From an evolutionary perspective, only the ones who survive matter.

So in that spirit, the only way to create a society resistant to power consolidations is one that actively recognizes, seeks out and annihilates said power consolidations.

As otherwise, they will annihilate everything opposing them – as history tells us.

There are gentler social traditions to distribute wealth and power so as to avoid consolidation. Probably the post-colonial world is beyond that point.

A scary prospect, to be sure, but in the grand scheme of things… “The secrets of evolution are time and death” as Carl Sagan said in Cosmos.

I go with Njalla for torrents until I hear anything weird about them

No, Njalla at njal.la offers port forwarding

Also, the bell curve does not have a single bottom.

A bell curve counts the frequencies of a single parameter. A person, such as a teenager, does not fit on it.

Not at all

I think you underestimate the impact of technological progress.

Back in the day, you needed an army who could betray you. Tomorrow, you can deploy a fleet of self-governing robots to kill thousands. Of course, only accessible to the rich.

For ordinary folk, the future is looking grim indeed.

That’s not skill, it’s networks and resources you ALREADY HAVE.

Bears shit in the forest. This is not a ‘skill’. They shit in the forest because that’s where they happen to be.

It’s the same with billionaires, they were just born in that environment. You confuse bears shitting in the forest with a demonstration of skill.

If you place one out of context, it will shit on your carpet instead. Except then you will not consider it a ‘skill’ but something distasteful.

Power is like a black hole. This isn’t about wealth, it’s about power. It’s only concern is growing itself.

This is what I learned from the Lord of the Rings.

Becoming a billionaire is never about skill, or ‘spending time effectively’. Fast growth is also not a feat of a billionaire.

I think you are grasping for a superhero that doesn’t exist.

My school teacher taught me I should be surprised at things like this.

Luckily, I am no longer 12.

Hmm hmm. I’d recommend reading this: https://crimethinc.com/2019/04/08/against-the-logic-of-the-guillotine-why-the-paris-commune-burned-the-guillotine-and-we-should-too

It argues for why capital punishment is not necessarily a good route to go.

Yes, slavery. It’s been around for ages.

In 1962 there were no “lethal autonomous weapons”.

Only if other people can’t hear you or you’ll be a disturber of the peace.

The issue is the extreme power imbalance. My ‘cloud’ will be a small space, surrounded by capitalism on all fronts. Like an oil field that’s not drilled, but all fields around it are drilled. It’s emptied anyway.

You cannot be ‘apart’ from capitalism as even if you are, or try to be, outside - your position is still going to be defined as an outsider to capitalism and all the hardships that entails.

And if you get a ‘cloud’ big or powerful enough - let’s look at history, what would happen?

Genocide. That’s what happens. Every time.

I believe in personal relationships. Trying to be in good relationships makes this mess endurable and, I believe, safest.

Yes. My guess is that, soon enough, just wearing a police uniform will be enough to end up on kill lists.

Kind of like Colombia during narco wars, except it’s going to be everywhere, no matter what kind of cop.

Cops will need to watch their backs even more when people have less and less to lose, and believe less and less in the ‘rule of law’ that constantly fucks them over.

Yes, this cost-saving doesn’t directly benefit any billionaire.

I think people care, we’re just trained into patterns of learned helplessness and isolation over generations.

There were large swathes of people who resisted during the 19th and 20th centuries, they were systematically murdered en masse. I bet it has happened many times over the centuries.

Sometimes I wonder if we’ve bred ourselves into either loyal obedience or dispassionate compliance because everyone else was always killed by the first group while being ignored by the second.

Or maybe it’s just me 🤷‍♂️

😔 😢 😩 😞 😓 😭 🙍‍♂️ 💔