How Tech Bros Get Sci-Fi Wrong
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- Опубліковано 29 тра 2024
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Are tech bros’ favorite books inadvertently destroying our future?
What do people like Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg have in common? Along with using technology to make all the money in the world, they also love sci-fi books. But what if this wholesome love of literature is actually problematic fanfic that’s reshaping the future of reality itself? Let’s find out in this Wisecrack Edition: How Tech Bros Get Sci-Fi So Wrong.
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00:00 - Intro
02:09 - Sci-Fi and its Influence
06:53 - When Great Works Are Read Wrong
12:14 - Conclusion
Written by Dean Varga
Hosted by Michael Burns
Directed by Michael Luxemburg
Edited by Kim Su Labby
Motion Graphics by Benji Dunaief
Produced by Olivia Redden
Additional production assistance by Griffin Davis and Matias Rubio
Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound
#TechBros #Crypto #Metaverse
© 2022 Wisecrack / Omnia Media, Inc. / Enthusiast Gaming
What sci-fi tech do you want to have in real life?
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AI-reguated direct democracy.
Time travel so we can prevent a lot of the trouble we are experiencing now!
Not tech, but the result of tech taking away jobs (and as a result, opportunities for human beings) in the world of The Expanse
How on earth is Elon Musk a "tech-bro"? He is a big fraud!!!
The one that is the last "helping verb."
Picard: We got rid of money. Everyone is working together for the betterment of society.
Jeff Bezos: Cool. A society where everybody works for me but I don't have to pay them.
LMAO this was my first reaction to Bazos saying Star Trek is his favorite show of all time
Musk et al are Fountainhead Fascists, what they won't say is that what really turned them on was Ayn Rand.
Considering how he treats his employee. I highly doubt he got the meaning of Star Trek. I bet he only watched it for fight scenes.
That's Bald King Jeff, for you; it took him 3 season of financing the Expanse before he may have gotten the actual point of the show. 😂 😭 The bastard killed my favorite show...
Also Bezos has more in common with Lex Luthor than with Jean-Luc Picard.
Sci-Fi Author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale
Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus
I watched the whole video waiting for him to quote this and..nothing...really surprised this wasn't what they led it with.
Writers: It’s a warning!
Rich people: So, it’s my destiny, I see
Writers: That’s not what I said
Silicon Valley: Rip to your dystopia I guess, I'm built different
If we are going to have all the shitty corporate parts of mid-80s cyberpunk novels, can we at least make neon mohawks, mirrored shades, and black trench coats cool again? The least we can do have the aesthetics
It's inevitable as soon as we get cybernetic upgrades, if not a bit sooner lol
Go ahead then, someone needs to be the trendsetter
@@Christopher-md7tf already on it in regards to the long coats
Oh hell yeah! I am all for it
@@justbny9278 quggg hgv c123455e tree ute qu were upstream kit bvb j pic. The drive while driving
Company Town: **Existed and failed**
Zuck: "What if we made a Company Town online?"
Elongated Muskrat: "What if we made a Company Town on Mars?"
Beezos: "What if we made a Company Slave Town?"
The company town failed the worker, but profited the capitalist.
disneyworld, bay lake FL
They didn't fail though... They are still a thing... What's bitcoin and company based nfts other than flashy volotile script?
@@treetheoak8313 i dont know enough about nfts to comment. All i know is that its too risky to invest in them so its not worth it
@@civilengineer3349 I recommend Folding Ideas' "Line goes up" video on NFTs, it's enlightening. Suffice it to say, you're wise to stay away.
I just love how Bezos is such a big fan of The Expanse that he resurrected it on Prime after it was canceled. Y'know, the show with four whole seasons about how self-important billionaires and greedy corporations will ruin space for everyone, and another two seasons about how treating the working class like shit has disastrous consequences and you should just let people unionize.
I'm sure he got a big laugh out of it
The disconnect is unreal
He also has the Boys on his streaming like what?
Imagine Jeff Bezos identifying with Picard when he's clearly, _obviously_ the Grand Nagus. Wait, no. That's not accurate. The Grand Nagus was redeemable.
he's like if a Grand Nagus got Borg Queen'd
It's like how Musk read Flowers for Algernon and thought Daniel Keyes simply didn't unsterstand the power of abusing animals
O
M
G
XD
Flowers for Algernon is a great reference - it’s like any gains there are going to have to rely on unintended advances
Omfg flowers for Algernon. I haven’t heard that since middle school. I HAD TO READ IT FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL
@@salvatoreocello same bro that was a trip hearing that again sheesg
He also burchers Carl Sagan
The problem isn't that billionaires don't get the moral messages of these scifi works. It's that a person with the proper moral judgment to correctly interpret these works would never become a billionaire. Good moral judgment and hoarding massive amounts of wealth are inherently mutually exclusive.
