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The rationale is silly, but the project itself looks interesting. No need to tie it in to civilization collapse though, an odd marketing angle really.
by hillytop 3y ago
The rationale is silly, but the project itself looks interesting. No need to tie it in to civilization collapse though, an odd marketing angle really.
- I_am_uncreative 3y agoYeah, this is an interesting project, but the author's belief that society is going to completely collapse by 2030 is... odd.
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- ethbr0 3y agoIf society doesn't collapse by 2030, who's harmed by this project existing? And if you're going to pick a date, why one over another? +7 years seems a reasonable goal to make progress towards
- CBarkleyU 3y agoBy this project? No one, probably. By this "society is doomed, the world is gonna collapse" type of thought? Many people. Loads of people for a myriad of reasons get conned into this dillusion and either (a) stripped out of their hard earned cash or (b) spiral further and further into a dillisuonal state where they either hurt themselves or people around them. Also it's effin goofy. Nerd CEOs building their underground fantasy post apocalypse shelter, thinking that not only that the society will collapse I their life time into a Fallout-ish World, but that their shelter is going to be of big help. But the goofyness is just that, it's the promotion and prophecies that are harmful.
- jacquesm 3y agoAnd at a slightly higher level: the likes of Thiel and company buying up remote property. I wonder if they have figured out how they're going to get there when they have to. In their worldview NZ is probably next door but when the lights go out getting there is going to be a serious challenge, probably much more risky than simply staying put wherever you find yourself.
- ethbr0 3y agoI'd understand if we were dedicating substantial resources to prepping... but we're not. The number of people and amount of treasure spent on it is a rounding error. Let other people have their hobbies.
- jacquesm 3y agoIt's pretty dangerous when those that are in a position to make a difference are also able to position themselves in such a way that they won't go down with the ship if they don't.
- ethbr0 3y agoThat's getting into Illuminati territory. Thiel is rich and powerful, but he isn't that rich and powerful. There are more than enough counterbalancing forces. And it starts to be way too thought policy (for me) deciding "You can't be rich and worry about civilization collapsing."
- MagicMoonlight 3y agoAnd he's removed all the updates where he said the collapse was happening and then turned out to be wrong. He's basically just another doomsday cultist.
- nullc 3y ago"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." Pretty much by definition the first people to prepare for any disaster will be people who are or at least appear to be unreasonable. We benefit from a diversity of opinions, even when some of the opinions are wrong.
- Clubber 3y agoThis cartoon always comes to mind. People have been saying this since before civilizations probably. Eventually they are right. https://dustoffthebible.com/Blog-archive/2012/05/25/the-end-is-nigh/ https://dustoffthebible.com/Blog-archive/2012/05/25/the-end-...
- BasedAnon 3y agosaying society will collapse by 2030 is more reasonable than saying people will run a niche operating system after it does. Societal collapse looks different to different people but I'd be surprised if the western world hasn't radically declined by 2050.
- tired_star_nrg 3y agoI mean we already see the issues with international supply chains failing during covid, and we haven’t even really seen the significant impacts from climate change. Yeah, most people on HN aren’t going to really need this in the next 5-10 years as we’re predominantly in locations that will be maintained the longest. What about people in countries that already barely have functioning supply chains? This could be immediately useful for them.
- hillytop 3y agoImmediately useful how exactly?
- jacquesm 3y agoVery low hardware requirements, so basic industrial control at the level where you'd otherwise use an Arduino or so but on scavenged hardware. Forth is ridiculously simple to get an implementation running. https://github.com/nornagon/jonesforth/blob/master/jonesforth.S https://github.com/nornagon/jonesforth/blob/master/jonesfort... Is a nice starting point. It's obviously not as compact as say 'Brainfuck' but it is far more versatile.
- hutzlibu 3y ago"This could be immediately useful for them." That's the thing: there are already many hackers and makers working on all kinds of ways to reuse old electronic. If they cannot really use this now - who can after a collaps?
- tired_star_nrg 3y agoSorry, I’m not following. Are you saying they are able to use this now? Or that it can’t be used now?
- hutzlibu 3y agoThe author is saying his project has only use after a collaps. I doubt this project will be useful after a collapse, if no one can make use of it today.