"They actually have a great contempt for expertise. They don't see it as necessary because they think that they're the smartest people who've ever lived, because they're the wealthiest people who've ever lived. If they were wrong about anything, then why would they have been so financially successful? This is also where you get the obsession with things like prediction markets. They believe that there are super predictors, that expertise is not necessary to understand or predict what's going to happen in the world, and that they themselves must be experts because they have enormous amounts of money.
"There's a Homer Simpson quote that I like for thinking about this. It's just something that Homer blurts out when someone's talking about someone who lived 150 years ago. He says, "If he's so smart, how come he's dead?" When faced with expertise, they'd be like, "Well, if he's so smart, how come he's poor?" They believe that everything can be quantified, like the utilitarian dream, the eugenicist's dream, a person's IQ, and that money is a good measure of how much someone is worth. So they must be the best and smartest and greatest people who have ever lived."
AnimalMuppet · 1h ago
If your only measure of success is money, then you are poor in a way that money can never fix.
like_any_other · 1h ago
> But either way, they've got to grapple with it because it's the ultimate source of these limits. If nothing else stops you, thermodynamics will stop you because entropy is always going to increase.
Admittedly I don't keep up with everything tech billionaires want, but are their ambitions really being hampered by entropy? That won't become a problem until long after our sun burns out, and the universe starts running out of stars - are they planning that far ahead?
mcguire · 2h ago
"Adam Becker: I've got a magnet on my fridge right now that says the heat death is coming. Certain Silicon Valley visionaries hate the laws of thermodynamics. Others claim that their ideas are thermodynamically inevitable because they've misunderstood thermodynamics. But either way, they've got to grapple with it because it's the ultimate source of these limits. If nothing else stops you, thermodynamics will stop you because entropy is always going to increase."
fuzzfactor · 1h ago
Everybody wants the impossible, some people just think they deserve it more than others.
k310 · 1h ago
Interesting. So many people want to be God.
Some, for the power. Some in order to blame and condemn others.
Few would imitate, and give life, nourish and heal, though some are quite high on the procreation part.
They've created a sicko God in their own image.
Unlike a God, or a humble monk, Buddha, creation is not joy, but merely a lottery ticket. Their means is largely the "Creative Destruction" of Schumpeter, with disdain for other people and the planet. Need I mention monster data centers to surveil, mine coins, or replace thinking.
"There's a Homer Simpson quote that I like for thinking about this. It's just something that Homer blurts out when someone's talking about someone who lived 150 years ago. He says, "If he's so smart, how come he's dead?" When faced with expertise, they'd be like, "Well, if he's so smart, how come he's poor?" They believe that everything can be quantified, like the utilitarian dream, the eugenicist's dream, a person's IQ, and that money is a good measure of how much someone is worth. So they must be the best and smartest and greatest people who have ever lived."
Admittedly I don't keep up with everything tech billionaires want, but are their ambitions really being hampered by entropy? That won't become a problem until long after our sun burns out, and the universe starts running out of stars - are they planning that far ahead?
Some, for the power. Some in order to blame and condemn others.
Few would imitate, and give life, nourish and heal, though some are quite high on the procreation part.
They've created a sicko God in their own image.
Unlike a God, or a humble monk, Buddha, creation is not joy, but merely a lottery ticket. Their means is largely the "Creative Destruction" of Schumpeter, with disdain for other people and the planet. Need I mention monster data centers to surveil, mine coins, or replace thinking.
Some insight into their mindset.
•'Reboot' Revealed: Elon Musk's CEO-Dictator Playbook [0]
• Silicon Valley Whistleblowers Warn Elon Musk 'Hijacking' Republicans to Control Entire US Government [1] and a pdf of the accusations. [2]
[0] https://www.thenerdreich.com/reboot-elon-musk-ceo-dictator-d...
[1]https://bylinetimes.com/2025/02/07/silicon-valley-whistleblo...
[2] https://america2.news/content/files/2025/02/Musk-NRx-Memo-Fe...