At the same time, it's almost an impossible coincidence to be born in a cradle with a silver spoon and be educated with the proper moral judgment, because the wealthy family ethos and the privileged life almost invariably does not lead to a good building of character.
As a pedagogue I have reflected a bit on the education of the wealthy and the situation is not very flattering or hopeful.
@@michiel_rensen Please just grow up. Please. I'm begging you.
@@michiel_rensen Ah yes, I heard Amazon's truck drivers have been experiencing the benefits of 'trickle down'
@@vertexedgeface3141 When you miss the bottle and feel the trickle down your leg?
i guess no rich person ever worked hard for their money, they should just live in poverty right?
My favorite Picard quote comes from the first season of Picard, "To say you have no choice (in War or elsewhere) is a failure of imagination." There are always choices to be made and we have to make sure as many of us survive the coming difficulties as possible.
👏👏👏👏👏
I always hated people using "I didin't have a choice" has an excuse.
Many times the choices are made long before the options are understood.
they don't get it wrong, the thing is, when they watch sci-fi, they imagine themselves as the CEO/emperors of any of the corporations/empires destroying the world in sci-fi stories, they see the heroes of dystopic media the same way they see their workers, the rebels in star wars are the equivalent of a union messing with their 0,3% growth in the first semester.
They see a story that says "This is a small, shining part of existence untouched by corporate overreach, and people want to be in that" and think "Then that's the part that I need to make sure me and my company control" - Nothing about the human component, nothing about what the story is saying about how people struggled against these corporations or the actual ethics of the un-capitalised spaces. Just a thing that they want to control.
That's why 1984 is a how to guide, not a critique.
So, the Black Mirror episode about the Star Trek obsessed tech developer is more accurate than I realized
The Tech Bros may not have failed at all to understand the critique of "Snow Crash". In fact, it is unlikely, because if it doesn't represent a blueprint for precisely the sort of dystopian society these latent misanthropes desire; it most certainly provides a foundation for it.
First, as a writer, I have made the same consideration William Gibson has made (or at least I try to be careful on the topics I will write about).
Second, I think that what's going on in the heads of these tech bros, as they seemingly misinterpret texts, is an extension of the exceptionalist ideas so rife in the US mixed with the egocentric individualism that pervades the western world. In their prideful minds full of egolatry, I believe, they read these cautionary tales and read "I'm so exceptional and out of the norm (because look at the proof that is my success!) that if I try this idea that went wrong in this book, since now I know why it went wrong, my own version won't go wrong, because I have the vision".
I think you hit the nail on the head. It's kind of interesting how each of these guys act almost as foils to the ideas they are supposedly trying to imitate.
But here is the thing who's to say the writers are correct about these futuristic ideas and worlds. A writer simply cannot comprehend the incentives and consequences of the future because that task is just too difficult. Plus someone can like a character but yet be different in their ideas. At the end of the day a book is just an idea and people can read it and it is up to them if they take on those ideas or not. Don't put someone down because they don't agree with you
@@michiel_rensen This is the second horrible comment of yours that I've seen in this comment section, and at this point I can only assume you're trolling.
Almost like they’re simply trying to be “more exceptional” than the exceptional fictional figureheads
@@TheChickenRiceBowl Am I not allowed to have my own opinion?
How did these multibillionaire technofascists all enjoy Star Trek without realizing none of them would exist in the ST universe?
That have absolutely no level of self-awareness whatsoever.
@@SeanStrife that's a mistake in my view. yes, the average propagandized loon will have no awareness or if they do will reject it. when your creating propaganda, or directing it to be created on your behalf, your not only in such a position to view everything, but then to pick and choose what get's seen by others. this mean's your awareness is heightened in fact, to make sure the plan is carried out the way you want it. i think in fact these people are less aware then the people actually carrying out their vision, but more aware than the average person. that's why they constantly and consistently rant about communism, while the average person has little to no understanding of the term ( and what billionare's know about communism is also little to no understanding, because if they did, they would cease to be billionaires).
and as many people have pointed out, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, because that's when your over confident.
TLDR: they enjoyed certain part's of the play, without grasping the real philosophical or political dilemma's the show grasped with. further, they either by mistake or by intention misconstrued the philosophical dilemma's as somehow technical dilemma's, or scientific dilemma's. this is why there so into tech, in thinking that tech will solve these dilemmas.
but the whole point of these show's was not to showcase the shiny tech, or talk about this scientific fact's or some such, but to explore the philosophical and political tension's that accompany them, and that even in a world were a lot of the philosophical and political kink's if you will have been ironed out, there is still going to be deeper truth's and conflict's that mankind is going to have to grapple with.
