Silicon Valley Techno-Utopianism

so, we should have a king with absolute power to keep us in check, the office for which is itself a contrivance

In order to maintain their command over these vastly greater resources these sovereign individuals will have to become states themselves, de facto at first and later de jure

States on boats

http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/mar/18/floating-cities-proposals-utopian-sci-fi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_barges

Google may have built the structures on barges to avoid mandatory city building permits and public plans that may disclose their purpose.Ultimately, however, the time and cost of meeting federal maritime safety regulations may have prompted Google to abandon the project.

It is comforting that this is based off of william rees-mogg's prognostications: Private Eye used to run columns clowning him for the unfailing wrongness of his predictions. Think we're gonna be ok

Xp states on a plane

bravo

City officials warned Apple its glass walls were dangerous. Apple Park opened anyway. 911 calls show three people have been injured walking into them. Read more: https://t.co/CpUYRL578t pic.twitter.com/e4mqqBhBCu

— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) March 2, 2018

Talk about hostile architecture

https://windowalert.com/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/everything-here-is-fake/2018/03/02/064a3d4a-18c6-11e8-8b08-027a6ccb38eb_story.html?utm_term=.63374e187c37

word is they're about to hire a new director overseeing their real estate and building assets - he has some 'disruptive' new ideas!

https://images.eil.com/large_image/BILLY_JOEL_GLASS%2BHOUSES-298776b.jpg

i've never read hobbes btw

― had (crüt)

i think it counts if you've heard that mastodon record

move fast and break your face

also, belated applause for "states on a plane" I would like a painting of that please

anyway the point i was trying to make is that peter thiel's belly is soft and the masses of humanity determined

https://www.healthiq.com/careers

"We do a daily standup where we don't discuss why something is late. Instead we each spend 10 seconds on what we actually shipped today."

harry potter and hagrid

that’s really mind-bending considering the post stand-up “feats of strength” take much longer

this sounds like a hell

Sounds a bit like that Startup Castle.

"We believe winners have always won."

They've invented SROs!

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/04/technology/dorm-living-grown-ups-san-francisco.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

Everything is fine https://t.co/VB6uoq0Csu pic.twitter.com/21Ae4hMtUs

— Felix Salmon (@felixsalmon) March 13, 2018

this is without a doubt the greatest silicon valley quote of all time https://t.co/6trw1Lx8a4

— Sam Biddle (@samfbiddle) March 13, 2018

the kind of guys that will sign up for this will be exactly the kinda guys who should sign up for this

living in the future fucking sucks tbh

100% fatal is a very high bar to set

see you in 500 years bitch

lmao

Twitter. You’ve invented Twitter. pic.twitter.com/h8qaAHjXqf

— Neeraj K. Agrawal (@NeerajKA) March 13, 2018

lol

vg

Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes charged with "massive fraud" by SEC https://t.co/RmzyJ5ycH6 pic.twitter.com/w7BcdNsxwQ

— maya kosoff (@mekosoff) March 14, 2018

lol pic.twitter.com/OBHS9y2V5B

— maya kosoff (@mekosoff) March 14, 2018

holmes def guilty of the most heinous crime of all: making the rich and the powerful look dumb af

see also fyre festival

Dave Morin on Theranos…. pic.twitter.com/iv3sfXBw8V

— Will Alden (@williamalden) October 26, 2015

https://twitter.com/daveMorin

apart from everything else dumb and clueless about that: it must be amazing to have nothing you dislike more than thinking about passing out during your annual physical

lmao D@ve M0r1n "Entrepreneur. Investor. Photographer." "sponsor of Britt+Co. creator of super-disruptive world-changing Path. courageous giver of blood. better to be lucky than good."

tbf that's from 2015 but still lmao

when youre a real human being pic.twitter.com/iCL9aY5gQA

— shane (@shanevader) September 8, 2016

get a brain Morin

is there a reason why we should have cared what the director of a ticketing website thought about a medical startup or is it just that silicon valley assholes are experts in everything

also if you're gonna invoke the holy of name of millennials at least spell it right you fucking tool

The fundamental underlying problem is the system of economic exchange we’re dealing with, which is sometimes called surveillance capitalism. It’s surveillance capitalism that, by tracking and monetizing the basic informational content of our lives, has fueled the spectacular growth of social media and other networked services in the last fifteen years. Personal privacy has been annihilated, and power and money have concentrated in the hands of whoever owns the most sophisticated machine to collect and parse consumer data. Because of the logic of network effects—according to which services increase in value and utility as more people use them—a few strong players have consolidated their control over the digital economy and show little sign of surrendering it.

https://thebaffler.com/latest/techies-who-said-sorry-silverman

so back on that "moving to New Zealand" thing, I figured it out, it's because NZ isn't on the map in Risk.

nor is it part of a WORLD WAR THREE scenario

in case anyone is feeling too cheerful about humanity and needs a hate read to bring them down: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/16/powder-mountain-ski-resort-summit-elite-club-rich-millennials

He tells me he’s open to the suggestion that his community is elitist – “these criticisms, there’s a truth to them” – and insists that he strives to make authentic connections with people from all walks of life. For example, he says, earlier in the day he met a worker at the ski resort who was taking guests on a tour. “I literally could have said, ‘All right, have an awesome tour,’ and instead I was like, ‘So, you’re here all year?’ And he goes, ‘No, I’m actually from New Orleans.’ And I’m like, ‘Really?’” Bisnow says he behaves the same way with servers in restaurants. “When you start to engage with these people you realise the humanity in everyone and how unbelievable they are.” Then he explains how he always sits in the front seat of Uber taxis, talking to dozens of drivers a week, hearing “the most remarkable stories”. He ends up hanging out “with a significant number” of his drivers. I ask how many Uber drivers he’s invited to Summit. He doesn’t say, but instead tells me an anecdote about a chef he invited to Summit after meeting him “at this dilapidated castle in England”.

to cook him some food

there's been so much worse news this week than a rich kid trying to listen to people who work for him

heh

YouTube shooting highlights danger of open work spaces, expert says. https://t.co/5n3bFhjuYM pic.twitter.com/5gVt73titH

— ABC News (@ABC) April 5, 2018

finally the best argument for offices with walls: they're necessary to keep you safe when people come to shoot at you

blurgh

#notallcourtyards

YouTube shooting highlights danger of open work spaces, expert says.

oh ffs. has this fucking expert ever noticed the danger of hundreds of millions of easily available guns?

just think of what a huge security risk the outdoors is

that's why I stay inside