Silicon Valley Techno-Utopianism

the ruby on rails community is extremely shitty.

it's probably the preferred platform at this point for small businesses that create web presences and small apps for local business. it's a huge slice of the web work that actually gets done and you get this perfect storm of small business skepticism and technology utopianism

'so if we pay you for this we'll be able to grow our business exponentially at virtually no cost???'

'o yes'

That reminds me of one of my favorite tweets from Erowid Recruiter, an account that generates mash-ups from drug trip reports and tech recruiter emails. It read simply "don't do Rails".

erowid recruiter is good

The bigger you are, the weaker your sauce

http://www.theverge.com/2017/1/28/14426550/silicon-valley-trump-immigration-response

http://avc.com/2017/01/make-america-hate-again/

note this in the comments

http://i.imgur.com/5G29mS4.png

omg yessss pull beetbort's comments

respect to sergey brin for going to an airport protest!

has this been posted? http://www.forbes.com/sites/janetwburns/2017/01/26/elon-musk-is-ready-to-bore-under-l-a-as-the-tunnel-market-takes-off/#79eed3924a40

Speaking of Musk, ain't no industry has a Union didn't deserve one:

https://theoutline.com/post/1069/tesla-worker-jose-moran-elon-musk

as zuck edges toward running for office, remember this is how he thinks

https://twitter.com/nathanjurgenson/status/616084493041070080

"what will enable us to live forever" is such a dumb question on every level

i'm looking forward to voting for zuck one day

facebook is a blight on humanity so no I won't be doing that

wow those are really dumb questions

but how does the brain work

it's like he's an 8yo

zuck is awful

Fuckin' magnets, man

bunch of brain surgeons itt

"what will enable us to live forever" is such a dumb question on every level

It wouldn't be my first pick of scientific question, but I don't think it's entirely dumb. A cure for aging isn't far-fetched, and we welcome all kinds of limited life-extending breakthroughs. Not that I would look to tech billionaires for wisdom on the ethics of life extension.

zuck's first paragraph is fine, he's not the first to ask them and they're definitely q's other scientists already explore

second paragraph is creepy

maybe zuck's the same as me, we see things they'll never see

the most problematic words there are "us" and "forever".

As far as I know a cure for aging actually is pretty far-fetched, as recent studies indicate our DNA has built-in limits that restrict indefinite cell replication (there was some article in Discover about this recently, not sure if its online). And "forever" is obviously substantively different from "limited life-extending". If he'd said "how can we make people live longer" that's slightly more reasonable.

The "us" part involves, as noted, the ethics of life extension, which are v v thorny and imo come out v strongly against even considering this.

xp

those are philosophically relevant questions but Hawking asked about *big questions in science*

from a scientific perspective all of these are so hand-wavingly vague as to not be questions about science at all

http://reformedoutfitters.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Born-to-Die.png

outic

see jmm's reply

they're definitely q's other scientists already explore

this doesn't automatically make them good questions! I find these sort of "hmm how can we fundamentally change the nature of existence" questions really irritating. "Curing all diseases", for ex. Really? Why is this even desirable? It would be disastrous for our ecology for a species as wantonly destructive and stupid as ours to (somehow, magically) make itself impervious to factors that regulate every population of organisms on the planet. Like, gee what could possibly go wrong there. To say nothing of its inherent infeasibility - it would violate basic laws of biology about how things like DNA and RNA work, disease is *built in* to how organisms function, compete, interact, and impact each other. The practical and ethical problems presented by this question are mind-boggling. But the question stems from this childlike "disease bad! I wish there was no disease!" framing that is just embarrassing.

those are philosophically relevant questions but Hawking asked about *big questions in science*

from a scientific perspective all of these are so hand-wavingly vague as to not be questions about science at all

I agree w this

dammit

shakey does it bum you out that people think that is a c at the end of your name

it bums me out

ancient greek is a bitch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAOsRlfhvLc

outic

those questions are extreme and most likely knowingly unreachable but they are asked because on the way to this hypothetical goal you find out things that you would have never had you not tried

it's like what jmm said. scientists speak a very different language among themselves and is why they're not very good at marketing and getting their ideas to the lay. zuck is on the other extreme and just says things in a silly way but that resonate with a lot of people that lack any scientific understanding but it helps peak people's interest

I like this idea:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nccryZOcrUg

those questions are extreme and most likely knowingly unreachable but they are asked because on the way to this hypothetical goal you find out things that you would have never had you not tried

fair point yeah I get that

I like Gates's idea. Can we retroactively apply it to software, say the kind that eliminated, deskilled, or rendered precarious uncounted secretarial and number-crunching jobs?

it's just irritating to see zuck (and his audience) take them at what is apparently face value, with this v basic "gee yes I would *love* to live forever!" framing

xp

ancient greek is a bitch

nb: that's the modern greek alphabet, too

it helps pique their interest too

bunch of brain surgeons itt

― Mordy, Friday, February 17, 2017 12:15 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, if zuck is interested i would be more than happy to try my hand at surgically operating on his brain before he has a go at elected office

for obvious reasons, high tech hundred-billionaires are not the most reflective people in the universe.

imo the main impediment to living forever is psychological. however, zuckerberg's mind (and perhaps thiel's) have adapted to the possibility of infinite lifespans

but what will you have time left to do every day as your 'this day in history' timeline reminders engulf you with the advancing eons

guys the problem with that zuck post is not the bong rip science questions!

they're fine!

it's the next bit when he says "i bet there's a master equation for human community"

ya that's the creepy one as i noted yo

i feel ya cake

pssh, everyone knows the family and genetic correlation coefficient applied to the friendship/community multiplier is a decent predictor of the number of close friends

if only we could write an equation for.... love

Tagline for The Social Network 2

Wait which element is that again? Xp