PPS: big shiny toy go BRRRRRR.
further, it's isn't that they aren't interested in these big topic's. to misconstrue and to avoid and mislead so many people over such a time take's so much work and effort and study, that you have to largely imitate large portion's of it, while making sure people come to the same conclusion's that you did.
more than anything else, these facist's as you point out, have to constantly fight against communism not because they misunderstand it, but because they do understand it to a certain degree, completely disagree with it and the implication's it has for their empire, and constantly seek to undermine it at every turn.
PPPS: they want all of the fun, health, science and progress that communism offer's, without ever giving up the power, manipulation, control and malice that come's with capitalism. thus fascism.
This has been the problem of the cyberpunk genre from the outset: while authors are cognizant of the problems of the world they have built, fans seem to be willfully ignorant of those issues in favor of the outlandish aesthetic. That that genre never gave way to one of cyberutopia or even cyberdemocracy is telling of its viewership - that in aggregate they see no rhyme or reason to resolve the problems of the worlds built by the likes of Neal Stephenson, William Gibson, or Bruce Sterling. Most of the fans envision themselves some Johnny Mnemonic or Hiro Protagonist instead of making such characters and their tropes superfluous and irrelevant. We need fiction to hope towards that actually wants a better world.
No, we don't. A world without conflict is arguably a nice thing to have in the real world, but also quite boring. Fiction's primary role is entertainment, and boring entertainment doesn't resonate with anyone.
@@Lilliathi And when they found our shadows
Grouped round the tv sets
They ran down every lead
They repeated every test
They checked out all the data on their list
And then the alien anthropologist
Admitted they were still perplexed
But on eliminating every other reason
For our sad demise
They logged the only explanation left
This species has amused itself to death
-Roger Waters
@@Lilliathi I'm sorry but you can have conflicts in utopias. Check out The Culture series by Iain Banks.
My point is simply that those relishing in cyberpunk aesthetics are trapped by those aesthetics. They pigeonhole themselves.
@@rodylermglez
Nice, but doesn't actually fit what we're talking about.
@@race8624
Not exactly a utopia if it has meaningful conflict, is it? I think you're being over-dramatic here. Who says people are trapped?
Am I trapped in the dark ages if I enjoy fiction about knights?
I love how Zuck and the entire Meta exec and RnD teams are apparently totally unaware that furries on VR chat are lightyears ahead of them, and that NOTHING is slowing those mfs down.
Yeah when the media went all berserk I was like: isn't this just corporate VRChat?
I wonder why there are no Charlie goes to Candy Mountain memes. Since Zuckerberg is literalily Candy Mountain in German.
I think the R&D teams knew but decided it was above their pay grade
All the tech bros have much more in common with the Ferengi than they do with the Federation.
Actually I would trust a ferengi over a tech billionaire any day.
Funny how some of the most powerful people in the world completely miss the point of a sci-fi book they read as a kid
When your fantasy of being a good person despite all of the things you have done to get where you are relies on misunderstanding, you'll put in a huge amount of legwork to carefully misunderstand it. All the dinguses trying to grift their next few billion off the Metaverse work very hard to tell themselves they're Hiro Protagonist because the alternative is admitting they're L Bob Rife.
Maybe that's the thing. I don't think a kid will get the nuances or any criticism in those stories.
Its probably what made they get where they are now though, a blind missguided conviction that convinces enough poeple to make it work. Those of us who understands the complexity are the ones that never even try, unfortunately. Probably because most of us actually care about people and the planet, those who don`t really thrive under capitalism.
I think it's perfectly fine to miss the underlying themes as a kid I certainly never picked up the strong facist overtones of the empire in Star Wars as kid. The difference is that most people start to understand these themes as they grow older and how they're bad, billionaires see it as a blueprint.
As Alex Blechman famously tweeted:
Sci-Fi Author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale.
Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel "Don't Create The Torment Nexus".
First sci-fi film was 1929?? I know you say "arguably," but like... no. Just no.
"A Trip to the Moon" in 1902 might be the first narrative movie, and it's full-blown sci-fi. Space flight, aliens, the whole shabang.
Heck, Fritz Lang (who directed your 1929 pick) previously had Metropolis, a futuristic dystopia about a robot.
Made sure someone else pointed this out before I made the comment, ha!
There are some early films where arguably the are adventure stories with a thin layer of technology to justify the adventure, rather than full sci-fi where the technology is the point and exploring the society that makes it is the narrative, but missing Metropolis is pretty wild considering that it literally set the template for decades of sci-fi and is still being referenced today.
