
On the Exponential View - hunglee2
https://medium.com/@azeem/on-the-exponential-view-75cd24525d14#.vfc2b5hmn
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pjc50
The author lost me very early on by making claims about inevitability. Things
like the "global village of free information" are hardly inevitable - I
believe it's a lot more fragile than people think. "Free" is under continual
attack from IP monopolists, and "information" is under rising attack from
noise injection. The easiest way to take facts away from people is to drown
them in bad information.

"Global village" is under attack as well, from a rising desire for closed-
nationalist societies.

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barrkel
There's a lot more to the article than that.

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ctchocula
This was a great article. I enjoyed how he connected many problems facing the
world at the current moment, and posited increasing automation as the main
reason for wage stagnation since the 1970s. With automation, companies do not
need to hire as many workers to achieve the same profits, which is captured by
capital rather than labour. Another impressive part of this article is that
unlike most papers that only report the problem, he actually proposes some
reasonable sounding solutions:

Juno - a ride-sharing service similar to Uber, but that differs from Uber in
that it sets aside 50% of the share of capital to be earned by drivers as they
give more rides (unlike the more lopsided distribution of Uber that heavily
favours capital).

I will definitely give Juno a try if I'm ever in NYC, the only city it's
currently offered. Thank you for sharing.

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mtdewcmu
Wealth inequality is really an instance of homophily. Money attracts money.
The rich get richer.

Wealth inequality harms the economy, because as people get poorer they can no
longer participate in economic activity. Businesses need consumers with money
to spend.

When enough people become sufficiently poor, uneducated, and angry, then you
get Trump.

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simonw
This is a long read but well worth the time. Takes a higher level look at
trends in automation and the econome in general.

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ph0rque
> ... cities are becoming incredibly important and it’s sort of inevitable
> that people will flock to cities.

I question this inevitability. There's no reason that the migration from small
towns to large cities is guaranteed to continue and not reverse at some point.

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m1lner
The author is both a spectacular commentator and a great writer. We need more
like this excellent article.

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visarga
Interesting, well documented article. Good to save for reference.

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throwawaycopy
When are you internet addicts going to realize:

1.) You spend too much time online.

2.) You mistake your online sources of knowledge and experiences for reality.

3.) You are endlessly writing science-fiction.

The amount of collective dillusional behavior that has captured the
imaginations of participants on social media forums such as this is truly awe
inspiring!

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D_Alex
You sound like one of those old curmudgeons who were warning people about
reading books 100 years or so ago.

And you have created a throwaway user profile, which seems to indicate you
have an online presence and reputation that you care about.

I'm going to take a guess that your comments apply as much to your own self as
to the people you call "you internet addicts".

~~~
throwawaycopy
Yes, I am a recovering addict who sometimes reads HN while taking my morning
shit. Your perceptions are correct, I am as much reminding myself the
epistemological dangers of engaging in social media.

It was a mistake to reengage with this toxic and ignorant community.

However, I still use the internet, just in a restricted manner. I find that
removing frictionless sources of information makes for a much more pleasant
experience. I use a Chrome plugin called Shut Up that removes all comments. I
pay for subscriptions to a number of news sources that hire editors and fact
checkers. I redirect all social media sites to 127.0.0.1. I wrote a custom
script for YouTube that hides related content.

YouTube, wikipedia, and an RSS reader seem to not trigger the depression I was
suffering when I was reading HN, Twitter, Facebook and Reddit.

The election was the final straw as I saw many people fully captured by the
illusions of their ever shrinking ideological bubbles which are most
definitely caused by social media.

If you twerps dared speak to me the way you talk in these forums I would most
definitely start a physical altercation. I can't say I'm ashamed of the
asswhoopings I've laid on loose and arrogant lips in the past.

Fortunately for me people have an awareness of the physical repercussions of
their actions in meatspace. Reality is what is experienced outside of the
world of symbols on a screen!

But yes, again, thank you for reminding me why I need to finally remove the
last connection to this hideous forum and trade my smartphone and the
$1400/year price tag for a dumb brick and my personal salvation!

