futurelessness

[sufi]

that's a snyderism i think, but it's a concept that Mark F was strongly into

In the years since he wrote the vampire castle some of the mists may have cleared a little, but what is showing up is not looking great - ecological collapse and social fascism,
So there's still a gap for more positive visions of our destiny, and perhaps they are needed even more now than they were then

 

[sufi]

This piece of snark is provocative

Will There Be Bananas Under Socialism?

The most important question facing the American left today.

nymag.com

i do like the bananas

 

[sufi]

& this, a lot less imaginative and inspiring

Geopolitics of the Energy Transition: Critical Materials

This report provides comprehensive insights into the significance of critical materials, examining their associated geopolitical implications and offering recommendations for a sustainable and efficient global energy transition.

www.irena.org

predicts how rare minerals needed for new tech will be monopolised and could overturn current economics

 

[Clinamenic]

I spend a lot of time in milieus characterized by utopian and optimistic outlooks, much of which is naive but some of which is actually critical and solutions-oriented. EG a lot of the open-source, public goods, digital commons, "decentralized web" crowd, which has some overlap with web3 but web3 is still chiefly characterized by financial interests unfortunately.

 

[sufi]

I spend a lot of time in milieus characterized by utopian and optimistic outlooks, much of which is naive but some of which is actually critical and solutions-oriented. EG a lot of the open-source, public goods, digital commons, "decentralized web" crowd, which has some overlap with web3 but web3 is still chiefly characterized by financial interests unfortunately.

anything about reality as opposed to online?

 

[sufi]

I spend a lot of time in milieus characterized by utopian and optimistic outlooks, much of which is naive but some of which is actually critical and solutions-oriented. EG a lot of the open-source, public goods, digital commons, "decentralized web" crowd, which has some overlap with web3 but web3 is still chiefly characterized by financial interests unfortunately.

share us some insights anyhoo 😍

 

[wild greens]

I do wonder why we are so eager to embrace the concept of forthcoming dystopia

Does it allow people to gestate a bit more, "oh everything is fucked what's the point"

how rare minerals needed for new tech will be monopolised and could overturn current economics

If you look at the lead superconductor story and tie it to the lithium they've found and are mining in cornwall then England could quite easily do very well out of this.

Ofc the tories will just make sure their mates profit from it but if we had any sense...

 

[craner]

Ultimately, of course, this is a motivating factor:

Scientists Figured Out When And How Our Sun Will Die, And It Will Be Epic

How will our Sun look after it dies? Scientists have made predictions about what the final days of our Solar System will look like, and when it will happen.

www.sciencealert.com

 

[mixed_biscuits]

J.D. Unwin, eminent anthroplogist, found that every civilisation expired within roughly 3 generations after 'sexual liberation'. We're coming into our last generation so enough of your dystopian nonsense, this is the real shizzle: plummeting birth rates, spermageddon, the destruction of the family, the deconstruction of sex and gender, the snuffing out of romance on the big screen, the failure to create new musical genres (youngsters are going to D&B nights like I used to go to Beatles raves NOT), and political polarisation (will we ever get everyone on board for a one party state?!).

Either we are somehow the first exception to Unwin's ineluctable law or we're as unspecial as we always secretly knew. My money's on the latter. It's been nice knowing you, 'West'.

 

[Clinamenic]

anything about reality as opposed to online?

Haha yeah, there is a big emphasis on "IRL" activities, almost in the manner of a rediscovery. In fact, lately there is a popular meme - "touch grass" - which encourages people to go connect with nature and unplug. This is especially prominent in the "solarpunk" or "regen" subcultures of tech, which are about using emerging technology to restore/regenerate a healthy balance between nature and industry.

 

[mixed_biscuits]

Haha yeah, there is a big emphasis on "IRL" activities, almost in the manner of a rediscovery. In fact, lately there is a popular meme - "touch grass" - which encourages people to go connect with nature and unplug. This is especially prominent in the "solarpunk" or "regen" subcultures of tech, which are about using emerging technology to restore/regenerate a healthy balance between nature and industry.

Just as climate change needs extermists like Greta T to keep us honest, we need a hardcore anti-internet 'touch grass' movement to do the same for philobiotic socialising; are there any hardliners?

 

[Clinamenic]

share us some insights anyhoo 😍

One example of this is Lens protocol, which is a new approach to social media. Instead of the current arrangement, wherein a given social media platform controls your data and content, users have their content stored on a distributed database, using metadata and tokens, and this allows an arbitrary number of social media platform apps to be built which draw from this public data. So instead of the platforms owning and monetizing user data, the business model becomes more about user experience, because the user owns controls their social data, EG their handle/domain, their followers, their posts, their likes are all stored on distributed databases (in the case of Lens, the database is Ethereum).

