Election 2024: The Fate of Democracy

303abuser · 23 Jan

Hursty Unless we come up with a tech solution that doesn’t currently exist (and that is possible I’d guess), it’s when, not if. Governments and their corporate overlords are doing nothing to solve the climate problems. AI is going to cause massive economic disruption in the near to medium term, climate refugees are going to be a thing, food shortages will undoubtedly occur, and there’s no plan to mitigate any of it.

Like I said, we’re fucked. Hopefully not in our lifetimes, but that’s not a guarantee.

OOld-Dutch · 23 Jan

Coronavirus 2 will solve a lot of this

Smallman1 · 23 Jan

303abuser Like I said, we’re fucked. Hopefully not in our lifetimes, but that’s not a guarantee.

Chin up 303!

303abuser · 23 Jan

Smallman1 I’d assume most of us here on on the good side of the economic curve, we should mostly be fine. It’s definitely one of the reasons we chose not to have kids though.

Hursty · 23 Jan

Do you genuinely believe the world is fucked and we are imminently going to be doomed forever?

Does sound like pure hyperbole to scare the masses

303abuser · 23 Jan

There are obviously degrees of fucked. I don’t know about doomed forever, but clearly both climate change and AI are potential existential threats. How likely is that? I’m not sure anyone knows.

Given how we handled covid from a societal perspective, we don’t exactly seem positioned to deal with either short or long term threats in a coherent manner. Humans do well with immediate consequences, latent impacts just don’t move the needle on our behaviour.

OOld-Dutch · 23 Jan

That’s exactly the reason I had kids. So I can laugh at the shit they’re facing

RichM · 23 Jan

Old-Dutch not if we wear our masks

Smallman1 · 23 Jan

Old-Dutch That’s exactly the reason I had kids. So I can laugh at the shit they’re facing

Lol!

Hursty · 23 Jan

303abuser fair enough

I think we are just experiencing the transitional period of the digital revolution so everything seems a bit crazy like it did for those who witnessed the agricultural or industrial revolutions

Revolutions take decades and although the digital one will most likely be quicker, it will take time to achieve some resemblance of equilibrium

303abuser · 23 Jan

That’s all true and it will be quicker. The difference is not only the pace of change, but that with exponential tech growth, the pace of change is only going to increase, which is extremely destabilizing. And we’ve never had such widespread and pervasive misinformation governed by a handful of people. This is like nothing humanity has experienced and we frankly have no idea what we’re doing. We’re smart enough to make a mess of things, but not smart enough to plan ahead or actually fix anything.

alistair · 23 Jan

Governments wetting themselves with excitement over AI. It doesn’t seem to have dawned on any of them that it threatens to eat their future tax base whole. Absolutely needs to be properly regulated. It also requires loads of data centres with huge carbon footprints

Hursty · 23 Jan

303abuser are you optimistic about anything for the future regarding humankind? I think it’s human nature to look back at the good old days and usually there is some fear attached to the future due to the unknown

Most likely we will get more of the same stories that have played out across history, but whether you take an optimistic or pessimistic view is personal choice

Millsy · 23 Jan

Hursty bringing the much needed sunshine here. I feel cleansed and ready to face the future with a renewed vavavoom x

303abuser · 23 Jan

Hursty I’ve always considered myself more of a realist than leaning toward serious pessimism or optimism. Not sure if that’s an accurate assessment, but here we are.

Covid really changed my view on both individuals and society as a whole. I always assumed that people would come together and work toward a common goal when faced with crisis. All we got was more division, ignorance, and an increasingly fractured society. We have access to all of the information and technology we need to be abundantly successful, but social media and corporate greed seem to be working very effectively in the opposite direction.

Humans seem to be pretty resilient, so we’ll probably survive, just in much smaller numbers. Can AI solve some of this? Maybe? Do I think people are going to willingly give up power and wealth for a better common good? Absolutely not.

And to be clear, I’m not looking back, I’m looking forward. We live in the safest time in human history. The average person lives with wealth and resources beyond kings from 500 years ago. I’m well aware of where we are, I just don’t like the direction things are going.

Mad_Cyril · 23 Jan

Millsy
Hursty will be laughing at everyone from Mars when his bingobongocoin coin stock takes off

Hursty · 23 Jan

Mad_Cyril Its called Microstrategy MC

Mad_Cyril · 23 Jan

Hursty my man

C_J · 23 Jan

303abuser We have access to all of the information and technology we need to be abundantly successful, but social media and corporate greed seem to be working very effectively in the opposite direction.

An interesting point, and one addressed by Yuval Noah Harari in his latest book Nexus.

I won’t attempt to do justice to his thinking here, other than to mention it’s apparently to do with how an increase in the amount of information in a network can often lead to worse outcomes due to a disruption in the balance between “truth” (an accurate representation of reality) and “order” (a stable social structure).

Or something.

bosstrabs · 23 Jan

Smallman1 Someone’s getting an invite!

What’s the most grimly depressing thing on Jaded Clubbers?

Hugo attempting a bants
Homegrove upbraiding someone for being anti-trans
When you see Amps has posted more Twitter bilge?

Genuinely not sure.