Notes from an Emergency [video]
Typical &#x27;idlewords :). Lots of good points intermingled with unwarranted jabs at Elon Musk, X-risk and anti-aging efforts. I suppose the latter are just signalling, but they do detract from the point he&#x27;s making.<p>The points about tech running amok with the surveillance capitalism are spot on. I do have some doubts about other parts though; here are they in somewhat random order:<p>-- Problem solving.<p>I&#x27;m not buying this villifying of tech world for trying to avoid the &quot;dirty political work&quot;. In fact, I believe it&#x27;s a good approach. Turning a problem into a political issue pretty much guarantees that it won&#x27;t be solved as people take sides and then invent arguments to rationalize their positions. Just look at the climate change - since it became politicized, it&#x27;s close to impossible to do anything in the area (Trump&#x27;s election in the US is not helping either). The only way to address it now is by ignoring the democratic process altogether - by doing research, developing new technologies, and hoping for the market forces to sort things out.<p>Moreover, why does the tech industry is always blamed for trying to avoid political work? Like, are there no human beings who don&#x27;t work in tech industry that could try a different approach? Why is tech industry expected to do everything, and then at the same time gets called out for hubris?<p>Related, on tech and life extension efforts. I call the Comet King principle - &quot;somebody has to and no one else will&quot;. Why is nobody else besides tech billionaires interested in putting serious resources into solving that problem?<p>-- Poland.<p>Is it an evil surveillance state now? I live there and I haven&#x27;t noticed it.<p>-- Trump.<p>I&#x27;m starting to get a feeling that some people on anti-Trump side are just sore losers, and can&#x27;t accept that he won democratic elections; no, it must be some conspiracy. I&#x27;m not endorsing what Trump is doing, but the facts on the ground are that many people did vote for him, and denying them agency makes it more difficult to notice the problems those people face in their lives.