There's some other compulsion driving them and it's not money. They have more money than they could ever want and need. Plus, they live in bubbles where they only interact with their own caste -- physical and epistemic.
I really think these techbros feel they are the personification of what Nietzsche called the ubermensch. They have this compulsion of creating -- like willing something that never existed into being. Again, because of bubbles, they really bought into the hype that they are the kind of singular genius that grasps the fulcrum of history. And they have to perform geniusness, like colonizing the solar system and such because that's what geniuses do.
Technologists continue speeding ahead ever-faster to "save humanity" while leaving a wake of destruction from their other "solutions." Maybe try connecting to what actually goes on in the physical world and improve social conditions rather than exploit them for a quick payout.
The truly sad part of this latest example of techno-utopianism is that there really is a lot that can or should be done in terms of building...just not new stuff.
The US and the West in general is starting to understand the inherent issues with offshoring most of its manufacturing to China and other countries. Where is the focus, money and work going to change this problem?
I'm in the midst of attending a Climate Tech conference in Silicon Valley - what is particularly interesting is the dichotomy between 2 pavilions of expo exhibitors: the "Grand Ballroom" is replete with big fancy convention setups by huge companies either greenwashing and/or selling climate/ESG/DEI services vs. the other hall which is literally half empty; 2/3rds of the 1/2 occupied is rows of side by side 6 foot tables of climate tech startups, the other 1/3 is basically 3 groupings of also 6 foot tables but aggregated by the specific fund behind them. Going through the non-funded startups: out of 50? 60? maybe 3 were battery tech. Another 1 was tidal. Another 3 or so related to solar. Overall less than 10 were technical - engineering of some type. The rest were software and/or marketing of various flavors from AI analysis of <insert climate related theme> to incentive programs like credit card frequent flyer mile earning but for actual tree planting etc to stuff that is just plain a bad idea and/or literally unscalable: biochar.
I'll go through the "funded" startups today, but I would be highly surprised if the ratio is any different.
I GroundHog's Day recall so clearly realizing these ideas in the .com era, being part of the creative labor force as well as the Consumer Base, that so clearly now, in hindsight, were Ground Down by the sudden seeming hoards of VC roller-coasters, writing other people's money into the ground with their lofty words and empty Souls.
Then again at the housing crisis now again at the...
Previously again in the 1980s era cocaine solves everything banking boiler rooms... Yeah we don't seem to get past this learning curve very often, do we.
This time the paradigm shift of the pandemic matters. Just stopped in for a moment and don't have time to finish these thoughts because I am literally having to rebuild my entire life yet again today because of how I supported the antithesis of these ideas yesterday.
Thank you for sharing openly and truthfully and honestly, Max.
Everything and everyone is a great source of sci-fi recommendations at this point. I really do need to get back into reading in a way that won't give me migraines. {{I'm Managing Substack & Medium limits, along with Threads & Spotify, Deezer, Vevo, Pandora = Media & Lyrical Limits, etc.}}
I seem to be headed for a very large {{S€¥F¥¥}} Reconnect Reconnoitering Soon... And since {{¥}} started in '69 with the Moonshot & Star Trek OG as Beacons, I'm EXTREMELY Excited About The Actual Collective Soul Futures We Are Openly Sharing & Sourcing Together, For Each Other.
this is very interesting and i’m gonna save it to read again later but maybe it’s because i just finished “a beautifully foolish endeavor” by hank green... read his book series, this feels so much like your thing dude. specifically the second one but ya have to read the first one first.
Apparently I missed this piece when it was initially published - I would just like to commend/condemn you on your brilliant choice of composite image. Although, why no ring?
Normally when someone invents something world changing they don't need to advertise it as it "revolutionary". Never mind the fact that we now live in a world where people value specs and the perception of "experiences" rather than the actual experiences themselves or real world usage.
People would rather vlog or post about their entire holiday for their friends to see how successful they are and what they do on a "daily" (6 month old content) basis. Really ironic then that 1904 Kodak Brownies take better images than any smartphone today because of 120 film. Or better yet, Daguerreotype Cameras from 1841 (yes 1841) being able to record the highest fidelity images possible.
