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intrepidity
intrepidity's Journal
intrepidity's Journal
January 25, 2022
Seems the only way to end disaster capitalism is to just rip the band-aid off
There needs to be a final admission that it is and has always been a pyramid scheme. The sooner we as a society get to that point, the better the prognosis for this planet. There are no incremental solutions to the looming catastrophic consequences of centuries of abuse and neglect of this planet and it's inhabitants. Not just climate change related, but wealth inequality as well.
I don't know what it will look like, but it needs to happen now.
January 25, 2022
Lots of great points that I can't argue against.
I've seen the metaverse - and I don't want it
https://www.theguardian.com/games/2022/jan/25/ive-seen-the-metaverse-and-i-dont-want-itI would feel better about the idea of the metaverse if it wasnt currently dominated by companies and disaster capitalists trying to figure out a way to make more money as the real worlds resources are dwindling. The metaverse as envisioned by these people, by the tech giants, is not some promising new frontier for humanity. It is another place to spend money on things, except in this place the empty promise that buying stuff will make you happy is left even more exposed by the fact that the things in question do not physically exist.
As far as I can work out, the idea is to take the principle of artificial scarcity to an absurdist extreme to make you want things you absolutely dont need. The problem is not that I think this wont work. The problem is that I think it will. The current NFT gold rush proves that people will pay tens of thousands of dollars for links to jpegs of monkeys generated by a computer, and honestly it is eroding my faith in humanity. What gaping deficiency are we living with that makes us feel the need to spend serious money on tokens that prove ownership of a procedurally generated image, just to feel part of something? This is all happening, of course, while the Earth continues to heat up, and at enormous environmental cost. I cant help but wonder if these giant companies are so intent on selling us and the markets on the idea of a virtual future in order to distract us all from what they are doing to the real one..
I have seen what virtual worlds can do for people. I have spent my entire adult life reporting on them, and what people do in them and the meaning that they find there. So the fact that Im now the one standing here saying that we dont want this, feels significant. Meta has patented technology that could track what you look at and how your body moves in virtual reality in order to target ads at you. Is that the future of video games and all the other virtual places where we spend time to have our attention continually tracked and monetised, even more so than it is in real life?
As far as I can work out, the idea is to take the principle of artificial scarcity to an absurdist extreme to make you want things you absolutely dont need. The problem is not that I think this wont work. The problem is that I think it will. The current NFT gold rush proves that people will pay tens of thousands of dollars for links to jpegs of monkeys generated by a computer, and honestly it is eroding my faith in humanity. What gaping deficiency are we living with that makes us feel the need to spend serious money on tokens that prove ownership of a procedurally generated image, just to feel part of something? This is all happening, of course, while the Earth continues to heat up, and at enormous environmental cost. I cant help but wonder if these giant companies are so intent on selling us and the markets on the idea of a virtual future in order to distract us all from what they are doing to the real one..
I have seen what virtual worlds can do for people. I have spent my entire adult life reporting on them, and what people do in them and the meaning that they find there. So the fact that Im now the one standing here saying that we dont want this, feels significant. Meta has patented technology that could track what you look at and how your body moves in virtual reality in order to target ads at you. Is that the future of video games and all the other virtual places where we spend time to have our attention continually tracked and monetised, even more so than it is in real life?
Lots of great points that I can't argue against.
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Member since: Sun Feb 14, 2016, 07:36 PMNumber of posts: 7,294