Democracy might be mathematically impossible – here’s why. Head to https://brilliant.org/veritasium to start your free 30-day trial and get 20% off an annual premium subscription.
Similarly, I never liked Kurtzgesagt videos, largely because of the smug Reddity vibe and the aesthetic, but they got even worse when the videos started bootlicking for billionaires more directly, especially techno hopium shit.
“Sure, maybe late stage capitalism will wipe out 99% of the global population, but if even 1% survives, that is a win for team humanity!” said without the slightest acknowledgement that whatever planetary condition wiped out the other 99% wouldn’t suddenly disappear in a puff of hopium.
this shit is why I hesitate to recommend any channel unless it is explicitly ML. somebody milkshake ducks and you have to cringe remembering the people you told to check them out
I remember liking kurzgesagt and thinking they were cool, until I saw that they were being funded by the Templeton foundation, and later Bill Gates. They’re pre-capitalist reformists who will defend “but reformism and pipedream technology can totally solve inequality and climate change bro”.
When I was a liberal, I was very into all the youtube pop science video, kurtzgesagt, rational animation, etc. I was bought on the space fantasy of terraformation, “grabby aliens”, “longtermism” and all that.
Becoming a Marxist and being exposed to dialectical materialism made me realize just how much idealism, metaphysics and techno-washing of societal problems there is in science communication and academia itself.
When I was a liberal, I was very into all the youtube pop science video, kurtzgesagt, rational animation, etc. I was bought on the space fantasy of terraformation, “grabby aliens”, “longtermism” and all that.
Oh, how I hated arguing with people like that in the larger internet wild, especially when they thought saying “did you ever consider… asteroid mining?” as some sort of argument destroying silver bullet. Even if I said “fine, even more pollution and industrial waste from that too,” I’d get back “did you ever consider… that asteroid mining would also solve its own problems because that many resources and hockey stick shaped curves?”
Yeah, it’s really annoying sifting through all the techbro space fantasy when you want to learn about why and how we would send humans in space.
Realistically, the only thing an industry in space would have that we couldn’t already get on earth for way cheaper is low gravity. So basically, the only industry for which it would make sense to bother putting it in space is the industry to launch stuff in space. This means that there is no profit to be made from asteroid mining, it would be run at a constant loss unless it can somehow be made self sufficient. And of course it’s not a solution to mining pollution on earth in and of itself, there are a lot of solutions that could be up and running long before any space mining effort become able to supply earth with even 1% of the metals and rare earths we need.
Not only is mining resources in space far from the solution-to-every-problem that techbros present it as, but a capitalist system is incapable of doing it because there is no profit to be made. Only a system that doesn’t need profit to survive could achieve it.
From as far back as I can remember, I wanted to know what was out there. The impossibly vast distances of space and the elusiveness of the stars was almost maddening to me even as a child. I wanted to explore them or at least know that someone could reach them and tell me what there is to see.
When “humanity fuck yeah” and space Manifest Destiny ideology took over most contemporary future speculation in the western world, I checked out. It’s kind of telling that the only versions of aliens that the average techbro chuds can imagine are “bugs” or some sort of godlike terror entities, because the scariest thing imaginable is sharing space with another sapient life form, or worse, showing respect to one.
it would be run at a constant loss unless it can somehow be made self sufficient
The average “futurology” devotee handwaves all of that and just says “there are that many resources out there” and then thoughts terminate, leaving only a smug smile and thoughts of passive income from renting out their ZYBERTRUKKKs on Autopilot™ once the kinks are worked out.
I hate how modern science fiction and futurism is just “the same capitalist hellhole we live in now but with lasers and stuff”. I hate how so many authors imagine that we’ll continue to have the same petty wars when the idea of a war in space become more and more absurd the more you think about it, the distances involved alone makes war on an interplanetary scale impossible.
It’s all so imprint with this extremely liberal idealism even academia isn’t speared. For example, I don’t know if you’ve heard of “grabby aliens”. It’s a completely serious and unironic proposal for a “solution” to the Fermi paradox, the author is a famous scientist, the same guy who proposed the “great filter” hypothesis. It supposes that alien civilizations start expending in the universe and taking over star systems at a large fraction of the speed of light and because of that if we could see aliens they would be here instead of us and that’s why we don’t see aliens. Even in this short TL;DR there is glaringly obvious problems. This theory imediately falls apart as soon as you start asking questions about those “grabby aliens”, which as you might have guessed are justified ans an assumption by the classic liberal "greed, competition and expansionism is natural "
The average “futurology” devotee handwaves all of that and just says “there are that many resources out there” and then thoughts terminate, leaving only a smug smile and thoughts of passive income from renting out their ZYBERTRUKKKs on Autopilot™ once the kinks are worked out.
