Spacehillbilly
Well-known member
Was the unabomber right when he said that modern society will destroy us?
Uh in what way?
A jab at the thread already? I mean SB constantly jokes that it's the CIA's/NSA's/Military's petri dish for ideas...This thread right here officers!
A jab at the thread already? I mean SB constantly jokes that it's the CIA's/NSA's/Military's petri dish for ideas...
Society and freedoms are fluid, yeah, but preconceptions and assumptions only exist to get smashed as the understanding of the universe expands and deepens.I kid. But in all seriousness the Unabomber is incorrect.
"Society" is fluid, what we perceive it to be varies from person to person so the nebulous "society" cannot destroy us as it would adapt into a mostly non destructive form.
... and personally I believe Luddies have to have something wrong with them mentally as they're denying the human instinct to create tools. :\If you agree that anything more complicated than simple hand tools is evil than yes I suppose he was right if you hold that view point.
Yes, there is a lot of irony on discussing the Unabomber's views on the internet... the irony is so thick you can make a lot of steel out of it.Also there's some irony in discussing the Unabomber's views on the internet in 2019.
This is the thesis. 35,000 word expansion on that.The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. They have greatly increased the life-expectancy of those of us who live in "advanced" countries, but they have destabilized society, have made life unfulfilling, have subjected human beings to indignities, have led to widespread psychological suffering (in the Third World to physical suffering as well) and have inflicted severe damage on the natural world. The continued development of technology will worsen the situation. It will certainly subject human beings to greater indignities and inflict greater damage on the natural world, it will probably lead to greater social disruption and psychological suffering, and it may lead to increased physical suffering even in "advanced" countries.
To start with, there are the techniques of surveillance. Hidden video cameras are now used in most stores and in many other places, computers are used to collect and process vast amounts of information about individuals. Information so obtained greatly increases the effectiveness of physical coercion (i.e., law enforcement). [26] Then there are the methods of propaganda, for which the mass communication media provide effective vehicles. Efficient techniques have been developed for winning elections, selling products, influencing public opinion. The entertainment industry serves as an important psychological tool of the system, possibly even when it is dishing out large amounts of sex and violence. Entertainment provides modern man with an essential means of escape. While absorbed in television, videos, etc., he can forget stress, anxiety, frustration, dissatisfaction. Many primitive peoples, when they don't have work to do, are quite content to sit for hours at a time doing nothing at all, because they are at peace with themselves and their world. But most modern people must be constantly occupied or entertained, otherwise they get "bored," i.e., they get fidgety, uneasy, irritable.
A real Nostradamus for our time. Or circus psychic. One or the other.It would have been nice to know what is being discussed, 'cause "a society will destroy us" makes very little conventional sense.