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Graham Cunningham's avatar

Capitalism has, as you say, an almost infinite capacity for material improvement. But human happiness and contentment is a scarce resource. The limiting factor ultimately is human nature. Neither capitalism nor an other 'system' can do much about it.

Having said that, I too am sympathetic to the "broad-based DIY/hacker “counterculture” that celebrates the virtues of productive self-sufficiency" that you hope for. But I am not holding my breath. I am not one for predicting the future but my instinct is that, before any positive counter culture emerges an ugly transition would inevitably precede it. Where we are at present in the West, the falcon cannot hear the falconer. https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/

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J.K. Lund's avatar

"Maybe they’re right, maybe another singularity is coming, but what’s clear enough — take a look at the chart below — is that we’re already on the other side of one."

This is a great point, one that I have not yet seen made. I begin my book with the same chart, showing the incredible explosion of what we call "progress" in the a brief period of time. I suppose the question is, when we are talking about "arcs," is progress just a brief effloresce? Perhaps humanity will, some day, create more problems than its ingenuity can resolve. Perhaps the 'mass' of those problems will overcome the forces of ingenuity, collapsing in on itself like a dying star. Is this end inevitable?

It's certainly not the future I want, but it's something I contemplate and write about quite often.

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