Exactly, the capitalism brainrot is deep with those types. The epic space colonymust be handled by private companies to them, even the dreams of cool futuristic space habitats must be milked for profit. Even the few ones who have a more grounded view of how we could create industries and permanents outposts don’t escape the mind virus. I found a youtube channel all about creating a spaceport and permanent bases on the moon a few days ago, and his plan to develop it is unironically space tourism for assholes billionaires and other private investments.
I hate how modern science fiction and futurism is just “the same capitalist hellhole we live in now but with lasers and stuff”.
That reminds me of how EVE Online became unbearable for me after I looked too far into the lore and saw that it was a capitalist wet dream of immortal (ignoring the handwaves of whether those clones are a continuation of the same subjective being or just a new person burdened with a bunch of “uploaded” memories, and the handwave of how the “immortality” gets even more questionable if for any reason two, a hundred, or a million clones wake up at the same time) space feudal lords seeing their own crews (and entire planetary populations) as basically-invisible background noise that might be killed off by the thousands in a single sentence (to complete indifference from the immortal space feudal lords) to show how cool and edgy the setting is.
I hate how so many authors imagine that we’ll continue to have the same petty wars when the idea of a war in space become more and more absurd the more you think about it, the distances involved alone makes war on an interplanetary scale impossible.
I used to find “space trucker” stories to be fun and even somehow romantic but now I kind of hate them the more I think about how implausible they are to any civilization that has the technology for “space trucking” to actually depend upon it. Star Citizen has a laughably bad worldbuilding section where a planet-wide city is implied to be almost entirely supplied by “space truckers” one delivery at a time. If that was even possible it’d be a crime against economies of scale and be staggeringly wasteful.
or example, I don’t know if you’ve heard of “grabby aliens”. It’s a completely serious and unironic proposal for a “solution” to the Fermi paradox, the author is a famous scientist, the same guy who proposed the “great filter” hypothesis. It supposes that alien civilizations start expending in the universe and taking over star systems at a large fraction of the speed of light and because of that if we could see aliens they would be here instead of us and that’s why we don’t see aliens. Even in this short TL;DR there is glaringly obvious problems. This theory imediately falls apart as soon as you start asking questions about those “grabby aliens”, which as you might have guessed are justified ans an assumption by the classic liberal “greed, competition and expansionism is natural”
Sounds like that old “a thief believes everyone steals” saying to me.
and his plan to develop it is unironically space tourism for assholes billionaires and other private investments.
It is easier to imagine faster than light travel than the end of capitalism.
Veritasium is an intellectually impoverished ghoul shilling for neoliberalism; no wonder he doesn’t support democracy.
deleted by creator
Similarly, I never liked Kurtzgesagt videos, largely because of the smug Reddity vibe and the
aesthetic, but they got even worse when the videos started bootlicking for billionaires more directly, especially techno hopium shit.
“Sure, maybe late stage capitalism will wipe out 99% of the global population, but if even 1% survives, that is a win for team humanity!”
said without the slightest acknowledgement that whatever planetary condition wiped out the other 99% wouldn’t suddenly disappear in a puff of hopium.
deleted by creator
this shit is why I hesitate to recommend any channel unless it is explicitly ML. somebody milkshake ducks and you have to cringe remembering the people you told to check them out
I remember liking kurzgesagt and thinking they were cool, until I saw that they were being funded by the Templeton foundation, and later Bill Gates. They’re pre-capitalist reformists who will defend “but reformism and pipedream technology can totally solve inequality and climate change bro”.
When I was a liberal, I was very into all the youtube pop science video, kurtzgesagt, rational animation, etc. I was bought on the
space fantasy of terraformation, “grabby aliens”, “longtermism” and all that.
Becoming a Marxist and being exposed to dialectical materialism made me realize just how much idealism, metaphysics and techno-washing of societal problems there is in science communication and academia itself.