So much for technology. Sure you can access anything you can dream of within seconds. But most people dream of creating tiktok videos rather than creating decent art or anything useful. No wonder suicide rates are at their highest recorded levels and continue to increase every year. Tech has blinded us with the perception of progress rather than actually fundamentally changing people's lives.
Companies have created platforms to control user interaction, skills and creativity, and now most of the population is useless and skill less without a PC or electricity
Andreessen et al are going through a phase of being the American techbro parallel to Eurotrash.
Techbros are going through an existential crisis. For about 25 years, tech has been responsible for the plurality of America's economic growth, and a substantial portion of the world's. They've gotten fawning press and lifted up as geniuses and history-makers.
Around and after the pandemic, culture and economy pivoted. Inflation begat interest rate hikes, upending the financials of a tech sector that only knew how to grow but not create economic value. It turns out free money (zero to near-zero interest rates) was propping up tech and their holdings.
There is both a leftwing and rightwing backlash to tech, albeit for different reasons. Non-executive tech workers don't subscribe to the libertarian ethos of the 'bros, in fact well-compensated techies who don't have to struggle like their neighbors turned out to be "woke" and "progressive", camping firmly in the Blue Tribe, not the Grey Tribe. They are using VC money to undermine the libertarian vision and advocate for a more egalitarian and diverse vision.
The rightwing backlash is status anxiety. The term "bluecheck" as a snarlword is the quintessence of status anxiety. Then there's the accusation of censorship, some real and plausible but largely (and mostly) perceived. The rightwing worldview is wedded to the idea that conservatism cannot fail, it can only be failed. The only explanation is woke techies manipulating the algorithm like kinking a garden hose. But consider this alternate possibility: In the marketplace of ideas, liberals offer a superior product and by playing by the rules, liberals not only won but ran up the score. Liberals won culture, liberals won the economy (blue regions are more prosperous than red regions), and in academics, conservative ideas do not hold up well when pressed under scrutiny.
If it seems soi-disant libertarian techbros "turned" fashoid, they didn't. They still hold the same politics they did in the glory days. Unless you would say you underwent a political conversion recently, most likely your politics stayed the same too. It's the ground -- the reality beyond humans' agency and grasp -- that shifted, and brought the 'bros closer to the magas and populists.
Sounds like Marc hasn't made his way to Logic Pro to be the next Kevin Barnes. Combined with the goatse being removed, I think the case is made that Marc and his fellow-travelers have some gender issues to sort out.
(I assume no one involved in this nonsense has anything to do with French philosophy, as KB does?)
Almost all of the Crypto community has moved to AI including a16z. Crypto was a solution looking for a problem. The parts of AI will be beneficial and will improve productivity. However, we do not know which companies other than the few we already know will ever make a profit and open-source models are a big threat to them too. However, the training cost may limit the open source movement unless we can train with far less data and resources. If someone is just creating a wrapper around ChatGpt API, they do not have much moat. What would be the moat in the future data, model, or ability to automate the whole interaction for example I want to travel to England and I provide the parameters the whole thing is fully automated and I validate the whole thing once it is ready and approve, the APP will do everything from creating the complete itinerary to booking to keeping track of the trip in case something changes. Even in the last case, it is not something you can monopolize easily. I think the data is the key but most of it is behind the firewalls and copyright laws so we will see new kinds of jobs where people will be creating training data by coding or writing books for AI models (some companies are already hiring poets) or providing their expertise in a format that it can be used as training data.
If there is money to be made, the hype will be created like we have right now and was happening around Crypto and most people will lose money except a lucky few if it does not work out, people will move on to the next new thing for which they can create hype. Rinse and Repeat!
It’s such a weird coincidence that these people’s solution to all the world’s problems involves them getting even richer. Crazy!
There's some other compulsion driving them and it's not money. They have more money than they could ever want and need. Plus, they live in bubbles where they only interact with their own caste -- physical and epistemic.
