Yes, it's a satire article from a chud site. You can see the site in the title bar, here's the link with a CW that it's a chud site. It drones on and on in this matter, thinking it's being clever. The comments are the worst.
You finish unloading the food onto the table. A few people trickle in and start eating. You make conversation with a woman to your left.
“Hi, what’s your name?”
“I’m Sara.”
“What do you do?”
“I quit my job at Google a few months ago to work on effective altruism. I’m studying sn-risks.”
“I can’t remember, which ones are sn-risks?”
“Steppe nomads. Horse archers. The Eurasian hordes.”
“I didn’t think they were still a problem.”
“Oh yeah. You look at history, and once every two hundred, three hundred years they get their act together, form a big confederation, and invade either China, the West, or both. It’s like clockwork. 400 AD, you get the Huns. 700, the Magyars. 1000, the first Turks start moving west. 1200, Genghis Khan, killed 10% of the world population. 1400, Tamerlane, killed another 5%. 1650, the Ming-Qing transition in China, also killed 5%. We’re more than 50 years overdue at this point.”
“But I would think with modern technology - ”
“Exactly! With modern technology, the next time could be so much worse! Usually the steppe nomads are limited to a small fringe around the steppe where they can still graze their horses. But with modern logistics, you can get horse food basically anywhere. There’s no limit to how far the next steppe confederation could get. That’s why I think this is a true existential risk, not just another 5 - 10% of the world’s population like usual.”
“I was going to say that with modern technology, it just doesn’t seem like steppe nomads should be such a problem any more.”
“That’s what the Ming Dynasty thought in 1650. You know, they had guns, they had cannons, they figured that horse archers wouldn’t be able to take them on anymore. Turned out they were wrong. The nomads got them too.”
“Are there even any steppe nomads left?”
“Definitely! Lots of people in Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, stick to their traditional ways of life. All they need is a charismatic leader to unite them.”
“And the effective altruists gave you a grant to work on this?”
“Not Open Philanthropy or Future Fund or any of those people, but I was able to get independent funding.”
“From who?” you ask, as if you don’t already know the answer.
“Same place every overly confident young person gets money! Peter Thiel!”
You let her drone on about Avars and Hephthalites for a few more minutes, then politely excuse yourself and strike up a conversation with the guy to your right.
Honestly, most of those individual bits were pretty funny but would probably have been funnier if they were on their own, as it is the joke just gets a bit tired after a bit.
It kind of feels like a b or c tier version of Douglas Adam's writing in the second and third Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books
this this this this. like 5% or less of the articles are good, and even the ones that are good are still usually a couple paragraphs too long and ruin the good jokes with obvious jokes.
Yes, it's a satire article from a chud site. You can see the site in the title bar, here's the link with a CW that it's a chud site. It drones on and on in this matter, thinking it's being clever. The comments are the worst.
You finish unloading the food onto the table. A few people trickle in and start eating. You make conversation with a woman to your left.
“Hi, what’s your name?”
“I’m Sara.”
“What do you do?”
“I quit my job at Google a few months ago to work on effective altruism. I’m studying sn-risks.”
“I can’t remember, which ones are sn-risks?”
“Steppe nomads. Horse archers. The Eurasian hordes.”
“I didn’t think they were still a problem.”
“Oh yeah. You look at history, and once every two hundred, three hundred years they get their act together, form a big confederation, and invade either China, the West, or both. It’s like clockwork. 400 AD, you get the Huns. 700, the Magyars. 1000, the first Turks start moving west. 1200, Genghis Khan, killed 10% of the world population. 1400, Tamerlane, killed another 5%. 1650, the Ming-Qing transition in China, also killed 5%. We’re more than 50 years overdue at this point.”
“But I would think with modern technology - ”
“Exactly! With modern technology, the next time could be so much worse! Usually the steppe nomads are limited to a small fringe around the steppe where they can still graze their horses. But with modern logistics, you can get horse food basically anywhere. There’s no limit to how far the next steppe confederation could get. That’s why I think this is a true existential risk, not just another 5 - 10% of the world’s population like usual.”
“I was going to say that with modern technology, it just doesn’t seem like steppe nomads should be such a problem any more.”
“That’s what the Ming Dynasty thought in 1650. You know, they had guns, they had cannons, they figured that horse archers wouldn’t be able to take them on anymore. Turned out they were wrong. The nomads got them too.”
“Are there even any steppe nomads left?”
“Definitely! Lots of people in Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, stick to their traditional ways of life. All they need is a charismatic leader to unite them.”
“And the effective altruists gave you a grant to work on this?”
“Not Open Philanthropy or Future Fund or any of those people, but I was able to get independent funding.”
“From who?” you ask, as if you don’t already know the answer.
“Same place every overly confident young person gets money! Peter Thiel!”
You let her drone on about Avars and Hephthalites for a few more minutes, then politely excuse yourself and strike up a conversation with the guy to your right.
Honestly, most of those individual bits were pretty funny but would probably have been funnier if they were on their own, as it is the joke just gets a bit tired after a bit.
It kind of feels like a b or c tier version of Douglas Adam's writing in the second and third Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books
The Onion has this issue too. Their headlines are gold but their articles are just re-phrasing the headline 10 times with filler
this this this this. like 5% or less of the articles are good, and even the ones that are good are still usually a couple paragraphs too long and ruin the good jokes with obvious jokes.
Lowkey she’s making some very good points here
ya we gotta get these guys back on our side
Did you even look at the comments on that article? Flaming dumpster fire doesn't even begin to describe it.
no not lesswrongers. the mongolians.
Removed by mod
Nah, this is great actually
SlateStarCodex is a fascist racist "rationalist". You want to applaud that part of humanity, that's going to reflect on you bro.
Shockingly, I'm not super worried about my reputation on commie reddit. Broken clocks are still funny twice a day, it's okay, you can laugh.
wait and this is right wing satire?