The first ever tangible Sci-Fi was writen by Lucian of Samosata around 1800 years ago. Has space travel and everything. Check it out.
People will always take what they want from what they read. It's more important to teach the skills required to understand the message than to censor any critiques we can make about society. Otherwise, there's no hope of modifying what is being critiqued.
Jeff Bezos: Says he idolizes captain Picard.
Me: Yet I feel Picard would probably condem many of your atitudes, like the way your company seems to treat their employees. Just saying... Just saying.
Then there's the episode where they defrost a wealthy businessman, a homemaker and a music star. Picard literally tells the businessman that his investments don't exist anymore and he doesn't need them.
He meant he idolizes how Picard can be bald and confident.
@@DrTssha Yes. I really wonder what the hell these guys like about ST other than maybe the asthetic and some very superficial stuff, because you'd think they'd hate it considering the actual substance of the show.
Can’t wait until one of them reads Dune and states it as a inspiration for their new eugenics program.
Imagine reading Snow Crash and going "Man, I really look up to the hero in that book- I want to be more like L. Bob Rife."
Jeff bezos is also a big fan of the TV show :The Expanse.
So much of a big fan that he saved the show and gave it 3 extra seasons after syfy cancelled the show.
The thing that always bother’s me about people citing Asimov’s work as an inspiration is that the discussion seems very surface level. His ideas about the Foundation and Three laws of robotics are a starting point; not an end. In the robot series Asimov deconstructs, critiques, and explores all of the boundaries and problems with the Three Laws so extensively that he shows many ways in which they are flawed.
And the Foundation sounds like a wonderful idea, but the plot of the novels shows the complications of the Foundation as an institution and often criticizes them. The rise of the Mule occurs because his powers allow him invalidate one of the fundamental principals of Seldon’s Psychohistory that the Foundation reveres. It is like someone taking the premise for a story and treating it as the final message while ignoring the ways the author explores that premise later.
Funny how none of the tech billionaires say they were inspired by the one sci-fi they all seem to follow religiously without even knowing it. Blade Runner.
These guys don’t realize that they’re the bad guys in sci fi novels
That might only make them Hornier
I think they do
I am convinced all Tech Bros read sci-fi and think to themselves. "The protagonist should really let Corpo McBadguy do what he wants. Everything would work out perfectly for him. I'll try to do this and it'll work out great because I'm so smart!"
The thing with Meta really tickles me because I bet you in the pitch meeting Zuckerburg said "OK so we're going to make the Metaverse from Snow Crash, but make it a burbclave so we have all the control. Why give people an escape that won't make us money?"
Star Trek to me was interesting because it wanted to make people better. The "Tech Bros" only want to claim that future for themselves. But it can't exist unless it's shared with everyone.
Bold of you to assume these tech bros view us as humans...
Ayy lmao.
They ignore the warnings for the money and wonder why people get upset when they introduce products.
Also, Snow Crash isn't a perfect metaphor for corpo towns- while some burbclaves had live-work relationships, Hiro and the other characters tend to have employment unrelated to their housing situations. Hiro at the beginning lived in Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong while working for the Italians. While the two were allied through the book, the book drops several hints that Mr. Lee and the Mafia might come to blows in the future, so it's not a "One big happy family" situation.
Space exploration and colonization is not a bad idea in terms of continuing humanity but our current political And economic leaders don't care about longevity and only want short term profits
Huh, seems like we are more similar to the Ferengi than the Federation.
Bezos thinks of himself as a Picard.
But we all know he's just dumber Lex Luthor.
The future used to be something we looked forward to
I appreciate William Gibson for not writing about some ideas more than can be expressed.
I think the assertion made about Elon Musk's (incorrect) perspective on Foundation is a great example of just how people with negative traits twist things to their own ends, I think we see this as well in the business world with some things Milton Friedman said. about business being concerned with bottom line and investors versus sustainability, ethics, and duty to client (consumers).
Milton Friedman's line absolutely demolishing the parasitic practice of landlordism is famously used by BTL investments trying to encourage people to become landlords. Hell, Adam Smith the father of capitalism looks more like a social democrat than ever compared to the manic moneylovers that espouse their adoration for him
Yeah im glad more people are cottoning on to friedman and neoliberalism at large. The things that these ideas have unleashed can be found within almost every problem we have in the west today. Shareholder profit maximisation especially as you say! Scary stuff!!
I'm someone who works in tech (though not working for a big company) and I love fiction (though not sci-fi in particular). It's always my belief that tech shouldn't be the end but merely the means, but these people imagine an egoistic dystopia as their ultimate goal, devoid of the human aspect. It makes me sick whenever people ask me "Don't you want to be successful in this field?" and all I can think of is these Big Techs committing all the worst atrocities possible in this modern world. This wasn't exactly what I thought I signed up for.
