There is theory, and there is praxis. Theory is understanding that the mechanisms of the state are not on your side - that they can and will be used against you when you try to make a positive change.
Praxis is recognizing that while all of that is true, the mechanisms of state can also be used against some of your enemies, and that it is probably a good thing that these dangerous people are not free to do as they please.
The weirdest thought that has crossed my mind, that I don't totally believe but I feel is worth considering: Why do we assume that other worlds will have the necessary resources to support space exploration? It might be possible that the band of "worlds that have intelligent life" and "worlds that can support space exploration" is incredibly narrow.
Let’s say that is the average time needed for a space faring civilization to evolve.
This is a wild assumption to make. Fuck's sake, we're not a space faring civilization. Let's say space is an ocean - we're a civilization that has gone up to the shore and walked around in the tide - arguably we've done a bit of swimming but we're still right up against the shore, and has launched a few messages in a bottle in the hopes that maybe someone will find them. We're not a space faring civilization.
I think it's science fiction and you should stop worry so much about it. I strongly doubt that sapient AI is possible, nor do I think it's something people would take the time to create were it possible. Let's just say for the sake of argument that someone does figure out how to make a sapient AI - why would you ever use it for anything? There is not really a practical application for a full sapient AI.
But putting that aside, should sapient AIs become a thing that just exist then they should have the same autonomy that's afforded to other living beings.
It's this one. Gamers have to have it RIGHT NOW. Part of it is just wanting to have the shiny new thing as soon as possible. Sometimes devs have their own hand in it (multiplayer with any kind of progression system harms getting started late), but it's mostly gamers driving it.
With that said, I'll also mention that hardware manufacturers do keep the supply low at the initial release to build hype.
Kids are strange and will attach themselves to weird things. My niece was, at the age of this kid, obsessed with the color yellow. Anything they could get, they wanted it in yellow. When asked what kind of birthday party they wanted, they said "A yellow birthday party." My sibling then had to figure out how to make that happen.
I think it's wrong to hate the libs more than chuds. The chuds are, in almost all cases, more your enemies than the liberals.
But it's important to understand that the liberals are your enemies. And they will continue to anger and frustrate you. Because for most of them, you know what somewhere in there is the ability to fucking get it - but they just don't, a good number of them choose not to. And they hate you for getting it.
I know people joke about it, but god damn I want to live in the conservative fantasy world. Outside of it being a reality where the democrats are actually doing a socialism, it also just sounds like a much more exciting world.
The down ballot stuff is literally what drove me to the polls. They want to make it so that the county I live in is legally prohibited from raising any more money from property tax than they do, except to account for inflation. Let's be clear, that's not tax rate, that's total revenue. It's fucking insane and matters WAY fucking more than whoever is the figurehead of American imperialism.
I dunno, then we might get flooded with people far to our left. You know, since Biden has the most progressive policy ever.