not sure this is historically accurate. The Moon landing was the culmination of the nationalistic Cold War Space Race. "While most Americans were proud of their nation's achievements in space exploration, only once during the late 1960s did the Gallup Poll indicate that a majority of Americans favored "doing more" in space as opposed to "doing less". By 1973, 59 percent of those polled favored cutting spending on space exploration. The Space Race had been won, and Cold War tensions were easing as the US and Soviet Union entered the era of détente." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11#Cultural_significance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11#Cultural_significanc... See also: "Why Civil Rights Activists Protested the Moon Landing" https://www.history.com/news/apollo-11-moon-landing-launch-protests https://www.history.com/news/apollo-11-moon-landing-launch-p... "Not Everyone Wanted a Man on the Moon" https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/16/opinion/apollo-11-nasa-woodstock.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/16/opinion/apollo-11-nasa-wo...
- agentwiggles 4y ago
  As I was typing it out, it occurred to me that the whole angle of national unity was maybe trumped up a bit by the documentary. After all, ultimately the whole thing was driven by nationalistic competition and technology originally invented for war. But I still think there's something to it that couldn't exist today. If you watch the doc you'll see an absolute gaggle of people who turned out to watch the launch and there really does seem to be an overriding air of excitement and hopefulness. In the spirit of optimistic naivete I mentioned in my OP, I will choose to believe that, by the time the mission was in progress, for a all-too-brief moment, we as a country _really were_ all rooting for the same thing in 1969 - that the mission would be a success, that the astronauts would come home safely, and that the scientific achievement represented hope for a better future for everyone.
  - lapcat 4y ago
    For a moment. But remember that the US was in the middle of the Vietnam War, and anti-war protests were really starting to ramp up at the time.
rixthefox 4y ago
I'm part of that range (late millennial to gen-z) and I feel that lost hope. I don't speak for everyone in my cohort, but from my experience, I lost my hope when orange guy took the chair. Him and the people who follow him seem to have a penchant for "fsck you, got mine" and because it was never corrected early on that attitude became the beating drum of the nation for 4 years. For 4 years the worst behaviors of people went unchecked out in the open and now those same people yell and scream censorship when you try and correct it. Our generation has been the punching bag for everything and finally we've just had enough. Our outlook for the future has never been worse. We were told growing up to always hope for "a better year" but that "better year" was more often than not better for everyone else but us. We're on track to be worse off than our parents in both generational wealth and opportunities [1] and people are just finally done blindly hoping for things to get better. Most people in my generation have stopped planning for the future because this country was too concerned about giving money and tax breaks to the already obscenely rich. Elon's purchase of Twitter and subsequent actions have only dampened my hopes of anything getting better. When billionaires can piss away 44 billion dollars and cause all sorts of chaos just because they feel like it, meanwhile people in my generation are forced to work two jobs just to barely make a living wage, yeah I don't have much hope left for a better future if this is what the new normal looks like... [1] https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/11/politics/millennials-income-stalled-upward-mobility-us/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/11/politics/millennials-income-s...
- stcroixx 4y ago
  Trying to be helpful as someone who has seen a lot of presidents come and go. You can make the decision to not let these external events out of your control affect you so much. Politicians have some differences at the surface, but they are far more minor than portrayed. For a long time Trump was a democrat and the Clintons went to his wedding. The moneyed class stick together and look out for themselves. Don't look to politicians or leaders for the change you want - it's more effective at a personal level and you have control. My Dad worked 2 jobs when I was growing up in the 80's so we could live in a tiny house. His parents lived through the depression. All had a more positive personal outlook than the average today. You only get this one trip.
- 4y ago
taylodl 4y ago
