Money Identity Coercion Ego. Those are the primary motivators.

Being rich means you’ve solved money and probably coercion. You can either rest on your laurels or chase the other two, for good or for evil. There’s rich philanthropists - some who give almost everything away - and then whatever Elon Musk is, but most go for the rest on their laurels thing, and you probably haven’t heard of them.

Dehumanising someone also serves our identity and ego, FYI, which is where this thread came from.

Even the capitalists are behaving differently and more humane compared the fuedalists of the middle ages.

Yes, because their source of wealth is fundamentally different. Lords had to project violence and play court politics to keep their position. Still do, in some places. The rich in developed countries on the other hand can rely on strong rule of law to protect their property with very little personal input.

Also why if the apocalypse ever happened, they’d get owned and somebody else would take their bunker.

They fill the role nonverbal cues do in real life. Whenever I go back to old-style forums I miss them, because everyone ends up arguing with a few trolls/nuts that look like they’re being taken seriously otherwise.

Lotteries exist. Boom, disproven.

It’s not even an exception, really. Being part of just the right startup at just the right time, or coming out of the right mother basically is a lottery. Meanwhile, poor mean assholes exist too.

Dehumanising and giving no quarter are different things.

Yes, but it makes us feel better about ourselves.

/s but also not.

They are human.

Humans are just like that.

Flying cars were always dangerous and impractical in the places where they’d be needed, but I’m already in line for an implant that didn’t used to exist. Cyberware is basically just that on an elective basis, right?

We have crypto, talking computers and warfare looks like this:

Next up I’m waiting on crowded street markets lit by signage, although the trend towards delivering everything makes me doubt.

The one trope that can’t happen is corporations as government. Executives are not warlords, even if they think they are. Actual authoritarian regimes always end up looking like each other, and not like Google.

Neat explanation. I’m going to add “energy is conserved” to this; we expect people to know that and make the connection to calories, but better safe than sorry.

Good for you! How long ago was that, and did you gain it back? That’s usually the really hard part.

What do you mean? Almost everyone wants more, and will gladly take it if they have an opportunity. That’s why lotteries exist, right?

Big history is full of open questions, but there’s counterexamples. Short-lived republics are a dime a dozen, while Egypt lasted for thousands of years. There are known cases where inequality actually increases with the end of an empire, like how Roman Britain with it’s public bathhouses directly gives way to dark ages Britain with feudal lords and manors. In some cases, a disenfranchised group getting a bit of power is destabilising.

Community, status and not being economically punished are way bigger motivators than being abstractly correct, right? Nobody really goes looking for inconvenient truths. Unless those naturally nice, understanding conservatives start meeting a lot of very different people, like if they move, the worldview will probably stay put.

To be a little more doomer than you, I’d actually say there’s lots of people that go the other way as well, and go looking for a cult to join as an outlet for whatever nastiness is inside of them. Consider that in the grand scheme of things, monotheism and racism are both new.

Interesting! Thank you.

They do exist in places where it’s just the default politics. One has to suspect that if they seriously learned and thought about things, they’d move left.

Do you prefer visual porn, or written erotica/smutty novels?

I don’t ask this both because of the obvious privateness, and because I don’t want to put anyone on the spot if their choice doesn’t align with what’s typical for their gender identity, but I do wonder.

What did they teach about the Trump stuff? A lot of things are happening, or not happening but widely believed to be happening, that aren’t supposed to. Did they discuss the possibility that traditional system of government might not survive?

Yeah, “people used to be better” has been a popular sentiment since Socrates, at least.

So, a timeframe isn’t given here, and it’s not even clear who’s being interviewed (Alain Herzog is the photographer), but it doesn’t sound too out there. That’s a 200% increase, given Switzerland’s current use, and it’s specifically renewable capacity to overcome variability. If you provide some kind of V2G or grid storage, or something more responsive like nuclear, that’s going to go down, because the figure is essentially what’s needed to avoid disruption on a hot day that’s also very cloudy.

it’s happening NOW.

Oh, so it’s over a moment from NOW?

Nah, it’s slowly and continuously happening. It has been for decades, although with greater rate as we’ve ignored it.

buildout all the grid you can, it won’t be enough for everyone, and when it collapses, everyone’s fucked.

We’ll need X amount of power. If the grid can supply that, we won’t directly cook. It’s more than now, but not massively more.

Did your parents have any children that lived? I bet they regret that.

No u.

Yes, and there’s also bog or ice mummies that are preserved totally different ways. The Egyptian ones that are filled with preservatives and dehydrated probably do just need air that’s super dry.