I really think these techbros feel they are the personification of what Nietzsche called the ubermensch. They have this compulsion of creating -- like willing something that never existed into being. Again, because of bubbles, they really bought into the hype that they are the kind of singular genius that grasps the fulcrum of history. And they have to perform geniusness, like colonizing the solar system and such because that's what geniuses do.
To quote "Talking Heads" . . . "Same as it ever was" (Jobs/Gates/Zuckerberg, etc.)
Technologists continue speeding ahead ever-faster to "save humanity" while leaving a wake of destruction from their other "solutions." Maybe try connecting to what actually goes on in the physical world and improve social conditions rather than exploit them for a quick payout.
the only thing adreessen is "effectively accelerating" is the development of his increasingly bizarre and grotesque head shape
One of Andreesen’s first employees at Netscape was Jamie Zawinski. I don’t know what he thinks about e/acc or Marc these days, but I think about this post about VCs often. https://www.jwz.org/blog/2011/11/watch-a-vc-use-my-name-to-sell-a-con/
The truly sad part of this latest example of techno-utopianism is that there really is a lot that can or should be done in terms of building...just not new stuff.
The US and the West in general is starting to understand the inherent issues with offshoring most of its manufacturing to China and other countries. Where is the focus, money and work going to change this problem?
I'm in the midst of attending a Climate Tech conference in Silicon Valley - what is particularly interesting is the dichotomy between 2 pavilions of expo exhibitors: the "Grand Ballroom" is replete with big fancy convention setups by huge companies either greenwashing and/or selling climate/ESG/DEI services vs. the other hall which is literally half empty; 2/3rds of the 1/2 occupied is rows of side by side 6 foot tables of climate tech startups, the other 1/3 is basically 3 groupings of also 6 foot tables but aggregated by the specific fund behind them. Going through the non-funded startups: out of 50? 60? maybe 3 were battery tech. Another 1 was tidal. Another 3 or so related to solar. Overall less than 10 were technical - engineering of some type. The rest were software and/or marketing of various flavors from AI analysis of <insert climate related theme> to incentive programs like credit card frequent flyer mile earning but for actual tree planting etc to stuff that is just plain a bad idea and/or literally unscalable: biochar.
I'll go through the "funded" startups today, but I would be highly surprised if the ratio is any different.
I GroundHog's Day recall so clearly realizing these ideas in the .com era, being part of the creative labor force as well as the Consumer Base, that so clearly now, in hindsight, were Ground Down by the sudden seeming hoards of VC roller-coasters, writing other people's money into the ground with their lofty words and empty Souls.
Then again at the housing crisis now again at the...
Previously again in the 1980s era cocaine solves everything banking boiler rooms... Yeah we don't seem to get past this learning curve very often, do we.
This time the paradigm shift of the pandemic matters. Just stopped in for a moment and don't have time to finish these thoughts because I am literally having to rebuild my entire life yet again today because of how I supported the antithesis of these ideas yesterday.
Thank you for sharing openly and truthfully and honestly, Max.
{{SUCHReSpect}}
Shaviro!! ♡
Great source of sci-fi recommendations!!
Everything and everyone is a great source of sci-fi recommendations at this point. I really do need to get back into reading in a way that won't give me migraines. {{I'm Managing Substack & Medium limits, along with Threads & Spotify, Deezer, Vevo, Pandora = Media & Lyrical Limits, etc.}}
I seem to be headed for a very large {{S€¥F¥¥}} Reconnect Reconnoitering Soon... And since {{¥}} started in '69 with the Moonshot & Star Trek OG as Beacons, I'm EXTREMELY Excited About The Actual Collective Soul Futures We Are Openly Sharing & Sourcing Together, For Each Other.
Now.
this is very interesting and i’m gonna save it to read again later but maybe it’s because i just finished “a beautifully foolish endeavor” by hank green... read his book series, this feels so much like your thing dude. specifically the second one but ya have to read the first one first.
Apparently I missed this piece when it was initially published - I would just like to commend/condemn you on your brilliant choice of composite image. Although, why no ring?
Nick Land ended up in Shanghai rather than Singapore, didn't he?
