6 ms·

Ah, those beautiful times when people actually cared and believed the future will be better. I guess this is where Star Trek got the idea of "sonic showers" fr

Ah, those beautiful times when people actually cared and believed the future will be better. I guess this is where Star Trek got the idea of "sonic showers" from?

vasco 2y ago
> Ah, those beautiful times when people actually cared and believed the future will be better Thinking the future will be worse with all the available evidence is of a huge ego. How main character you have to be to think that it's just as you're alive that a trend of millenia will inverse.
- smackay 2y ago
  Technologists' very existence is based on the idea of improvement, and, as a result, making the lives of others better. Compared to other approaches, nothing has delivered quite on the same scale, though it's not without its costs.
  - vasco 2y ago
    Yep, and there's no stopping technological progress. Whoever thinks things will get worse is just being what internet investing lingo calls "gay bears" - waiting for the doom that can justify their constant state of depression and existential dread. In fact people will get upset if you don't agree with them that the world is going to shit (and prove they are smart by predicting it).
  - js8 2y ago
    I am not sure about this, but it depends on definition of "technologist". Is Gates or Musk a "technologist"? I think that social democratic movement in 20th century, and also Chinese communist government, made many people's lives better, by improving their material conditions. It often involved technology, true, but the technology is not much if it's not applied en masse. (Communist government of my home country, Czechoslovakia, had famously huge success in eradicating polio.) And I am not convinced that free market dispersal of technology is more efficient in providing it en masse than government-directed dispersal. For a striking example, watch the ending of "scientific horror story" from Angela Collier: https://youtu.be/zS7sJJB7BUI?si=rrBJPb6bHASNrPEY&t=2991 https://youtu.be/zS7sJJB7BUI?si=rrBJPb6bHASNrPEY&t=2991
  - hooverd 2y ago
    Mostly. Sometimes people will do what's good for them, externalities be damned. I like leaded gasoline as an example. It wasn't an oopsie. We know it was bad from the day it was introduced and lead producers fought to keep it known as safe.
vishnugupta 2y ago
> those beautiful times when people actually cared and believed the future will be better. David Graeber has written eloquently about this https://davidgraeber.org/articles/of-flying-cars-and-the-declining-rate-of-profit/ https://davidgraeber.org/articles/of-flying-cars-and-the-dec...
- Kuinox 2y ago
  Flying car is simply a bad idea, thats why there is none.
  - js8 2y ago
    Car (for personal transport) is also a bad idea, yet there is plenty of them.
    - Kuinox 2y ago
      Yes, it's taking ages in order to get ride of thoses in of Paris. You need to not hurt thoses who are brainwashed by cars and keep taking it despite having one of the best public transit in the world.
      - baud147258 2y ago
        I'm not sure Paris has one of the best public transit in the world or maybe that's just an indicative of the sorry state of public transit worldwide. I mean I wouldn't call world-class a system where just a single failure easily strands 1 million people halfway to their destination and where trains are delayed and cancelled routinely, often without information given to passengers. I'm in favor of more public transportation, but if you think people use car willingly in and around Paris, I don't think you've tried it; it's so bad that only people with no viable choice will use a car. Or maybe you could explain (for example) how my sister in law was supposed to carry her two baby kids to the daycare using an overcrowded metro (and bonus, through stations without working elevators) or how my brother was supposed to carry the equipment he was using to constructions sites he was working. And then you've got all the places where taking a car is a 30 min trip vs 2 hours by bus or public transportation (thankfully the Grand Paris initiatives are helping a lot there). For now, removing cars in Paris just push them around the city, because the public transportation network isn't ready.
js8 2y ago
Today, we would instead make an app that would matchmake important people, who desire to be effortlessly washed, with less-than-important people, who are willing to wash others for less than a minimum wage. It's sharing (and caring) economy! We would also call this a "minimum viable product" and promise that in some future update, the less-than-important people involved will be replaced by AI (and become even less important).

Ah, those beautiful times when people actually cared and believed the future will be better. I guess this is where Star Trek got the idea of "sonic showers" from?

vasco 2y ago

> Ah, those beautiful times when people actually cared and believed the future will be better Thinking the future will be worse with all the available evidence is of a huge ego. How main character you have to be to think that it's just as you're alive that a trend of millenia will inverse.

smackay 2y ago
Technologists' very existence is based on the idea of improvement, and, as a result, making the lives of others better. Compared to other approaches, nothing has delivered quite on the same scale, though it's not without its costs.
- vasco 2y ago
  Yep, and there's no stopping technological progress. Whoever thinks things will get worse is just being what internet investing lingo calls "gay bears" - waiting for the doom that can justify their constant state of depression and existential dread. In fact people will get upset if you don't agree with them that the world is going to shit (and prove they are smart by predicting it).
- js8 2y ago
  I am not sure about this, but it depends on definition of "technologist". Is Gates or Musk a "technologist"? I think that social democratic movement in 20th century, and also Chinese communist government, made many people's lives better, by improving their material conditions. It often involved technology, true, but the technology is not much if it's not applied en masse. (Communist government of my home country, Czechoslovakia, had famously huge success in eradicating polio.) And I am not convinced that free market dispersal of technology is more efficient in providing it en masse than government-directed dispersal. For a striking example, watch the ending of "scientific horror story" from Angela Collier: https://youtu.be/zS7sJJB7BUI?si=rrBJPb6bHASNrPEY&t=2991 https://youtu.be/zS7sJJB7BUI?si=rrBJPb6bHASNrPEY&t=2991
- hooverd 2y ago
  Mostly. Sometimes people will do what's good for them, externalities be damned. I like leaded gasoline as an example. It wasn't an oopsie. We know it was bad from the day it was introduced and lead producers fought to keep it known as safe.

vishnugupta 2y ago

> those beautiful times when people actually cared and believed the future will be better. David Graeber has written eloquently about this https://davidgraeber.org/articles/of-flying-cars-and-the-declining-rate-of-profit/ https://davidgraeber.org/articles/of-flying-cars-and-the-dec...

Kuinox 2y ago
Flying car is simply a bad idea, thats why there is none.
- js8 2y ago
  Car (for personal transport) is also a bad idea, yet there is plenty of them.
  - Kuinox 2y ago
    Yes, it's taking ages in order to get ride of thoses in of Paris. You need to not hurt thoses who are brainwashed by cars and keep taking it despite having one of the best public transit in the world.
    - baud147258 2y ago
      I'm not sure Paris has one of the best public transit in the world or maybe that's just an indicative of the sorry state of public transit worldwide. I mean I wouldn't call world-class a system where just a single failure easily strands 1 million people halfway to their destination and where trains are delayed and cancelled routinely, often without information given to passengers. I'm in favor of more public transportation, but if you think people use car willingly in and around Paris, I don't think you've tried it; it's so bad that only people with no viable choice will use a car. Or maybe you could explain (for example) how my sister in law was supposed to carry her two baby kids to the daycare using an overcrowded metro (and bonus, through stations without working elevators) or how my brother was supposed to carry the equipment he was using to constructions sites he was working. And then you've got all the places where taking a car is a 30 min trip vs 2 hours by bus or public transportation (thankfully the Grand Paris initiatives are helping a lot there). For now, removing cars in Paris just push them around the city, because the public transportation network isn't ready.

js8 2y ago

Today, we would instead make an app that would matchmake important people, who desire to be effortlessly washed, with less-than-important people, who are willing to wash others for less than a minimum wage. It's sharing (and caring) economy! We would also call this a "minimum viable product" and promise that in some future update, the less-than-important people involved will be replaced by AI (and become even less important).