Comment by bloopernova | Hacker News Reader

Comment by bloopernova | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

The tone of so many articles and comments online seems to be "Shrug, not much we can do about it". Or pedantically arguing about minutia.

Between this and the pandemic response in so many places, I'm not so sure humanity is going to be around in a century or two.

The rich will live in climate controlled domes on remote islands or ships, while billions of people starve, overheat, or fight over scraps. The global "elite" rich have a serious blind-spot though: They never seem to realize that they rely on a massive robust web of interconnected humanity to support their wealth and privilege. From billions of farmers, miners, craftspeople, teachers, to workers of all types, the global rich live at the top of a massive pyramid of humanity.

Makes me wonder if the person who is desperately trying to bootstrap a society on Mars has the right idea...

Sorry for a depressing comment. It's sobering to know that despite having another 50 years or so of life left to live, I will probably die in a food riot or from home invaders looking for water and food.

> The global "elite" rich have a serious blind-spot though: They never seem to realize that they rely on a massive robust web of interconnected humanity to support their wealth and privilege.

I'm not particularly convinced of this line of argumentation. The amount of hubris and ignorance required would be truly astonishing. My take, based on misc readings from folks who have one foot in said world, is that the global elite rich are absolutely aware of this.

Furthermore, they're actively debating the problem for the simple reason of self-preservation. They want to keep their station in life: their in-groups, all their "toys", etc. They are viscerally aware of the growing disillusioned on all sides of the spectrum and an increasing willingness of the disenchanted to burn it down instead of playing what is perceived (rightly?) to be a rigged game.

Overall, it's hardly benevolent, and questionably competent. Some individuals most certainly are both; some far from either. Regardless, I do believe that sheer greed alone will mean they'll be throwing themselves as these problems if only to keep some semblance of the "good ol' days".

I'm pretty sure the elite are going to meet their reckoning long before they get to live in climate controlled domes. It's going to make the French Revolution look like a pillow fight.

I don't reallly think we're even at a real risk of actual extinction though. We as a species have gone through far more traumatic climate change in the past. Modern civilisation might collapse but humanity before the hubris of the state and capital - hunter gatherers and nomads will just continue business as always. Even many modern anemeties might be able to persist using more decentralised and sustainable fabrication methods. We will have to make up for the breakdown of those supply chains but there are many alternatives to modern electronics that are not being persued because the status quo is currently more economical.

Hopefuly, the next iteration of civilisation will do a better job of stewardship with the planet instead of being a pest.

"serious blind-spot though" Historically I think you are correct. The barbarians at the gates could topple any elite before this one.

However, I think there is an even bigger blind-spot in the general population: technology. We have a level of technology such that aggression and basic necessities can be quite easily produced with few people (drones, modern agriculture etc). They are not as dependent on us as previous elites. I think they know that when they fly to New Zealand they can keep all the refugees out quite easily, while maintaining a life with as much comfort as today.

Wasn’t there an article on HN last we re lab food obviating farming? I’ll go look...

Aha... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27723001

It's a race to build self-repairing bots. Once the wealthy have it, they can just go ahead and let most people die.

self-repairing is only a small part.

bots would have to be just as useful/cost-effective as poor humans. Apparently manual labour at $2/hr is cheaper than robots still.

If the environment is too hot for a human to work outside, the labor cost goes to infinity as the work will not be completed even if somebody takes the money

we have remote controlled robots even today for such things. still requires a human operator.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com