Mr. Purple Cat Esq. - 2022-02-09
So when a new stupid thing like this comes along, a lot of people can see that the emperor has no clothes.
It kind of bothers me that the same people often dont question any equally stupid thing that already existed when they were younger. So pretty much the entire finance and banking industry, property speculation, hedge funds, shorting things, the stock market, and honestly most of what capitalist civilizations do*, are equally stupid imo.
This NFT shit is just a new manifestation of the same principles we have been following religiously for over a century.
* They seem to be founded on the broken windows fallacy. There's this pervasive faith that any activity no matter how frivolous or wasteful is good for 'the economy', as long as money is being moved around. As a species we are digging our own grave at an accelerating rate, destroying precious resources that we need to survive, all in service of the most trivial and pointless shit imaginable. Eg spending more on superhero movies than on sustainable farming or fundamental scientific research.
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jfcaron_ca - 2022-02-09 Oldschool christianity and islam had the right idea to ban "usury". I mean they have a bunch of other shit wrong but banning the very concept of "finance" is pretty spot-on.
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Two Jar Slave - 2022-02-09 How Can Mirrors Be Real If Our Eyes Aren't Real
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John Holmes Motherfucker - 2022-02-10 My God, I guess this makes me a loser, but I wouldn't be able to face the day without the great Superhero movies that are coming out these days. Just saying. Its not just a distraction, its the fulfillment of something Ive wanted to see since I was a little kid. Maybe Age of Ultra isnt Homer's, but maybe it is, and maybe its as close as we get right now. Its something that makes me glad to be alive in the 2020s, and Ill take it.
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Mr. Purple Cat Esq. - 2022-02-10 @JHM I'm not criticizing Marvel movies, it's totally fine to enjoy them on a personal level, I like them too! My point is more about humanity. Instead of realising our unique potential and doing something interesting like colonising the galaxy or creating AI, it seems we're just gonna do frivolous shit until we've depleted earths resources and die off.
What one should do in ones life + what humanity should do in the longterm are two different domains that one can reason about completely separately.
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John Holmes Motherfucker - 2022-02-10 I don't think Marvel Movies are trivial. Consider the scene at the end of Age of Ultron, when Ultron and Vision discuss humanity, two AI beings discussing humanity, with no humans around. Bitter in his defeat, Ultron declares that humanity is doomed. Sadly, Vision agrees, but he finds beauty and nobility in our failings, even if we are doomed as a species.
This is something like a dialogue that Hera and Athena might have in the Iliad, an outside perspective of humanity that only myth can attain. Marvel may not be Homer, but it's not trivial. Thanos was a villain, but he had a point about the destruction we're facing.
But trivial or not, movies are a.product or a service, depending on how you consume. The industry creates value. You can argue about copyright being excessive, and against all sorts of ways in which the industry seeks.to control the market, but the basic business model is something for something, and that separates the industry from NFTs, and other speculative schemes that seek to generate something from nothing.
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Crackersmack - 2022-02-11 John have you ever gone on a hike? I'm not being a smartass or trying to be insulting. Ever just walk somewhere without a specific goal in mind? It's very cathartic.
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Meerkat - 2022-02-09
There's also this bit in Leviticus that every 50 years ownership of the land reverts to the Priesthood and if you want to buy it back you have to pay some portion of whatever value the Priesthood sets on it.
That's obviously great for the Priesthood but not so great for families that want to inherit their lands.
I was thinking it might be interesting to use a similar concept where nobody can actually own land and the country "rents" it out to businesses or people willing to pay a fee for the use of that land. Then if the country needs the land for some sewage plant or apartment block they end the lease and move the renters somewhere else. The country would provide a minimum living space to everyone, adequate water and food of an uninteresting sort, free of charge. If you wanted more interesting food or a nicer living space in an area you get to choose, then you need to get a job and earn money to pay for it.
Sort of like a minimum universal income that you can't spend on ciggerts and booze or blow at the casino. You want ciggerts and booze you need to work.
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Meerkat - 2022-02-09 Oh balls that was supposed to be a reply to jfcaron_ca re: the "usury" thing.
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Nominal - 2022-02-10
Get your filthy cons off of me, you damn dirty ape!
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Nominal - 2022-02-10
Query: does anything think there could possibly be a MORE pointless self parody of pure speculative commodities than NFTs?
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