Oh, how I hated arguing with people like that in the larger internet wild, especially when they thought saying “did you ever consider… asteroid mining?” as some sort of argument destroying silver bullet. Even if I said “fine, even more pollution and industrial waste from that too,” I’d get back “did you ever consider… that asteroid mining would also solve its own problems because that many resources and hockey stick shaped curves?”
Yeah, it’s really annoying sifting through all the techbro space fantasy when you want to learn about why and how we would send humans in space.
Realistically, the only thing an industry in space would have that we couldn’t already get on earth for way cheaper is low gravity. So basically, the only industry for which it would make sense to bother putting it in space is the industry to launch stuff in space. This means that there is no profit to be made from asteroid mining, it would be run at a constant loss unless it can somehow be made self sufficient. And of course it’s not a solution to mining pollution on earth in and of itself, there are a lot of solutions that could be up and running long before any space mining effort become able to supply earth with even 1% of the metals and rare earths we need.
Not only is mining resources in space far from the solution-to-every-problem that techbros present it as, but a capitalist system is incapable of doing it because there is no profit to be made. Only a system that doesn’t need profit to survive could achieve it.
From as far back as I can remember, I wanted to know what was out there. The impossibly vast distances of space and the elusiveness of the stars was almost maddening to me even as a child. I wanted to explore them or at least know that someone could reach them and tell me what there is to see.
When “humanity fuck yeah” and space Manifest Destiny
ideology took over most contemporary future speculation in the western world, I checked out. It’s kind of telling that the only versions of aliens that the average techbro chuds can imagine are “bugs” or some sort of godlike terror entities, because the scariest thing imaginable is sharing space with another sapient life form, or worse, showing respect to one.
The average “futurology” devotee handwaves all of that and just says “there are that many resources out there” and then thoughts terminate, leaving only a smug smile and thoughts of passive income from renting out their ZYBERTRUKKKs on Autopilot™ once the kinks are worked out.
Same.
I hate how modern science fiction and futurism is just “the same capitalist hellhole we live in now but with lasers and stuff”. I hate how so many authors imagine that we’ll continue to have the same petty wars when the idea of a war in space become more and more absurd the more you think about it, the distances involved alone makes war on an interplanetary scale impossible.
It’s all so imprint with this extremely liberal idealism even academia isn’t speared. For example, I don’t know if you’ve heard of “grabby aliens”. It’s a completely serious and unironic proposal for a “solution” to the Fermi paradox, the author is a famous scientist, the same guy who proposed the “great filter” hypothesis. It supposes that alien civilizations start expending in the universe and taking over star systems at a large fraction of the speed of light and because of that if we could see aliens they would be here instead of us and that’s why we don’t see aliens. Even in this short TL;DR there is glaringly obvious problems. This theory imediately falls apart as soon as you start asking questions about those “grabby aliens”, which as you might have guessed are justified ans an assumption by the classic liberal "greed, competition and expansionism is natural
"
Exactly, the capitalism brainrot is deep with those types. The epic space colony must be handled by private companies to them, even the dreams of cool futuristic space habitats must be milked for profit. Even the few ones who have a more grounded view of how we could create industries and permanents outposts don’t escape the mind virus. I found a youtube channel all about creating a spaceport and permanent bases on the moon a few days ago, and his plan to develop it is unironically space tourism for assholes billionaires and other private investments.
That reminds me of how EVE Online became unbearable for me after I looked too far into the lore and saw that it was a capitalist wet dream of immortal (ignoring the handwaves of whether those clones are a continuation of the same subjective being or just a new person burdened with a bunch of “uploaded” memories, and the handwave of how the “immortality” gets even more questionable if for any reason two, a hundred, or a million clones wake up at the same time) space feudal lords seeing their own crews (and entire planetary populations) as basically-invisible background noise that might be killed off by the thousands in a single sentence (to complete indifference from the immortal space feudal lords) to show how cool and edgy the setting is.
I used to find “space trucker” stories to be fun and even somehow romantic but now I kind of hate them the more I think about how implausible they are to any civilization that has the technology for “space trucking” to actually depend upon it. Star Citizen has a laughably bad worldbuilding section where a planet-wide city is implied to be almost entirely supplied by “space truckers” one delivery at a time. If that was even possible it’d be a crime against economies of scale and be staggeringly wasteful.
Sounds like that old “a thief believes everyone steals” saying to me.
It is easier to imagine faster than light travel than the end of capitalism.