Normally when someone invents something world changing they don't need to advertise it as it "revolutionary". Never mind the fact that we now live in a world where people value specs and the perception of "experiences" rather than the actual experiences themselves or real world usage.
People would rather vlog or post about their entire holiday for their friends to see how successful they are and what they do on a "daily" (6 month old content) basis. Really ironic then that 1904 Kodak Brownies take better images than any smartphone today because of 120 film. Or better yet, Daguerreotype Cameras from 1841 (yes 1841) being able to record the highest fidelity images possible.
So much for technology. Sure you can access anything you can dream of within seconds. But most people dream of creating tiktok videos rather than creating decent art or anything useful. No wonder suicide rates are at their highest recorded levels and continue to increase every year. Tech has blinded us with the perception of progress rather than actually fundamentally changing people's lives.
Companies have created platforms to control user interaction, skills and creativity, and now most of the population is useless and skill less without a PC or electricity
Andreessen et al are going through a phase of being the American techbro parallel to Eurotrash.
Techbros are going through an existential crisis. For about 25 years, tech has been responsible for the plurality of America's economic growth, and a substantial portion of the world's. They've gotten fawning press and lifted up as geniuses and history-makers.
Around and after the pandemic, culture and economy pivoted. Inflation begat interest rate hikes, upending the financials of a tech sector that only knew how to grow but not create economic value. It turns out free money (zero to near-zero interest rates) was propping up tech and their holdings.
There is both a leftwing and rightwing backlash to tech, albeit for different reasons. Non-executive tech workers don't subscribe to the libertarian ethos of the 'bros, in fact well-compensated techies who don't have to struggle like their neighbors turned out to be "woke" and "progressive", camping firmly in the Blue Tribe, not the Grey Tribe. They are using VC money to undermine the libertarian vision and advocate for a more egalitarian and diverse vision.
The rightwing backlash is status anxiety. The term "bluecheck" as a snarlword is the quintessence of status anxiety. Then there's the accusation of censorship, some real and plausible but largely (and mostly) perceived. The rightwing worldview is wedded to the idea that conservatism cannot fail, it can only be failed. The only explanation is woke techies manipulating the algorithm like kinking a garden hose. But consider this alternate possibility: In the marketplace of ideas, liberals offer a superior product and by playing by the rules, liberals not only won but ran up the score. Liberals won culture, liberals won the economy (blue regions are more prosperous than red regions), and in academics, conservative ideas do not hold up well when pressed under scrutiny.
If it seems soi-disant libertarian techbros "turned" fashoid, they didn't. They still hold the same politics they did in the glory days. Unless you would say you underwent a political conversion recently, most likely your politics stayed the same too. It's the ground -- the reality beyond humans' agency and grasp -- that shifted, and brought the 'bros closer to the magas and populists.
Sounds like Marc hasn't made his way to Logic Pro to be the next Kevin Barnes. Combined with the goatse being removed, I think the case is made that Marc and his fellow-travelers have some gender issues to sort out.
(I assume no one involved in this nonsense has anything to do with French philosophy, as KB does?)
Almost all of the Crypto community has moved to AI including a16z. Crypto was a solution looking for a problem. The parts of AI will be beneficial and will improve productivity. However, we do not know which companies other than the few we already know will ever make a profit and open-source models are a big threat to them too. However, the training cost may limit the open source movement unless we can train with far less data and resources. If someone is just creating a wrapper around ChatGpt API, they do not have much moat. What would be the moat in the future data, model, or ability to automate the whole interaction for example I want to travel to England and I provide the parameters the whole thing is fully automated and I validate the whole thing once it is ready and approve, the APP will do everything from creating the complete itinerary to booking to keeping track of the trip in case something changes. Even in the last case, it is not something you can monopolize easily. I think the data is the key but most of it is behind the firewalls and copyright laws so we will see new kinds of jobs where people will be creating training data by coding or writing books for AI models (some companies are already hiring poets) or providing their expertise in a format that it can be used as training data.
If there is money to be made, the hype will be created like we have right now and was happening around Crypto and most people will lose money except a lucky few if it does not work out, people will move on to the next new thing for which they can create hype. Rinse and Repeat!