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Sorry if I'm straying from the topic, and I understand that we are technological beings and want to develop more and more. But I keep thinking about how much w

Sorry if I'm straying from the topic, and I understand that we are technological beings and want to develop more and more. But I keep thinking about how much we've lost control in all this. The fact that we need to spend rivers of money on energy and GPUs for LLMs, to automate our super boring daily tasks (which didn't even need to exist in the first place) says a lot about our dysfunctionality. I would trade all this paraphernalia we created for the freedom to have my small farm, grow my own food, and be happy with my family and friends, too bad that this is a very, very distant dream.

johngossman 3y ago
First, you can do this (if you have the appropriate skills). I know people who grew up off the grid, cabins built by the family, well water, outhouses, no electricity. There are whole Amish communities and communes if you want to still be around people. However, a lot of this nostalgia for a pre-technological time ignores the realities of a world without antibiotics, painkillers, modern dentistry, indoor plumbing, hot showers. It ignores infant mortality and women regularly dying in childbirth. In the modern world you can still choose to live off the grid while taking advantage of most of these things, but not if everyone does.
gumballindie 3y ago
> for the freedom to have my small farm, grow my own food, and be happy with my family and friends, too bad that this is a very, very distant dream Every now and then I bump into people on HN that have seen the light. Well let me tell you it's all doable. The tiny bubble of people that live in a non existant alternative reality is just that, a tiny bubble. I managed to escape all this nonesense, first mentally, then financially, and buy a little house where I can grow my own food - for hobby, I have plant pots in my house growing tomatoes and spring onions, doesn't work but I am learning - and be happy with family and friends. Naturally I have a very nice tech room with all the cool stuff. I am not rich, but I am free. Fun thing is you don't need to completely erase the paraphernalia. The two things are not mutually exclusive. All you need to do is have a clear mental separation of the two (tech bubble and reality) and compartmentalize the sane from the insane - an easy thing to achieve when you surround yourself with down to earth people that don't run around scared of an LLM and don't regurgitate what a marketing campaign programmed them to do. Those people are the matrix drones that don't want to be saved, and in their mind it's all or nothing - hermit or tech slave. Most normal people are watching in awe how the tech industry turns itself into the subject of ridicule. To be fair if you live in the US it's probably easier to achieve what you want. For the money I paid for a little box in the UK i'd have been able to buy a mansion there.
visarga 3y ago
it was all better when we were living in caves, didn't have most of our current problems; we lost our simple life too long ago

johngossman 3y ago

First, you can do this (if you have the appropriate skills). I know people who grew up off the grid, cabins built by the family, well water, outhouses, no electricity. There are whole Amish communities and communes if you want to still be around people. However, a lot of this nostalgia for a pre-technological time ignores the realities of a world without antibiotics, painkillers, modern dentistry, indoor plumbing, hot showers. It ignores infant mortality and women regularly dying in childbirth. In the modern world you can still choose to live off the grid while taking advantage of most of these things, but not if everyone does.

gumballindie 3y ago

> for the freedom to have my small farm, grow my own food, and be happy with my family and friends, too bad that this is a very, very distant dream Every now and then I bump into people on HN that have seen the light. Well let me tell you it's all doable. The tiny bubble of people that live in a non existant alternative reality is just that, a tiny bubble. I managed to escape all this nonesense, first mentally, then financially, and buy a little house where I can grow my own food - for hobby, I have plant pots in my house growing tomatoes and spring onions, doesn't work but I am learning - and be happy with family and friends. Naturally I have a very nice tech room with all the cool stuff. I am not rich, but I am free. Fun thing is you don't need to completely erase the paraphernalia. The two things are not mutually exclusive. All you need to do is have a clear mental separation of the two (tech bubble and reality) and compartmentalize the sane from the insane - an easy thing to achieve when you surround yourself with down to earth people that don't run around scared of an LLM and don't regurgitate what a marketing campaign programmed them to do. Those people are the matrix drones that don't want to be saved, and in their mind it's all or nothing - hermit or tech slave. Most normal people are watching in awe how the tech industry turns itself into the subject of ridicule. To be fair if you live in the US it's probably easier to achieve what you want. For the money I paid for a little box in the UK i'd have been able to buy a mansion there.

visarga 3y ago

it was all better when we were living in caves, didn't have most of our current problems; we lost our simple life too long ago