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> HN drew me in years ago because it had a higher signal-to-noise ratio, and deeper conversations than you'd find in other places popular with tech nerds. There

> HN drew me in years ago because it had a higher signal-to-noise ratio, and deeper conversations than you'd find in other places popular with tech nerds. There was an overall culture of technical optimism I feel like people are much more pessimistic towards technology in general, vs. the days you're referring to. Big Tech was still "cool" then, the wealth divide wasn't as big as it is now, social media wasn't (as) toxic, and AI wasn't actively making everything worse. Nowadays, it's hard to be optimistic for how technology is progressing. People do hack away and share interesting, fun, and (often) useless projects, and those still draw less pessimistic discussion. But these are the exception, among other news of how technology is getting worse, or making things worse. So I guess my point is, it not so much that HN or the community has gotten worse, but there's just less to be excited about in tech these days.

modemNoises 24d ago
I think it's less pessimistic and more aware of its limits now and thus not as impressed When we were all younger it seemed the sky was the limit But we've gotten wiser and realize the ceiling with tech like iPhones and PS5 Hedonic treadmill just goes in a loop of experience. Consumer tech is just attention seeking codependency on the part of corporate The real cool stuff going on with tech is in domains like regenerative and longevity medicine; see Michael Levin at Tufts for truly sci fi Wolverine healing type mind blowing ideas
- imthatsteve 24d ago
  I personally still feel like the sky could be the limit, i have so many insane scifi fantasy type ideas for the future of tech but honestly i dont really want to see any of them become a reality because i know that with our current political socioeconomic system that tech would be used to abuse a large amount of people. The way i see it society is headed towards techno feudalism and the better the tech the more difficult it will be for the serfs to escape. Ive got so many crazy tech fantasies though, im actually afraid to describe them for fear of giving the ruling class more ideas.

modemNoises 24d ago

I think it's less pessimistic and more aware of its limits now and thus not as impressed When we were all younger it seemed the sky was the limit But we've gotten wiser and realize the ceiling with tech like iPhones and PS5 Hedonic treadmill just goes in a loop of experience. Consumer tech is just attention seeking codependency on the part of corporate The real cool stuff going on with tech is in domains like regenerative and longevity medicine; see Michael Levin at Tufts for truly sci fi Wolverine healing type mind blowing ideas

imthatsteve 24d ago
I personally still feel like the sky could be the limit, i have so many insane scifi fantasy type ideas for the future of tech but honestly i dont really want to see any of them become a reality because i know that with our current political socioeconomic system that tech would be used to abuse a large amount of people. The way i see it society is headed towards techno feudalism and the better the tech the more difficult it will be for the serfs to escape. Ive got so many crazy tech fantasies though, im actually afraid to describe them for fear of giving the ruling class more ideas.