For the love of God, please craft hobbies and an appreciation for life beyond abstract "utility" maximization. These freaks are so hyperalienated from their own existence that they can't conceive of themselves as anything other than an input. Sorry nerds, you won't find self-actualization by designing a marginally more addictive ad-software or another tulip bubble. Please stop eating the bugs and look at some art for a fucking change.

  • pastalicious [he/him, undecided]
    hexbear
    75
    9 months ago

    Sleeping in a $700/month coffin so I can invent technology that makes the world more callous and unlivable. Love me I’m a techbro!

    • ChaosMaterialist [he/him]
      hexbear
      28
      9 months ago

      A large surplus of housing, so one could change their surroundings on a whim, would be an ideal socialist future. Hostels are a type of communal pod system you are talking about.

        • SuperZutsuki [they/them, any]
          hexbear
          19
          edit-2
          9 months ago

          A shitton of land is suburban wasteland and all the infrastructure to support it. Turf grass alone takes up 2% of all land in the US (from a quick search) and I imagine the stroads, strip malls, and single family homes with 3+ car garages take up another 3-5%. The problem has always been wasteful and destructive land use rather than scarcity. Imagine all the current suburbs as parks, farmland, or rewilded areas instead of ugly tract homes. I don't think infinite growth is possible or anything but cities should be looking to Shanghai and Tokyo as a blueprint.

          It's also hilarious to me that NIMBYs are so opposed to any form of urbanization because "muh property value" when the highest property values are in the most urbanized, walkable places.

        • ChaosMaterialist [he/him]
          hexbear
          10
          9 months ago

          I'm skeptical of abundance on a finite world nearing the limits of growth and being destroyed by climate change.

          What if I told you that we already have abundant housing, right now, as I type this out. And I'm not talking about our hotels, prisons, or "camp grounds", but actual livable units1. Enough to solve Homelessness in the US multiple times over2.

          It simply is not evenly distributed yet kropotkin-shining

          That said, pod hives could be easily established in any location. Want to live near a beach? Near a skiing slope? Near dense forest? Near downtown? There's pods for that!

          Oh I believe in seizing hotels for exactly this purpose.

          1 Census on housing, table 3, Vacant Year Round - Held off Market: 6,812,000 units. This is nearly 5% of the entire US housing stock, and almost half of the Vacant year-round units.

          2 Department of Housing and Urban Development homeless count in 2022: 582,462 people

            • Thordros [he/him, comrade/them]
              hexbear
              5
              9 months ago

              It looks like you're talking past one another here. OF COURSE suburbs, golf courses, yachts, and other rich people bullshit needs to be bulldozed. Fuck that shit.

              In a GOOD world—where everybody gets a nice apartment, all their basic needs met, and we've transitioned entirely to renewable energy—we'll be living lives of abundance, rather than scarcity.

              Maybe I'm talking out my ass here, but in a world where the profit motive is gone, I cannot imagine we'd run into any hard limits on Earth for a long, long time.

  • UltraGreen [comrade/them]
    hexbear
    45
    9 months ago

    If you set these pods on fire, you could probably prevent the creation of some kind of driverless car software that will run over millions of children.

  • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
    hexbear
    42
    9 months ago

    $700/mo for a cot in a plywood box.

    What a scam. mao-aggro-shining energies in me are rising.

    • @pillow
      hexbear
      15
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      deleted by creator

      • envis10n [he/him]
        hexbear
        15
        9 months ago

        For sure. I think the issue is really that people think it's okay to pay $700/month for a tiny box to sleep in at all. As if it were a good thing for society.

        We should really just fucking house everyone and get rid of bloodsucking landlords.

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
      hexbear
      28
      9 months ago

      When pressed for "innovation," 9 times out of 10 what's pushed out of the financial Rube Goldberg machine is "what if thing that already exists, but with more surveillance" "what if thing that already exists, but on the blockchain" or "what if thing that already exists, but with a subscription."

        • UlyssesT [he/him]
          hexbear
          31
          9 months ago

          I was shooting heroin and reading “The Fountainhead” in the front seat of my privately owned police cruiser when a call came in. I put a quarter in the radio to activate it. It was the chief.

          “Bad news, detective. We got a situation.”

          “What? Is the mayor trying to ban trans fats again?”

          “Worse. Somebody just stole four hundred and forty-seven million dollars’ worth of bitcoins.”

          The heroin needle practically fell out of my arm. “What kind of monster would do something like that? Bitcoins are the ultimate currency: virtual, anonymous, stateless. They represent true economic freedom, not subject to arbitrary manipulation by any government. Do we have any leads?”

          “Not yet. But mark my words: we’re going to figure out who did this and we’re going to take them down … provided someone pays us a fair market rate to do so.”

          “Easy, chief,” I said. “Any rate the market offers is, by definition, fair.”

          He laughed. “That’s why you’re the best I got, Lisowski. Now you get out there and find those bitcoins.”

          “Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m on it.”

          I put a quarter in the siren. Ten minutes later, I was on the scene. It was a normal office building, strangled on all sides by public sidewalks. I hopped over them and went inside.

          “Home Depot™ Presents the Police!®” I said, flashing my badge and my gun and a small picture of Ron Paul. “Nobody move unless you want to!” They didn’t.

          “Now, which one of you punks is going to pay me to investigate this crime?” No one spoke up.

          “Come on,” I said. “Don’t you all understand that the protection of private property is the foundation of all personal liberty?”

