[robby_w_g]

If the tech industry leaders demonstrated any amount of responsibility, accountability, or care for the general well-being of people, then I think this would instead be an exciting time for tech innovation. The enthusiasm I felt decades ago is completely gone.

[xg15]

There was a recent talk from CCC that got a bit deeper into Peter Thiel's "Antichrist" ideology and where it comes from.

The bottom line of that talk seemed even worse: That for some tech leaders, the general wellbeing of the population or "classical" arguments for progress such as improving living conditions and advancing mutual understanding aren't even orthogonal to their goals but are explicit anti-goals: Because a world with too much wellbeing and too little conflict would ostensibly lead to stagnation, loss of freedom and innovation and the state of what Thiel termed the "Antichrist".

Too much conflict is bad as well because it carries the risk of complete destruction, so they'd aim for some kind of ideal level of conflict and suffering in the world, like some sort of twisted inflation target.

[anal_reactor]

Imagine that in ten thousand years aliens actually invade Earth and try to enslave humanity. If we spend this time perfecting the art of war we'll have some chance of survival. If we spend this time just growing tomatoes, no fucking way. So yes, from the perspective of humanity as a whole, it makes sense to say that the perfect amount of war and suffering is non-zero.

> but aliens won't invade Earth

Native Americans thought the same.

[gdulli]

I'd also be excited about this technology if it had come before everything we've seen in the last 25 years. It's irresponsibly naive not to understand by now that technological advances are being used more against us than for us.

[ares623]

It’s been really disgusting watching some people I used to look up to somewhat devolve into.