If you guys like Star Trek, you definitely need to watch Deep Space Nine which takes the time to break down and critically analyze the idealism previous Trek shows set up
I didn't think I would like DS9 but now it's probably one of my favorite ST series lol so much to like; I like The Sisko and Jake's relationship, as well as Nog and Roms. Love the Bajorans haha I could go on
DS9 is the most American of the Treks, next to the Abrams ones. By that I mean they're pretty Neoconservative in their politics.
DS9 is probably the best Trek series. It’s easily my favorite.
They touch on a lot of really deep subjects (see the one episode where Sisko is a writer)
I couldn't get through all of it so I just pulled up a list of must watch episodes and went through it that way. The dominion war arc is pretty good
DS9 pisses me off exactly because it is so proud of itself for this ostensible achievement. Most of the time, the stories are so strawmanned and hackneyed, that the point only works if you haven’t been paying attention to the material it tries to deconstruct.
I loved this video but I honestly don't think that our tech overlords miss the point. I think that they know that these ideas will create the dystopias that these books warn about but want to create those even worse versions of our already very hard world in order to keep their power and increase it
I've always asumed they took inspiration from the corporate villains in scifi
There should be a rule against mentioning Metaverse without mentioning the well known things that procede it by years or decades, so that people living under a rock don't get excited about it and give it attention. Like VR chat, Second Life, and so on.
I love how they are not scared to publicly show how much they are into Star Trek. Yet I have not heard them say anything about URSULA LE. GUIN. MY QUEEN OF SCI-FI.
part of it is that she was niche even during their era, star trek was more popular in general. also, for these guy's leninism is far easier to pin down and emulate than anarchism. also, leninism and the soviet union play into the "great man" shell game they want to play, versus her anarchism that would castigate everything they stand for and believe.
these guy's want to be challenged, not dismantled.
it take's a different sort of person to completely go against every single thing they were taught as a kid, publicly and with no remorse or guilt. this is ultimately why they love fascism, because it take's some of the cool idea's and style of anticapitalist thought, keeping the core of the state and capitalism, and they get to be the agent of change they so desperately crave, yet ultimately not going through the pain and suffering it take's to really examine society and it's flaw's. that's ultimately why their "solution's" to our problem's are superficial at best, and completely ineffective at worst, because if they were to truly look at society and all of it's flaw's, it would lead right back to not only them, but the very people who raised them, their parent's.
and these guy's, who's entire identity/beliefs/style/actions/thought's/doubt's and leisure activities are entirely based on being the "special" son's of "special" people, cannot ever really come to term's with that, without jeopardizing that. and they both subconsciously and consciously chose their "privilege's" as "elites" over any sort of belief in the truth, over empirical reality, or in any sense of altruism, or discovery. that's why both postmodernism and fascism resonate's with them so much, because they really do believe that in the end, power triumph's over truth.
TLDR: fascist's and other right winger's not only know how unpopular they are, but also desperately crave that popularity/community. that's why they have to hide their beliefs in other work's, in other type's of media, and why they try to copt both leftist space's, but leftist media. it's a sort of double speech that come's easily to liar's and conmen, trying to portray their predation as, if not noble/exemplary/virtuous, as either inevitable or necessary. that's why the Gen X and beyond capitalist's hide their true belief's, if not behind lefty media, at least behind moderate media. it's a pretty incompetent fascist that portrays it on it's face, which is why you saw so many capitalist's hating on trump, because he gave the game away.
9:00 They aren’t missing the point, they’re specifically using their inspirations to make themselves the people with the control in these dystopian stories
It reminds me of the famous saying that it's impossible to make an anti-war film, because people will interpret it as pro-war.
(I don't remember the exact quote, but apparently it's from Roger Ebert paraphrasing Francois Truffaut.)
Starship troopers?
@@SerifSansSerif a good example
This whole video reminded me of watching one of the special features/extras on the Scarface DVD where gangsta rappers completely miss the point of the movie and gush about how much they idolize Tony Montana
Bezos' favorite part of Star trek is "The Rules Acquisition". He sees himself as the Grand Negus.
The ego to think that we can start over on a new planet and not make the same mistakes again…
Agreed. I'm not against space colonization but unless we change The system and get away from exploitative capitalism, we will just keep repeating history
Why do you have so little faith in humanity? Just watch the news: The media and the war-horny-politicians have been screaming about WW3 and you know what's happened? Not WW3. The world overwhelming united to tell Putin to eat our collective asses, the outpouring of aid and compassion has been almost overwhelming. A) countries taking in refugees B) I read about people spending $2 million for AirBnb in Ukraine that people can't ever go to just to give money to Ukrainians C) Ukrainian treatment of Russian soldiers has been exemplary, etc. Just because something happened in the past doesn't guarantee it happens that way in the past...Elon has hope for something better, that drives him, you're sad and depressed which is why you're at home sitting behind a computer whining.