The utopian vision for Lens (the most prominent "social layer" protocol in web3) is that it will better enable users to control their own data, while a number of platforms (EG Lenster, Buttrfly, Orb) essentially build on top of the protocol and compete for user engagement, by offering desirable platform-level features and UX.
Lenster even lets users toggle which recommendation algorithms are active in their feeds, but I'm not sure if Buttrfly or Orb do this.

 

[Clinamenic]

Just as climate change needs extermists like Greta T to keep us honest, we need a hardcore anti-internet 'touch grass' movement to do the same for philobiotic socialising; are there any hardliners?

There could be, but the culture I'm talking about is super super pro-internet, whereas you seem to be describing a sort of paleo-luddism.

 

[mixed_biscuits]

There could be, but the culture I'm talking about is super super pro-internet, whereas you seem to be describing a sort of paleo-luddism.

The tech out there is not very helpful to luddites. For instance, I have found it impossible to acquire a contemporary mobile phone that doesn't have a screen. Tell your tech buddies to make more luddite-focussed tech please.

 

[Clinamenic]

The tech out there is not very helpful to luddites. For instance, I have found it impossible to acquire a contemporary mobile phone that doesn't have a screen. Tell your tech buddies to make more luddite-focussed tech please.

Maybe there are some open-source hardware phones? You may have difficulty finding a non-smartphone which still gets reliable service, especially as things keep advancing. EG I had a flip phone until ~3 years ago, at which point I got a message from AT&T saying that my 3G network was being discontinued and my service would soon cease.

Now, while this does suck, one can hardly blame a company like this from a business perspective, if indeed they would lose money keeping legacy service networks live. I'm really not familiar with that tech or industry though.

 

[sufi]

One example of this is Lens protocol, which is a new approach to social media. Instead of the current arrangement, wherein a given social media platform controls your data and content, users have their content stored on a distributed database, using metadata and tokens, and this allows an arbitrary number of social media platform apps to be built which draw from this public data. So instead of the platforms owning and monetizing user data, the business model becomes more about user experience, because the user owns controls their social data, EG their handle/domain, their followers, their posts, their likes are all stored on distributed databases (in the case of Lens, the database is Ethereum).

The utopian vision for Lens (the most prominent "social layer" protocol in web3) is that it will better enable users to control their own data, while a number of platforms (EG Lenster, Buttrfly, Orb) essentially build on top of the protocol and compete for user engagement, by offering desirable platform-level features and UX.
Lenster even lets users toggle which recommendation algorithms are active in their feeds, but I'm not sure if Buttrfly or Orb do this.

how's that different from the "fediverse" on "activitypub" or whatever it's called?
that's an open protocol which allows decentarlised connectivity between platforms, independent profiles etc afaik,

a few weeks ago fb threads was threatening to adopt it, which would radically change the userbase by adding millions of threads users to the much much smaller existing community - seems like they are going for it https://techcrunch.com/2023/08/09/meta-adds-ability-to-verify-your-threads-profile-on-mastodon/

 

[Clinamenic]

So much of these issues we have with neoliberal/western society, I'm finding, has to do with legal entity regulations and guidelines, EG for-profit companies in the US are, at least usually, legally obligated to pursue (or duly consider pursuing) whatever business course of action will yield the highest returns for shareholders, and shareholders are usually far enough removed from operations to feel (or be held) responsible for the decisions (made by C-Suite) involved in pursuing these courses of action.

 

[sufi]

The tech out there is not very helpful to luddites. For instance, I have found it impossible to acquire a contemporary mobile phone that doesn't have a screen. Tell your tech buddies to make more luddite-focussed tech please.

why do you need a contemporary phone, old ones are cheap and fine for that spec?

 

[sufi]

Maybe there are some open-source hardware phones? You may have difficulty finding a non-smartphone which still gets reliable service, especially as things keep advancing. EG I had a flip phone until ~3 years ago, at which point I got a message from AT&T saying that my 3G network was being discontinued and my service would soon cease.

Now, while this does suck, one can hardly blame a company like this from a business perspective, if indeed they would lose money keeping legacy service networks live. I'm really not familiar with that tech or industry though.

Fairphone - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

pricey though

 

[Clinamenic]

how's that different from the "fediverse" on "activitypub" or whatever it's called?
that's an open protocol which allows decentarlised connectivity between platforms, independent profiles etc afaik,

a few weeks ago fb threads was threatening to adopt it, which would radically change the userbase by adding millions of threads users to the much much smaller existing community - seems like they are going for it https://techcrunch.com/2023/08/09/meta-adds-ability-to-verify-your-threads-profile-on-mastodon/

Actually it could be very similar - I haven't looked into fediverse yet. Do you know if it runs on a distributed database / shared virtual machine? I think the shared DB + VM is what makes blockchain interesting, but I'm sure there are non-blockchain versions of it. Blockchains just have systematic financial incentives for people to contribute compute to the network, and these incentives often get out of control, arguably.