this post was submitted on 07 May 2024
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Reminds me of the short story "Nano Comes to Clifford Falls." Basically a replicator arrives in a small town, and is freely available to use. At first it's great, but then it's not. I won't spell it all out, but I remember it being framed as a kind of few facto civilisation/personal "test," and that some people just can't handle life without the struggle.
Kind of a problematic take, if I'm remembering it correctly, but story still had a big impact on me.
CW: attempted sexual assault, in case anyone decides to check it out.
I'm familiar with the story. It was popular in conservative circles in the same way "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" was popular.
I'm not stranger to tech pessimism, but - setting aside the fantastic nature of the premise - there's little to support the theory that economic surplus has been bad for social cohesion. Given enough free time, people tend to be remarkably creative and productive. And a great deal of modern social cohesion is predicated on a certain ambient abundance of energy, housing, etc.
To quote Alfred Henry Lewis
I hadn't thought of the story as explicitly conservative, but thinking about it again through that lens, I can definitely see it.
As for the quote, I remember hearing it as "barbarism" instead of "anarchy," but right you are. Actually, the search for more context lead me the full source (from his talk page), which is actually a really good read.
It’s not inherently conservative, just like the tragedy of the commons isn’t. However, its infuriate and most obvious takeaways are those that works appeal to a certain conservative mindset.