@@jonathanmulondo9206 Yeah...i'm sure trying socialism in yet another place, Mars, will definitely not repeat the disastrous consequences it's had in every country it's been tried.
@@hermaeusmora2945 you put Too much faith in people like Elon Musk.
@@jonathanmulondo9206 Nope. I only put the amount of faith in Elon Musk that he has earned via his actions.
Gotta get Octavia Butler on their reading lists 👀👀
Walter Mosley, Colson Whitehead, Nalo Hopkinson, ANYTHING not so alabaster.
Strange, why none of them is a fan of George Orwell?
I thought all these things were just obvious. I really hope they see that like especially in snow crash ... lol
How has Wisecrack not reviewed “The Expanse” yet?
its real nit-picky, but I think its pretty clear they havent read foundation. Seldon didn't establish the foundations to create a new society, but protect the existing society and accumulation of knowledge from the impending era of barbarism. The goal was to minimize the unavoidable dark age in duration. And the foundations were not exactly a narrative about privatization due to the foundations effectively being government center (spoilers for second foundation).
People can read without taking away any knowledge. If they read it is irrelevant, it wouldn't change anything.
I believe in the overall point: it DOES make a difference when the general discourse no longer idolizes these oligarchs. When public opinion starts seeing these people for their long-term consequences, change can begin.
I wonder if Zuckerberg would watch some of the social media and metaverse focused episodes of Black Mirror (like 15 Million Merits, White Christmas, or Nosedive) and think they were just joyful slice of life stories.
Wait, you missed the opportunity to cite Musks love for Bank's Culture?
The pessimist in me just thinks these billionaires are not taking the wrong message but rather looking at the books as a how to guide and what not to do.
Funny that you mention it. I recently learned that anarchism at first was the anti-centalist movement of socialism, centralist being communists, with the idea to shape progress to benefit all people instead of being ruled by innovation and truding along. I for my part do think that we, as lowly workers and citizens, need to take back initative on these issues and form the world for us. Not getting pushed into dystopian climate hellholes, automated to the point of most of us being useless seems likea pretty good idea. If we could get rid of nukes and the systems owning them in the progress, in light of recent events I feel like we would do ourselfs a favour or 15000 as well. This whole thing is not black vs. white, socialist vs capitalist or anything. It´s poor against rich. It´s a class war. All the way down to the most urgent problems our societies have.
I find myself agreeing with a lot of what you say except for the nukes part. It seems to me like nukes were vital in stopping ww2 when it was and keeping ww3 from coming around yet. If warmongers the world over were able to just constantly throw soldiers and smaller war machines around without the risk of consequences as damning as nukes, do you really think they would have slowed down as much as they have on all their warmongering? I personally can't see it at least.
Great stuff Michael, your videos are why I'm subbed to this channel
Every day we feel closer to Warhammer 40k than Star Trek in the worst possible way.
Musk could definitely be criticised for many things, but one thing he's been pretty clear about and is constantly miss attributed is the whole king of the Mars colony thing.
Even at the best case scenario, a Mars colony would be a tough and dangerous place for the best and bravest of humanity to spend their life at for way more than musks life expectancy.
He could always buy a few islands and live in heaven on earth, he doesn't need any other planets for that. I actually belive his Marsian colony ideal is a genuine act for human kind.
Someone needs to write a compelling story about a Dyson Sphere and show it to them
So I'll just address the sort of last question. "Is there anything that can be done?"
Yes, there is and we are doing it. Having the conversation. That's all we can really do as the individuals watching this video. Unless you happen to be one of the engineers writing the code for one of these tech monoliths in a unique position to steer the course of how this tech unfolds then all we can do is talk about it. Right now sooooooo many people are users and consumers of the tech created by the people you've talked about in this video but sooooooo few of us understand even the first thing about it. Not because it's too difficult for the "average" person to understand but because it's niche, technical, and a well-guarded secret.
