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We Are Living in the Fantasy World of 13-Year-Old Boys | Many of the tech billionaires who built our world have taken the wrong lessons from their favorite science fiction

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Submitted ⁨⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨ZeroCool@piefed.ca⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.zip⁩

https://www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/08/silicon-valley-science-fiction-jill-lepore-book-review/688467/

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  • godsammitdam@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    They tend to view themselves as the smartest boi villains and they know how to implement it correctly because they’re surrounded by yes man sycophants that tell them they’re the biggest dickus around.

    www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F8tejaO2YM

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  • ZeroCool@piefed.ca ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Relevant microblog meme:

    fM1BL3oSP1gnp5n.jpg

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  • oatscoop@midwest.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Musk naming SpaceX ships after ships from Iain M. Banks Culture series was a hilarious lack of self awareness. He either didn’t actually read the books or has his head so far up his ass he didn’t see how he’d fit in that universe.

    Elon Musk, if you’re reading this: you more resemble the kind of men in Bank’s books that frequently unpleasant ends via The Culture’s “Special Circumstances” group as The Culture tried to drag a society towards utopia. The blindingly intelligent, utilitarianist “Minds” you named those drone ships after would not be your friends. They would not like you.

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  • RobotToaster@mander.xyz ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    This is an insult to 13-year-old boys.

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  • darthsundhaft@piefed.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I never thought it was a coincidence Bezos looked so much like Lex Luthor.

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  • kazerniel@piefed.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I get a 404 error for that non-paywall link. So here’s a mirror: https://archive.ph/MgTmM

    Also I’m vaguely pissed that Musk considers Iain Banks his favourite author while managing to completely misunderstand the Culture’s values. He even named his droneships after characters from the books 🤢

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  • Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    If that’s true, their fantasies suck.

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    • DeathsEmbrace@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Yeah because its always borderline or already is a dystopian but, cool technology is the most interesting to a 14 year old kid not the dystopian issues.

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      • Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        It does bum me out that the only thing from cyberpunk fiction we actually have are smartphones and the dystopia. I wanna be a fuckin’ cyborg damn it. 😬

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  • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    We’re living in inevitable consequence of lazy thinking moderates throwing money hand over fist at militaries and police forces for decades which this fuckin shit rag of a magazine was happy to cheer on

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  • minorkeys@sh.itjust.works ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Initializing them to make yourself feel better is surely the way forward…

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