          It didn’t seem like they did.

          “Seriously, guys. Without a strong economic motivator, I’m just going to stand here and not solve this case. Cash is fine, but I prefer being paid in gold bullion or autographed Penn Jillette posters.”

          Nothing. These people were stonewalling me. It almost seemed like they didn’t care that a fortune in computer money invented to buy drugs was missing.

          I figured I could wait them out. I lit several cigarettes indoors. A pregnant lady coughed, and I told her that secondhand smoke is a myth. Just then, a man in glasses made a break for it.

          “Subway™ Eat Fresh and Freeze, Scumbag!®” I yelled.

          Too late. He was already out the front door. I went after him.

          “Stop right there!” I yelled as I ran. He was faster than me because I always try to avoid stepping on public sidewalks. Our country needs a private-sidewalk voucher system, but, thanks to the incestuous interplay between our corrupt federal government and the public-sidewalk lobby, it will never happen.

          I was losing him. “Listen, I’ll pay you to stop!” I yelled. “What would you consider an appropriate price point for stopping? I’ll offer you a thirteenth of an ounce of gold and a gently worn ‘Bob Barr ‘08’ extra-large long-sleeved men’s T-shirt!”

          He turned. In his hand was a revolver that the Constitution said he had every right to own. He fired at me and missed. I pulled my own gun, put a quarter in it, and fired back. The bullet lodged in a U.S.P.S. mailbox less than a foot from his head. I shot the mailbox again, on purpose.

          “All right, all right!” the man yelled, throwing down his weapon. “I give up, cop! I confess: I took the bitcoins.”

          “Why’d you do it?” I asked, as I slapped a pair of Oikos™ Greek Yogurt Presents Handcuffs® on the guy.

          “Because I was afraid.”

          “Afraid?”

          “Afraid of an economic future free from the pernicious meddling of central bankers,” he said. “I’m a central banker.”

          I wanted to coldcock the guy. Years ago, a central banker killed my partner. Instead, I shook my head.

          “Let this be a message to all your central-banker friends out on the street,” I said. “No matter how many bitcoins you steal, you’ll never take away the dream of an open society based on the principles of personal and economic freedom.”

          He nodded, because he knew I was right. Then he swiped his credit card to pay me for arresting him.

  • SuperZutsuki [they/them, any]
    hexbear
    31
    edit-2
    9 months ago

    "AI founder" = fed Stable Diffusion a million dick pics and runs a startup that guarantees more positive interactions when you send unsolicited, AI-enhanced dick pics

    "Just close enough to the real thing to be only mildly disappointing."

  • Awoo [she/her]
    hexbear
    25
    9 months ago

    The only people that advocate for this lifestyle are people with no friends, no families, and no ambitions for either. The odd part is that they have very little consciousness of just how differently they live to normal people. It's a huge chunk of why they're so fundamentally out of touch with the average person.

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
      hexbear
      16
      9 months ago

      I know some people I used to go to college with that started joining "pods" or "colonies" or other buzzwords that blend together as soon as they got their cerifications. To this day, as far as I know, they're still "preparing" for the lives ahead of them, while being in their late 30s and early 40s. No actual steps taken into having non-work friends or relationships, just a "any moment now everything will pay off and they will be gods among men" confidence.

      What's actually around doesn't matter. The next tech hype thing will surely be superior to it and surpass it. It's endless preparing while running in place and it's sad to watch happen to another person.

      • Awoo [she/her]
        hexbear
        16
        edit-2
        9 months ago

        An odd contradiction is that they advocate this lifestyle while also advocating technology like VR, which is completely incompatible with people living in this kind of space.

        It goes to show just how little their consciousness is of the living space and daily life compared to the technology they advocate.

        • UlyssesT [he/him]
          hexbear
          15
          9 months ago

          An odd contradiction is that they advocate this lifestyle while also advocating technology like VR, which is completely incompatible with people living in this kind of space.

          I've argued about that exact contradiction with one of the exact people I mentioned before.

          His answer was NeuraLink(tm)(r). Just like in the Cyberpunkerinos. soypoint-1 no-mouth-must-scream soypoint-2

          • Awoo [she/her]
            hexbear
            5
            9 months ago

            I will become techbro-only Saw in my old age if this is the future they build.

      • PeeOnYou [he/him]@lemmygrad.ml
        hexbear
        2
        9 months ago

        the problem with this type of sacrifice is at a certain point they become even more invested because they need it to be worth everything they've already lost out on

        • UlyssesT [he/him]
          hexbear
          3
          9 months ago

          A whole lot of the "California Ideology" is exactly that: more techbro shit must be subsidized because all the previous techbro shit had to be worth it.

  • Lerios [hy/hym]
    hexbear
    22
    9 months ago

    $700/month for THAT

    okay i was really unhyped about how much higher the rent is in my new city than out in my old village, but for some reason i suddenly feel a lot better about my own financial decisions agony-shivering

  • UlyssesT [he/him]
    hexbear
    18
    9 months ago

    It's a cult.

    It's a fucking cult with a death drive.

  • UnicodeHamSic [he/him]
    hexbear
    7
    edit-2
    9 months ago

    I would love a sailor's berth in a communal dorm tipe living arrangement. That sounds nice. I've lived in a barrack setting before. It was nice enough. Especially if it could be cheap it would be a good part of fixing several problems in society at once.

    It is wild how they take a fraction of comunism's power and then enshitify it