For now, all we need to do is talk about it. Try to understand it. Public opinion matters, public perception of an issue matters. Maybe you don't understand machine learning code that funnels a man into increasingly hysterical world views, but you can understand that a secret algorithm that decides what content is best for you is a fundamental violation of trust that undermines your free will as a human being. So let's talk about it. We can take the complex and distill it into relatable human concepts because at the end of the day that's what we are. Humans, not quantum computing devices consuming raw input. Keep up the good work Wisecrack.
yes, talking about it is great, but some people are ready for more. some people have been talking about for decade's, and fewer have actually been living it as well.
and i do think that's the crux of it, not only talking about how this suck's and how there is an alternative, but then actually going out and BUILDING that alternative. but many people are scared of doing so, precisely because that's what our system is designed to do, not only to make sure your doubtful about any real alternative to it, but making sure that whoever start's building an alternative to it, will never get to see the end alternative, and will burn it to the ground.
that's why abolishing the police is entering, if not the mainstream conversation, is becoming more prevalent among progressive circles. we know that in large part, it is ourselve's holding up society, and that this society we hold up, is directly hampering our growth and happiness as human beings.
and as we are rotting, so too is the system. but every system has to die before the next one can be built, and as alot of more expirenced anticapitalists have allegoried, capitalism is a zombie, forever half alive and half dead. we have to be the one's to kill it, not only by our word's, but by our action's.
direct action is needed for you to grow, and be happy.
so many X'rs and millenial's are stunted by this, and our kid's are growing up, and recognizing that. i hope they go further than i.
Remarkable how such insanely wealthy and powerful individuals can somehow justify the insanely unethical practices of their companies. It’s a failure of intellect among people who’ve probably never struggled with the lower tiers of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
Make scifi dramedy that most directly satirizes these tech bros. That will solve everything
It's also been noted that Bezos is a huge fan of "The Expanse" because he apparently wants to make that into a reality with his Blue Origin program - completely missing the critique of interplanetary corporatocracy at the heart of it.
I’m convinced that the big tech bros get inspired by episodes of black mirror
It's not Anarchist goddammit it's an oligarchic hellscape
Anarchy IS an oligarchic hellscape. Pure freedom means the freedom for big fish to eat small fish.
@@Lilliathi pure freedom allows small fish to live their lives peacefully!
@@gaywizard2000
What stops the big fish from using their own pure freedom to eat them?
@@Lilliathi To my understanding Anarchism doesn't mean "no laws". It means laws aren't made or enforced by nations.
@@Lilliathi You don't really know much about anarchism, do ya?
Here for not letting these tech bros escape to Mars After exploiting workers, pillaging the Earth's resources and leaving it a smoking cinder of a planet for us "poors." I have always thought of myself as a pacifist but I am slowly but surely starting to see the wisdom of the guillotine.
To be clear, space exploration and eventual colonization can be a great, great thing for the species- yes, meaning everyone on earth. People who argue that we should abandon exploration and “focus on social issues on earth” fail to understand how many issues on earth were indeed resolved because of gains and innovations brought about by the space race.
The tankies have arrived, wonderful.
That seems to be more of a “governments” thing. Biggest governments = murderous broken pits, with same government saying “give us more money so we can fix the stuff we broke”.
Humans are never leaving this rock. Space exploration is a fucking waste of time, and I do hope these billionaire fucks find their graves on some dead rock far away from earth.
@@Lilliathi Actually my friends claim I have too much faith in capitalism, free markets and modern democracies and they tell me we need violent revolution which I have always argued against, but I do think I am truly starting to understand their anger and frustration, even if I don't agree with their methods- like I said I am for non violent forms of protest and political expression. I don't think this makes me a tankie? But I am trying to be more open minded.
It is not the philosophy of sci-fi stories, that motivate techies but the raw brainstorming resources they offer… Overlords will view themselves as the heroes of the story or stories.
Mark didn't change the name from Facebook to Meta due to confidence, he was trying rebrand after the whistleblowing and save his stock.
as a writer this is terrifying.. (i've written some dark stuff... I PRAY no one thinks it's an actual solution to issues...)
Noone won't because Noone reads your books
1:26 Oh yeah, I could go for some of that kind of consultation.
They should make this theory into a movie where this happens and billionaires rule mars.
What can be (and needs to be) done is a massive communal action where these Billionaires are forced to pay their taxes and removed from lobbying the government. However, that's never going to happen because not enough of us participate fully in our democratic processes.
Even if we do all participate, we're all to fractured. Even if we all have one common enemy, not only will we form our own tribes that stop any progress by bickering about what should come after, these billionaires have also made a large group of people believe that they are necessary and will act against their own self interest to fight those that want to only change things to help people like them.
Not only is it like fighting a dragon that stole all the gold in the land for its horde, but also its small army of enthralled villagers
@@bluecanine3374 Yeah, I didn't want to mention some of the things you did (which are very valid points). Because I can't be sure that that is the actual case or not. I truly hope it isn't.
Yeah it's always better to assume that you're going to fail and go on doing nothing because it might happen. That's how these billionaires got into power, right?