The modern media love these kinds of stories because they sell! BTW, I'm a Gen-X'er and my kids are Gen-Z, so with that perspective in mind, here's my take on the situation. The millennials have "lost hope" in the future because they're the first generation in American history who will fair worse than their parents did. Of course there are exceptions, many of us here on HN being those exceptions. But overall, the generation is fairing worse. They were sold a pipe dream and are now realizing they're screwed. I don't think we've scratched the surface of understanding what the impacts that realization will bring to the society at large. Gen-Z, by watching the Millennials, have learned much earlier on that they're screwed. So they've adopted a "fsck this sh1t!" attitude and are looking to be an extremely disruptive generation because, well, what have they got to lose? They largely blame the Boomers for the majority of the problems we have today. Gen-Z looks warily on Gen-X. I don't think they realize how apathetic this generation is. The Boomers have been the dominant force throughout our lives and we always knew there would be a day of reckoning. It was obvious to us back in the 80's that an aging Boomer generation would be a problem, we just underestimated how big of a problem it would be. Anyway, I see Gen-Z giving the Millennials the kick in the pants they need to get to work to right this ship. The work will get significantly easier as the Boomers die out.
- s1artibartfast 4y ago
  I agree with much of your sentiment about genZ disillusionment, but it also goes hand in hand with a lot of self sabotaging traits such as Rage, pessimism, and trained helplessness. I am concerned that some negative cultural feedback loops have been engaged. Not saying this as a way to blame, they are after all, a product of their cultural environment, but not all stories have happy endings, ours included. To be honest, it reminds me a lot of personal depression, where the natural response for most people exacerbates the problem. Once the feedback loops kick in, is very difficult to halt the progression
- jfengel 4y ago
  Note: as far as Gen-Z is concerned, we Gen-Xers are Boomers. Any distinction is largely irrelevant. We are only marginally less to blame for Gen-Z's problems, if at all. We weren't voting in the 1970s and 80s that really set the pattern for what we see today, but we did benefit from it and acquiesce to it. Our numbers made it harder to take the reins when it was our turn, but there are still an awful lot of Gen X-ers in Congress failing to fix anything. Maybe as the Boomers die off, we'll do something (like finally get a chance for a Gen X President). But we should not disclaim responsibility and point fingers at the Boomers, because we're complicit.
dpweb 4y ago
Well the question is how to enact real change. Too much bad food and bad media would be a start. When you look at American culture, it would be shocking if we were not unhealthy and depressed. But then, how do you do this without authoritarian measures.
- tdehnel 4y ago
  We significantly reduced smoking with a large ad campaign and taxes on tobacco. That would be a good start (assuming you wanted to help the most possible people to live longer healthier lives).
Llamamoe 4y ago
> I have noticed this gloomy attitude from many people my age, a sort of existential despair and belief that we sit somewhere near the end of the world as we know it. Don't we? Almost every aspect of our lives has been captured by corporate interests, wealth inequality in many nations is approaching a critical point you'd dub "wage slavery", the internet turned from a place of discovery and joy into a dead space filled with ads, ghostwritten garbage, and increasingly addictive social media walled gardens. Year by year people are lonelier and more addicted to electronics, by design. Media/news outlets are for the most part very obviously aligned with gov/corporate interests while social media are algorithmically amplifying radicalisation and outrage in order to commodify and sell what should be our private data. It's also clear that, globally, profit margins take precedence over addressing global warming, constantly declining mental and physical health, systemic issues in our society, or with COVID, even their lives- we're going to be seeing dozens of millions of people disabled by long COVID a year for who knows how long now. I think it's simply becoming very obvious to everyone that the entities that have power- governments, corporations- are guided by inhuman incentives misaligned and often directly contrary to our collective wellbeing, incentives constantly empowered by technological advancement that only they can afford to develop and deploy. It might not seem like it because it's happening so gradually and our immediate surroundings don't change as fast, but we're already basically living in a cyberpunk dystopia.

