As an American I feel this way too - there is a nostalgia and disappointed yearning for what was probably a propaganda pipe dream. I find myself disappointed and indignant at the long list of bullshit we are doing right now but I'm surprised by my own extreme sense of betrayal over how we don't even -want- to be "the good guys" anymore. I know the US has a long history of evil, dont get me wrong, but until recently (~covid) I thought most of us at least wanted to be a positive force in the world.
For me, Dan Carlin said it perfectly - I want the America from the promotional material.
Why is that the endgame with people though? Maybe I'm just jaded but several different human nature elements came to mind when I read your comment:
Greed/Change Avoidance:
If someone invented replicators right now, even if they gave it completely away to the world, what would happen? I can't imagine the finance and military grind just coming to an end to make sure everyone has a working replicator and enough power to run it so nobody has to work anymore. Who gives up their slice of society to make that change and who risks losing their social status? This is like openai pretending "your investment should be considered a gift because money will have no value soon". That mask came off really quickly.
Status/Hate:
There are huge swaths of the US population that would detest the idea that people they see as "below" them don't have to work. I can imagine political movements doing well on the back of "don't let the lazy outgroup ruin society by having replicators".
Fuck the Poor:
We don't do the easy things to eliminate or reduce suffering now, even when it has real world positive effects. Malaria, tuberculosis, even boring old hunger are rampant and causing horrible, unnecessary suffering all over the world.
Dont tread on me:
I shudder when I think of the damage someone could do with a chip on their shoulder and a replicator.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions:
What happens when everyone can try their own version of bio engineering or climate engineering or building a nuclear power plant or anything else. Invasive species are a problem now and I worry already when companies like Google decide to just release bioengineered mosquitos and see what happens. I -really- worry when the average person decides a big complicated problem is actually really simple and they can just replicate their particular idea and see what happens. Whoops, ivermectin in the water supply didn't cure autism!
Someone give me some hope for a more positive version here because I bummed myself out.
I mean, if I could live at my current level (middle class) without working, I would gladly do so, and let others also live at the same level, anywhere in the world, freely (if it was in my power). I do give to charity, always have, but, the crazier things get, the less secure I feel in giving $$ away.
Even replicators need feedstock - people who own the rocks or sand or whatever feeds them will start charging an arm and a leg. Sure, I could feed it dirt and rocks from my own property, but only for so long before I'm undermining the foundation of my own house. To say nothing of people who live in apartments.
And then, if everyone has equal $$, how do you decide who gets to live in the better locations / nicer housing?
To follow the pattern of your comment: You are missing the forest for the trees. Like many things, the difference between theory and practice matters here. In theory the only thing that matters is the idea. In practice the context and human element matters AND a culture of ai text could very much reduce the bar for quality.
An equivalent overly-pure reductive mistake is "why do you need privacy if you aren't doing anything wrong".
Look your comment: a lot of fluff and nice sentence construction. But I have no idea what you are trying to say (missing forest from the trees? Practice and context?).
But it will be upvoted because it has nice English.
Anyway, AI is a future and this thread just shows how shallow we humans are. And we will blame AI. Because we are shallow.
If you freely admit that you struggle with reading comprehension, why would your opinion on how best to write be valuable?
I'm not saying that as an attack, but the parent comment was completely comprehensible; it doesn't seem like you have the required expertise in this area to comment.
That doesn't mean don't file them. Don't allow evil deeds to be done merely by threat - force immoral people to take the immoral action in public if they want to behave that way.
Do you find those more impactful on your future voting than the lies, the massive amount of money funneled to the trump family, threatening to invade our allies, and the epstein involvement plus its subsequent cover up?
I'm not trying to be snarky but I am trying to take the opportunity to gauge how some folks are prioritizing these things when they vote.
I think it has a lot to with where people get their information. If you stick your head in the Fox News / NewsMax sand you aren't even going to see the all of the corruption that was clear before the election.
And the twitter sewer is full of unsubstantiated rage bait and thinly veiled toxic innuendo. Musk knew exactly what he was doing when he used his direct control of a multi billion dollar communication network to influence the election.
I'm just glad some people are finally saying "hey, wait a minute..."
Frank answer - the total release of Epstein files was a promise during election time. As was not getting into foreign wars. Immigration enforcement is a problem - all they had to really do was turn the tap off at the border and use legal means to deport as opposed to the mess they created.
During the previous time they were in power - these were mostly adhered to. Tariffs - again inept. They need to be targeted to keep allies close and wean off of Chinese dependence.
So all in all - most of the corruption didn’t exist during trumps first term.
For me, Dan Carlin said it perfectly - I want the America from the promotional material.
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