Somehow, I'm not surprised that Amazon is influenced by startrek. I am surprised it wasn't based of ferengi culture though
Now we need a Black Mirror episode about how a billionaire saw a Black Mirror episode and thought “you know what?”
So many of these guys have more in common with Wayland-Yutani or Tyrell Corp. then Star Trek Federation. :/
Rather on point, that Jules Verne's image is mostly kept as the idealist and science championing Grandpa of Sci-Fi is absolutely asinine since very early on, he reflected the dangers of science being relegated to a selected few with Captain Nemo's Ideals to be free from the governments, but just as free to sink any ship with a british flag and support militias around the world as he saw fit with his one of a kind Nautilus...
Or how about The Purchase of the North Pole, where the very engineers (actually Gunsmiths, but that is commonly sidelined as well) who launched a bullet From the Earth to the Moon are being willing to build an even bigger cannon to shift the earth's axis and thus, melt Antarctica to extract a speculative fortune of diamonds below...
Heck, one of his first novels was meant to be the dystopic Paris in the 20th Century and among his last works is The Eternal Adam where basically a caveman discovers what brough the apocalypse as he seemingly finds the eternal recurrence that is the downfall and rise of human civilization...
Maybe make it compulsory for them to take an Intro to Philosophy course.
I think there's a reason guys like this drop out of college 😂
This video does remind me of the novella “The Man Who Sold The Moon” by Robert Heinlein.
TLDR: People fail to get that Sci-Fi is less about glitzy tech and humanity in new frontiers and more about pointing out the follies of humanity.
I think we can agree the best sci fi character is gunk droid.
When you mention William Gibson…I immediately thought of Neuromancer
Revoke their library cards their amazon subscriptions!!!
The trouble is so many think they are a Rick when really they are just a bunch of Jerry's! These billionaires don't even come close to a Morty!
Start Wordle with either Trees, Spies, or even Start as the answer usually has on or more of the letter from those words. I typically begin with Trees and I'm at a 96% win score and have gotten zero losses so far.
The only technology in Snow Crash that I wish were real is the dentata.
The best counter to Picard's TNG is Deep Space Nine whole shows. Where money and wealth do exist and is a driving factor. How to live with the federation ideals when you are not surrounded by people that share those ideals. Not an easy task summarized by Sisko:"It's easy to be an angel in paradise." I think in the end what those billionaires will do with their money will define them better than the amount of money they have accumulated. "Money is a great servant but a terrible master." -Francis Bacon.
Nobody's listening to what they are saying more than watching what they are doing.
Michael should definitely be doing the 'keeps' ad with his hat off...
that should have been a close in the contract keeps
You are the only channel I have my notifications on guys.
Well, if Meta wants to invert things and create the corporate hell in the metaverse, I'm down for having anarchism outside of it : )
After decades of hard work we have finally built the horror-dome, inspired by the classic novel dont build the horror-dome
It’s all fun and games until The Empire Strikes Back becomes something to actually worry about
Well. I will engage with that fantastic call to community engagement.
Fantastic breakdown, and very informative!
As to my thoughts, they all miss the biggest marks in most SciFi novels
Our current idea of what makes ownership is faulty, and that fault dooms us and our civilization to fail or to change.
To elaborate;
We think that ownership is solely in capital spent, and discard labor, sweat, dependence, and responsibility in our current definition of ownership. That's all stocks, futures, and large mutual real-estate investments are, ownership without any of the responsibility.
When has power without responsibility ever, *EVER* lead to good outcomes?
Altruism, and Anarchism, and a world without money or countries addresses the means of ownership being in truth tied to responsibility, that is they give responsibility to own.
That's why they are the defaults. Yes. Anarchism can be more brutal, but in doing so it remove the authority to be brutal and all brutality caused by that authority, it is a net reduction of brutality.
Yes Altruism means that some will have to work the same and get less.
But it means that most work less to get more.
And automation thrives when demand is high enough that itself is automated.
That is to say
We have the resources now to never worry about tomorrow, today. But those given the keys to these resources have not been given the responsibility. That's the biggest point, when the driver is responsible we all get there alive and safely.
And responsible means being held to that standard.
These Billionaires are not being held to that standard and our economy is currently set up to not allow that.
Look man, The Foundation series is like 7 books. Elon didn't have the time to read all of them.
Do everything in our power to make their lives miserable and inconvenient. Expose their lies to others and themselves. Then as my wife demands, eat them
"why do they keep showing clips from some movie?
... wait weren't they gonna make a foundation movie/tv show? it can't be out yet already, right?"
*google* OH MY GOD
THANK YOUUUUUUU
Its not only that we will have to wait way more than 5 years to start colonizing Mars, we'll have to manage to live in a future dystopia ruled by rich men