prottog 4y ago

> That is a sort of unity that is awfully hard to find today. We sacrificed that sort of unity -- for exactly what I still don't understand, but sacrificed it nonetheless. For a misguided sense of diversity, perhaps? American society can no longer even agree that working hard and being punctual are virtues, with a not-insignificant minority describing those characteristics as white supremacist. More broadly, as Kemi Badenoch of England put it eloquently, there is a loss of epistemic authority in the modern West, maybe especially in the Anglosphere. When people no longer believe that anything can be true, there can be no rallying cause around which we form a sense of unity.

prairiedogg 4y ago
I'm curious where I could find an example of someone saying that working hard and being punctual are white supremacist.
- agentwiggles 4y ago
  It's a real example of the kind of woke nonsense that gets bandied around by a certain segment of too-online activists (on both sides of the issue). Try a quick Google for something like "toxic whiteness objectivity sense of urgency" or similar and you should see some of the examples, and also commentary from both sides on the ideas. Disclaimer: I don't mean to imply that all the ideas under the umbrella of "wokeness" are nonsense, there's good and bad stuff in that category - but this particular example is, to my eye, pretty damn silly.
  - shrimp_emoji 4y ago
    It probably draws from the notion of non-Western cultures' polychronic time (vs. Western monochronic time): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronemics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronemics ``` The United States considers itself a monochronic society. This perception came about during the Industrial Revolution. Many Americans think of time as a precious resource not to be wasted or taken lightly.[5] As a communication scholar Edward T. Hall wrote regarding the American's viewpoint of time in the business world, "the schedule is sacred." Hall says that for monochronic cultures, such as the American culture, "time is tangible" and viewed as a commodity where "time is money" or "time is wasted." John Ivers, a professor of cultural paradigms, agrees with Edward Hall by stating, "In the market sense, monochronic people consume time."[6] The result of this perspective is that monochronic cultures place a paramount value on schedules, tasks, and "getting the job done."[full citation needed] Monochronic time orientation is very prominent in North European cultures, Italy, Greece, Spain, England, and the Scandinavian countries.[7] For example, a businessperson from the USA has a meeting scheduled, they then grow frustrated because they are waiting an hour for their partner to arrive. This is an example of a monochronic time oriented individual running in with a polychronic time oriented individual.[8] The interesting thing is that even though America is seen as one of the most monochronic countries it "has subcultures that may lean more to one side or the other of the monochronic-polychronic divide" within the states themselves. One can see this as they compare the southern states to the northern ones. John Ivers points this out with comparing waiters in the northern and southern restaurants. The waiters from the north are "to the point": they will "engage in little" and there is usually "no small talk." They are trying to be as efficient as possible, while those in the south will work towards "establishing a nice, friendly, micro-relationship" with the customer. They are still considerate of time, but it is not the most important goal in the south.[6] The culture of African Americans might also be seen as polychronic (see CP Time) ``` ``` A polychronic time system is a system where several things can be done at once, and wider view of time is exhibited and time is perceived in large fluid sections.[4] Examples of polychronic cultures are: Latin American, African, Arab, South Asian, and Native American cultures. These cultures' view on time can be connected to "natural rhythms, the earth, and the seasons". These analogies can be understood and compared because natural events can occur spontaneously and sporadically, just like polychronic time oriented people and polychronic time oriented cultures.[9] A scenario would be an Inuit working in a factory in Alaska, the superiors blow a whistle to alert for break times, etc. The Inuit are not fond of that method because they determine their times by the sea tides. How long it takes place and how long it lasts. In polychronic cultures, "time spent with others" is considered a "task" and of importance to one's daily regimen.[8] Polychronic cultures are much less focused on the preciseness of accounting for time. Polychronic cultures are more focused on tradition and relationships rather than on tasks. Polychronic societies have no problem being late for an appointment if they are deeply focused on some work or in a meeting that ran past schedule, because the concept of time is fluid and can easily expand or contract as need be. As a result, polychronic cultures have a much less formal perception of time. They are not ruled by precise calendars and schedules.[5] ```

