Large-headed Marc Andreessen doesn't _really_ think the virtual world is better and more worth investing in than the real, tactile world -- he's implicitly stating that the real world for a lot of people sucks (people who are indirect victims of his business activities, no less) and that they should instead find a quantum of solace in a virtual world that's increasingly engineered to extract any remaining wealth and attention from them.
Why should a pleb even concern himself with the tactile, real world that he cannot afford? That world is for the likes of Marc Andreessen. Napa Valley isn't for plebs -- the pleb can instead download a high-res screensaver or a custom paintjob for their instagram profile. Maybe they can subscribe for some 'personalised' and quirky emojis that really express themselves. They don't need to concern themselves with Lake Como, they can watch videos of Lake Como and stop making a mess of things and causing traffic.
There are some crucial questions in this post that get to the heart of where the US is right now.
A few thoughts for what they're worth:
- I'd say the internet before Web2.0 and the social media giants was generally a good thing. Un-moderated information for all. Where the internet has taken a negative turn and where I'm in the Thiel camp is with most news and information going through big tech, those few companies (backed by the State) have more control than ever on the Overton window and what information they allow people to see. And with AI this can be tailored and tracked to the individual level. Dissent and true debate is being squashed.
- The benefits of the open information of the internet are available to all, but only those with access and ability can truly profit from that. It provides great leverage for those with ability while those without get left behind.
- The internet has now enabled a level of individual tracking and social control (China's social credit score tied to their new digital currency, which the West is working to emulate) that was never before possible, even with Mao or Stalin. This could lock the world into a long dark age (@johnrobb has a lot of good takes here).
- A future built mostly in the internet (vs the real world) is the only realm in which the modern lie of "everyone has equal ability" could be made to feel true. To Ace's comments on this post society has two tiers and the mass of plebs are growing and life for them is getting worse (in the US). Directing that class into the distractions of the internet keeps them from noticing how badly they're getting fucked and helps the ruling class maintain control.
- I do think there is opportunity in what @Balajis and others have been advocating in terms of distributed cyrpto organizations as a way to counter the trend towards massive state control. Thiel has pointed out that AI is largely a "communist" technology while crypto is a "libertarian" one. How these two counter trends play out could shape society for a long time to come. Personally I'm very much in the crypto camp
You and Douthat frame "Virtual Space" and "Meat Space" as zero-sum competitors and fail to give due weight to the possibility that building in the one can facilitate building in the other. Having worked in VR for several years, I can say that the experiences with staying power are the ones with real-world application. The immersive design tool Gravity Sketch is becoming industry standard in car manufacturing, and biotech is making use of virtual tools like Nanome.
In a meeting with AutoDesk several years back, one of their designer asserted that 30% of the cost of a large-scale commercial building project lies in do-overs and redundancies: the outlets that need to be repositioned to make room for plumbing, the concrete delivered on the wrong day. Improved tools for modeling everything from electric grids to traffic flows have the potential to radically streamline the construction process. Especially in today's inflationary environment, this can make the difference between building and not building.
any word on Salo Forum? it takes me to some simcast page. I found the forum very informative and I'm sad that is gone now with no idea of what happened to it. I'm sorry to barge in here but I stand by my decision of not touching Twitter ever.
Glad to see this substack get the attention it deserves. Hopefully more attention doesn't bring more self-preserving or ambitious blandness though.
Large-headed Marc Andreessen doesn't _really_ think the virtual world is better and more worth investing in than the real, tactile world -- he's implicitly stating that the real world for a lot of people sucks (people who are indirect victims of his business activities, no less) and that they should instead find a quantum of solace in a virtual world that's increasingly engineered to extract any remaining wealth and attention from them.
Why should a pleb even concern himself with the tactile, real world that he cannot afford? That world is for the likes of Marc Andreessen. Napa Valley isn't for plebs -- the pleb can instead download a high-res screensaver or a custom paintjob for their instagram profile. Maybe they can subscribe for some 'personalised' and quirky emojis that really express themselves. They don't need to concern themselves with Lake Como, they can watch videos of Lake Como and stop making a mess of things and causing traffic.
There are some crucial questions in this post that get to the heart of where the US is right now.
A few thoughts for what they're worth:
- I'd say the internet before Web2.0 and the social media giants was generally a good thing. Un-moderated information for all. Where the internet has taken a negative turn and where I'm in the Thiel camp is with most news and information going through big tech, those few companies (backed by the State) have more control than ever on the Overton window and what information they allow people to see. And with AI this can be tailored and tracked to the individual level. Dissent and true debate is being squashed.
- The benefits of the open information of the internet are available to all, but only those with access and ability can truly profit from that. It provides great leverage for those with ability while those without get left behind.
- The internet has now enabled a level of individual tracking and social control (China's social credit score tied to their new digital currency, which the West is working to emulate) that was never before possible, even with Mao or Stalin. This could lock the world into a long dark age (@johnrobb has a lot of good takes here).
- A future built mostly in the internet (vs the real world) is the only realm in which the modern lie of "everyone has equal ability" could be made to feel true. To Ace's comments on this post society has two tiers and the mass of plebs are growing and life for them is getting worse (in the US). Directing that class into the distractions of the internet keeps them from noticing how badly they're getting fucked and helps the ruling class maintain control.
- I do think there is opportunity in what @Balajis and others have been advocating in terms of distributed cyrpto organizations as a way to counter the trend towards massive state control. Thiel has pointed out that AI is largely a "communist" technology while crypto is a "libertarian" one. How these two counter trends play out could shape society for a long time to come. Personally I'm very much in the crypto camp
You and Douthat frame "Virtual Space" and "Meat Space" as zero-sum competitors and fail to give due weight to the possibility that building in the one can facilitate building in the other. Having worked in VR for several years, I can say that the experiences with staying power are the ones with real-world application. The immersive design tool Gravity Sketch is becoming industry standard in car manufacturing, and biotech is making use of virtual tools like Nanome.
In a meeting with AutoDesk several years back, one of their designer asserted that 30% of the cost of a large-scale commercial building project lies in do-overs and redundancies: the outlets that need to be repositioned to make room for plumbing, the concrete delivered on the wrong day. Improved tools for modeling everything from electric grids to traffic flows have the potential to radically streamline the construction process. Especially in today's inflationary environment, this can make the difference between building and not building.
Hi Niccolo,
any word on Salo Forum? it takes me to some simcast page. I found the forum very informative and I'm sad that is gone now with no idea of what happened to it. I'm sorry to barge in here but I stand by my decision of not touching Twitter ever.
Greetings, keep up the good work.