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Comment by craftyguy | Hacker News Reader

> we are more heading into a Cyberpunk future where corporations hold the real power

I believe we're more heading into an Idiocracy future where corporations also hold the real power (e.g. "Carl's Jr machine: Your kids are starving. Carl's Jr. believes no child should go hungry. You are an unfit mother.")

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We have seen this coming for a long time. The thing is that 30 years ago, we thought it was going to be a technologically sophisticated, slick ultra-IBM type corporation that managed everyone's lives. Now, it seems like it's going to be more like a television station's advertising department manages your life.

Roughly what Neil Postman thought around 30 years ago then: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death

Right, more like Brave New World than 1984, I reckon. But that's not to say either style has to be dystopic.

Bruce Sterling: Distraction

...also Heavy Weather

I...have you read those books?

You mean, regarding the dystopic aspect? Of course the societies depicted in those novels are dystopic, but I mean that it's possible to have similar systems of societal control in place without their being taken to an extreme.

...how do you know?

I agree. They already sell Smartwater. Because it has got electrolytes.

I think that comparison is a little fuzzy.

That's what plants crave!

No, plants crave Mountain Dew

Unrelated aside: 1L Smartwater bottles are rather light and durable for reuse in backpacking.

I like them on flights too since they actually fit in the little pocket on the seat

Yea totally, Sawyer filters fit them nicely too. They're VERY durable, as in I've got one bottle I've carried probably hundreds of miles by now over several trips and it's been dropped and squeezed thousands of times. Looks like a bear chewed it up, but it still does not leak.

Pro tip: you can replace the O-ring that comes with the filter for a durable rubber one used for garden hoses for a real nice fit on the smartwater bottles, and have some extras because the worst is if you lose that seal (or it is damaged) and you are out in the wilderness.

President Trump's experience with the World Wrestling Federation qualifies him as the literal embodiment of Idiocracy's Wrestler President. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkghtyxZ6rc

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