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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 24, 2023

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Sometimes I forget how incredible the future is going to be.

What, life as a brain in a jar?

Forget all the 50s techno-optimism SF "we'll have endless free energy, space colonies, eternal youth, and eventually fantastic cyborg bodies where we can fly like birds, swim like dolphins, and run as fast as Superman!"

Nah, all that is too expensive in material. Easier to be a brain in a jar that is wired up to a VR version of "eternal youth, flying and swimming, living in a space colony", and all the rest of it.

The future is you being owned, in effect, by the likes of Meta and whatever mega-corporations are under the AIs running the economy (if we get AI that far).

We’re already ‘owned in effect’ my friend. Humans have never been free and never will be, in the literal sense. We need society and others not to go completely batshit.

Brain in a jar? Well it’ll be a little weird but hell if I get to extend my natural lifespan a few hundred years, I’d imagine I might get bored with a normal human body anyway.

I don’t deny that we could end up with a horrible future. It’s certainly possible. But I think better futures are possible and more likely. I also think that pessimistic, doomer takes actively push against that good future.