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Comment by anoplus | Hacker News Reader

I see similarities to the <edit>wikipedia picture</edit> protest in Israel's Tel Aviv main square from yesterday, in terms of social distancing.

https://www.rt.com/news/486269-israel-protest-social-distanc...

And also, I was just having philosophical thoughts about the distribution of power in the world. I wonder if advances in technology will one day create a coalition of super powerful people who will control the world and will make the rest of humanity slaves at best and completely worthless at worst.

I mean, do ethical people naturally gravitate toward power? or does power tend to attract the less empathetic (to put it nicely)?

[edit]

I even fear one day we won't be even able to post about this topic.

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It is said that absolute power corrupts absolutely.

At the foundation of the U.S., in the Federalist Papers #51 (1788) it says:

> If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary

To your point:

> I wonder if advances in technology will one day create a coalition of super powerful people who will control the world and will make the rest of humanity salves at best and completely worthless at worst.

It's hard to say we haven't come dangerously close to achieving this approximation already. Regardless of your political affiliation, there was a headline today saying that Facebook is categorizing protests formed on its platform as "dangerous misinformation". This is a dangerously powerful stance that we shouldn't take lightly.

This is basically the discussion that Westworld (HBO) is having right now. I think it's getting somewhat mixed reviews, but I've found Season 3 to be a fairly prescient plot.

>I see similarities to the protest in Israel's Tel Aviv main square from yesterday, in terms of social distancing.

Not seeing any myself given social distancing back then and now meant different things to people. Back then it would be some form of euphemism for - governmental cover up, which is not the go to definition we all know today when somebody says "social distancing".

What similarities other than both were protests are you seeing?

Honestly I was just referring to the pictures :) I will edit it now to point out its the pictures. Thanks

Then you might want to look at some pictures of Tiananmen Square protests - https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/gabrielsanchez/pictures...

Yes totally different.

Btw, why is this post being flagged?

Dunno, but it's hardly news or anything new to the subject, just another wiki article and the subject, I dare say ticks too many political landmines in debate and we don't do politics here.

>if advances in technology will one day ...

>... make the rest of humanity slaves at best and completely worthless at worst.

power tends to corruption

People tend towards corruption, power just enables that tendency. But not always the case and few examples of people in power throughout history who have been shining examples of showing us that it can be done right.

i am sure every rule has exceptions.

It does, hence tends encapsulates that niche. But then nothing is perfect so their will always be an exception.

Reminds me of an old IT joke - We finally made the perfect code, it debugs itself. Alas when we run it, it electriculted the programmer.

"Absolute power corrupts absolutely" - John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton

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