Comments on: Anti-Greer

By: NRx_N00B

NRx_N00B — Mon, 26 Jan 2015 05:00:13 +0000

Agreed, especially when you consider that the world’s two major per capita output of technological innovation peaks occurred at 300 BC and the other at 1900 AD. I admire some of the optimism around here—but I’m a bit of a pessimistic misanthrope and figure we’re done for; I find the Carter-Leslie DA particularly compelling.

By: peter connor

peter connor — Mon, 26 Jan 2015 03:31:46 +0000

Good luck with AIs when the fossil fuels, farmland, and fresh water run out….And don’t talk to me about fusion until you can demonstrate that it hasn’t always been a dead end.

By: SanguineEmpiricist

SanguineEmpiricist — Sun, 25 Jan 2015 00:28:17 +0000

Probably because they have more distance to go.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 24 Jan 2015 21:32:19 +0000

@Stirner (@heresiologist)

I’m a lefty who’d go NRx for a superintelligence in a heartbeat. I always thought AI dictatorship was implicit in the whole superintelligence discussion, though thinking now I suspect the idea might actually be horrifying to a lot of progressives.

By: Amon Khan

Amon Khan — Sat, 24 Jan 2015 18:55:13 +0000

This is exactly how I see it. It’s amazing how people seem to be so enthralled with the internet and smartphones that they don’t see this deeper stagnation. I’m wondering if these new generations will even be capable of, say, building another Hoover Dam, or if they’ll just be texting away until the dams break and the lights go out. The Matrix could actually be a terminal for us. If there’s another period of rapid change in my life time, I expect to be in the direction of collapse, not “progress.” This could be the “weird” thing that Hanfeizi is sensing — the feeling that this isn’t going to be sustainable for much longer, and things are going to start seriously collapsing. I was hit by this feeling like a ton of bricks back in 2008, and now I just take it for granted.

By: Kgaard

Kgaard — Sat, 24 Jan 2015 15:33:14 +0000

Yeah I see it the same way. I am late 40s and basically nothing has changed in my life other than the internet and immigration. Every other aspect of daily life is unchanged from when I was 5 years old. We live in the same houses, drive the same cars (conceptually speaking), fly the same planes, watch the same movies and TVs, watch and play the same sports. The food is worse and the music is worse. Most techy things have evolved and gradually improve.

Here’s a helpful way to split this egg: Compare life in 1900 versus 1958, and then compare 1958 with today. I would venture the changes between 1900 and 1958 were far more profound than 1958 to today. The first half of the 20th century saw the introduction of fundamental life changers: Cars, airplanes, TVs, refrigeration, fast food, penicillin and basic surgery advances. Since then what have we got? Computers and the internet. That’s about it.

By: Stirner (@heresiologist)

Stirner (@heresiologist) — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 23:12:49 +0000

GNON, meet COLOSSUS.

Search and replace CEO/Monarch/Sovereign with “superintelligent AI” and the political precriptions of NRx seems much more plausible.

By: Anti-Greer | Reaction Times

Anti-Greer | Reaction Times — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 23:12:35 +0000

[…] Source: Outside In […]

By: NRx_N00B

NRx_N00B — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 22:38:24 +0000

It’s pretty difficult to argue against the quote Greer attributes to William Gibson: “The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed yet.” The Mexification of California or the slow motion Camp-of-the-Saints scenario unfolding in Europe come to mind—with policies of progressive-totalitarianism only exacerbating these issues, in their attempt to forcefully redistribute the future more evenly.

By: Lesser Bull

Lesser Bull — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 22:16:07 +0000

Greer is the classic heretic. He realized that one of our civilization’s dogmas is false (the dogma that material progress and the glorious future are inevitable) and has substituted for it an anti-dogma, that material collapse and the declining future are inevitable. He’s an intellectual tonic, but not a guru.