this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2023
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Palantir exists, every cyberpunk warned us, and it’s definitely not going to be good for the average person
They named it Palantir! The thing that was awesome that everyone then had to stop using because someone ruined it for everyone else.
they kneeeeeeewwwwwwww!!!!!!!
It’s Peter thiel’s surveillance company. It’s just open and blatant
He's a LotR nerd btw. He definitely knows.
We are communicating right now over a medium that those "cyberpunks" warned us about.
"Cyberpunks" weren't warning us about the internet - they were warning us about the corporations who will control it, and through it, us. We are trying explicitly not to communicate on that medium by using Lemmy (that medium encompasses Reddit, X, the various properties of Meta and Alphabet)
Science fiction mentioning a technology, even centering around it, doesn't mean it's saying the technology is universally bad. The author highlights the dangers, but the tech itself is almost always portrayed as neutral. It's the people who use it to nefarious ends that science fiction is warning us about.
Like the people who would seek to profit off of the Torment Nexus.
Okay, please pardon my ignorance, but what the fuck is a Torment Nexus?
The concept of the "Torment Nexus" is a placeholder for any technology specifically described as dystopian or otherwise contributing to suffering in fiction, such as mass surveillance, mind control technology, and so on. The meme refers to modern-day corporations missing the point of the fiction, and creating said "Torment Nexus" as something they view as "cool" and "futuristic". In some cases, the companies are self-aware enough to not pretend that their creation is anything other than dystopian, but in many cases they try to sell the new technology to the public as a good thing despite that very tech being described as dystopian already.
And look at how much harm this medium has done to the world in addition to all the good.
It is very bittersweet.