lapcat 4y ago

> when I recently watched Apollo 11 I was quite moved by the spirit pervading the whole enterprise - this idea that we sent people to the moon with hopes for the whole world. That everyone was watching, hoping, praying for the success of the mission. That is a sort of unity that is awfully hard to find today. I'm not sure this is historically accurate. The Moon landing was the culmination of the nationalistic Cold War Space Race. "While most Americans were proud of their nation's achievements in space exploration, only once during the late 1960s did the Gallup Poll indicate that a majority of Americans favored "doing more" in space as opposed to "doing less". By 1973, 59 percent of those polled favored cutting spending on space exploration. The Space Race had been won, and Cold War tensions were easing as the US and Soviet Union entered the era of détente." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11#Cultural_significance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11#Cultural_significanc... See also: "Why Civil Rights Activists Protested the Moon Landing" https://www.history.com/news/apollo-11-moon-landing-launch-protests https://www.history.com/news/apollo-11-moon-landing-launch-p... "Not Everyone Wanted a Man on the Moon" https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/16/opinion/apollo-11-nasa-woodstock.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/16/opinion/apollo-11-nasa-wo...

agentwiggles 4y ago
As I was typing it out, it occurred to me that the whole angle of national unity was maybe trumped up a bit by the documentary. After all, ultimately the whole thing was driven by nationalistic competition and technology originally invented for war. But I still think there's something to it that couldn't exist today. If you watch the doc you'll see an absolute gaggle of people who turned out to watch the launch and there really does seem to be an overriding air of excitement and hopefulness. In the spirit of optimistic naivete I mentioned in my OP, I will choose to believe that, by the time the mission was in progress, for a all-too-brief moment, we as a country _really were_ all rooting for the same thing in 1969 - that the mission would be a success, that the astronauts would come home safely, and that the scientific achievement represented hope for a better future for everyone.
- lapcat 4y ago
  For a moment. But remember that the US was in the middle of the Vietnam War, and anti-war protests were really starting to ramp up at the time.

rixthefox 4y ago

I'm part of that range (late millennial to gen-z) and I feel that lost hope. I don't speak for everyone in my cohort, but from my experience, I lost my hope when orange guy took the chair. Him and the people who follow him seem to have a penchant for "fsck you, got mine" and because it was never corrected early on that attitude became the beating drum of the nation for 4 years. For 4 years the worst behaviors of people went unchecked out in the open and now those same people yell and scream censorship when you try and correct it. Our generation has been the punching bag for everything and finally we've just had enough. Our outlook for the future has never been worse. We were told growing up to always hope for "a better year" but that "better year" was more often than not better for everyone else but us. We're on track to be worse off than our parents in both generational wealth and opportunities [1] and people are just finally done blindly hoping for things to get better. Most people in my generation have stopped planning for the future because this country was too concerned about giving money and tax breaks to the already obscenely rich. Elon's purchase of Twitter and subsequent actions have only dampened my hopes of anything getting better. When billionaires can piss away 44 billion dollars and cause all sorts of chaos just because they feel like it, meanwhile people in my generation are forced to work two jobs just to barely make a living wage, yeah I don't have much hope left for a better future if this is what the new normal looks like... [1] https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/11/politics/millennials-income-stalled-upward-mobility-us/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/11/politics/millennials-income-s...

stcroixx 4y ago
Trying to be helpful as someone who has seen a lot of presidents come and go. You can make the decision to not let these external events out of your control affect you so much. Politicians have some differences at the surface, but they are far more minor than portrayed. For a long time Trump was a democrat and the Clintons went to his wedding. The moneyed class stick together and look out for themselves. Don't look to politicians or leaders for the change you want - it's more effective at a personal level and you have control. My Dad worked 2 jobs when I was growing up in the 80's so we could live in a tiny house. His parents lived through the depression. All had a more positive personal outlook than the average today. You only get this one trip.
4y ago

taylodl 4y ago

The modern media love these kinds of stories because they sell! BTW, I'm a Gen-X'er and my kids are Gen-Z, so with that perspective in mind, here's my take on the situation. The millennials have "lost hope" in the future because they're the first generation in American history who will fair worse than their parents did. Of course there are exceptions, many of us here on HN being those exceptions. But overall, the generation is fairing worse. They were sold a pipe dream and are now realizing they're screwed. I don't think we've scratched the surface of understanding what the impacts that realization will bring to the society at large. Gen-Z, by watching the Millennials, have learned much earlier on that they're screwed. So they've adopted a "fsck this sh1t!" attitude and are looking to be an extremely disruptive generation because, well, what have they got to lose? They largely blame the Boomers for the majority of the problems we have today. Gen-Z looks warily on Gen-X. I don't think they realize how apathetic this generation is. The Boomers have been the dominant force throughout our lives and we always knew there would be a day of reckoning. It was obvious to us back in the 80's that an aging Boomer generation would be a problem, we just underestimated how big of a problem it would be. Anyway, I see Gen-Z giving the Millennials the kick in the pants they need to get to work to right this ship. The work will get significantly easier as the Boomers die out.

s1artibartfast 4y ago
I agree with much of your sentiment about genZ disillusionment, but it also goes hand in hand with a lot of self sabotaging traits such as Rage, pessimism, and trained helplessness. I am concerned that some negative cultural feedback loops have been engaged. Not saying this as a way to blame, they are after all, a product of their cultural environment, but not all stories have happy endings, ours included. To be honest, it reminds me a lot of personal depression, where the natural response for most people exacerbates the problem. Once the feedback loops kick in, is very difficult to halt the progression
jfengel 4y ago
Note: as far as Gen-Z is concerned, we Gen-Xers are Boomers. Any distinction is largely irrelevant. We are only marginally less to blame for Gen-Z's problems, if at all. We weren't voting in the 1970s and 80s that really set the pattern for what we see today, but we did benefit from it and acquiesce to it. Our numbers made it harder to take the reins when it was our turn, but there are still an awful lot of Gen X-ers in Congress failing to fix anything. Maybe as the Boomers die off, we'll do something (like finally get a chance for a Gen X President). But we should not disclaim responsibility and point fingers at the Boomers, because we're complicit.

dpweb 4y ago

Well the question is how to enact real change. Too much bad food and bad media would be a start. When you look at American culture, it would be shocking if we were not unhealthy and depressed. But then, how do you do this without authoritarian measures.

tdehnel 4y ago
We significantly reduced smoking with a large ad campaign and taxes on tobacco. That would be a good start (assuming you wanted to help the most possible people to live longer healthier lives).

Llamamoe 4y ago

> I have noticed this gloomy attitude from many people my age, a sort of existential despair and belief that we sit somewhere near the end of the world as we know it. Don't we? Almost every aspect of our lives has been captured by corporate interests, wealth inequality in many nations is approaching a critical point you'd dub "wage slavery", the internet turned from a place of discovery and joy into a dead space filled with ads, ghostwritten garbage, and increasingly addictive social media walled gardens. Year by year people are lonelier and more addicted to electronics, by design. Media/news outlets are for the most part very obviously aligned with gov/corporate interests while social media are algorithmically amplifying radicalisation and outrage in order to commodify and sell what should be our private data. It's also clear that, globally, profit margins take precedence over addressing global warming, constantly declining mental and physical health, systemic issues in our society, or with COVID, even their lives- we're going to be seeing dozens of millions of people disabled by long COVID a year for who knows how long now. I think it's simply becoming very obvious to everyone that the entities that have power- governments, corporations- are guided by inhuman incentives misaligned and often directly contrary to our collective wellbeing, incentives constantly empowered by technological advancement that only they can afford to develop and deploy. It might not seem like it because it's happening so gradually and our immediate surroundings don't change as fast, but we're already basically living in a cyberpunk dystopia.