Crumb
c/sneerclub · by dgerard@awful.systems · 2y

in which the Hollywood Reporter, of all outlets, attempts to explain our very good friends and their billionaire very good friends to normal people

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/politics-news/election-2024-hollywood-silicon-valley-1235967050/

23 points · 16 comments · view on lemmy.world

16 Comments

gerikson@awful.systems · 17 pts · 2y (2 replies)

Mosaic creator Marc Andreessen

I appreciate this deep cut.

Others in San Francisco are calling it “The Nerd Reich.”

Good one.

mpk@awful.systems · 9 pts · 2y

Well, "Man who wrote some code mostly based on other people's code a very long time ago and parlayed that into media darling status and a lucrative income" is a bit long-winded.

V0ldek@awful.systems · 8 pts · 2y

Mosaic creator Marc Andreessen

Best thing about it is that a normie read of this would be to think Assdreessen is just a weird guy who's really into mosaics.

Architeuthis@awful.systems · 12 pts · 2y

The whole article is sneertastic. Nothing to add, will be sharing.

What you’re dealing with here is a cult. These tech billionaires are building a religion. They believe they’re creating something with AI that’s going to be the most powerful thing that’s ever existed — this omniscient, all-knowing God-like entity — and they see themselves as the prophets of that future.

eugenic TESCREAL screed (an acronym for … oh, never mind).

“Immortality is a key part of this belief system. In that way, it’s very much like a religion. That’s why some people are calling it the Scientology of Silicon Valley.”

Others in San Francisco are calling it “The Nerd Reich.”

“I think these guys see Trump as an empty vessel,” says the well-known exec who’s supporting Harris. “They see him as a way to pursue their political agenda, which is survival of the fittest, no regulation, burn-the-house-down nihilism that lacks any empathy or nuance.”

Soyweiser@awful.systems · 9 pts · 2y (7 replies)

If you were to stick a pin in a timeline at the exact moment Silicon Valley declared war on Hollywood, it would likely land on Aug. 29, 1997. That’s the date Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph got together in Scotts Valley, about an hour south of San Francisco, and started a little DVD delivery company called Netflix.

Weird bit of critihype that ignores a massive amounts of things. Napster and Blockbuster for example. Massively overestimates the power of SV imho, and a bit ironic as of all the various media providers like Netflix, netflix is often not considered that highly from what I can tell. (In .nl iirc the big non-american providers are also the NPO and Videoland owned by RTL. Both traditional players in the market.

YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems · 8 pts · 2y

True enough, but it feeds too beautifully into the terminator reference that closes it out.

V0ldek@awful.systems · 6 pts · 2y (5 replies)

as of all the various media providers like Netflix, netflix is often not considered that highly from what I can tell.

Well, it should not be considered that highly, but for some god damn reason they occupy a letter in FAANG since forever.

Probably only because if you remove the N the acronym stops being that cute.

froztbyte@awful.systems · 7 pts · 2y (4 replies)

FAANG came about because of "unexpected growth" in how those could "surprisingly" capture money, as time has passed it's become clear how all of them did so in pretty shitty ways (of the bigtech-flavoured "it's better to never ask for permission, fuck 'em" variety)

netflix's burgeoning unpopularity is a far more recent thing. I could guess at a few inputs, but not really sure how much each contributed

(idle thought: without the N, it's probably be GAFA or something, or finding another letter to substitute and make a tortured reference out of that)

V0ldek@awful.systems · 5 pts · 2y (1 reply)

FAANG came about because of “unexpected growth” in how those could “surprisingly” capture money

I don't know the origin, but I came to know the term itself from my time as a freshman Computer Science student, where "working at FAANG" was to be the highest career thing you could aspire to.

It was always extremely confusing, cause like, Amazon, Apple, Google - I get those, they actually have things they work on, I'm sure working on AWS or like the internals of Google Search has to be interesting for a CS person, but fucking Facebook? The fuck does Facebook do? What unsolved technical challenges lie in a message board? Same goes for Netflix.

grumpybozo@toad.social · 5 pts · 2y
[ removed ]
billseitz@toolsforthought.social · 4 pts · 2y (1 reply)

@froztbyte @V0ldek it has drifted
http://webseitz.fluxent.com/wiki/GAFA

grumpybozo@toad.social · 5 pts · 2y

@billseitz @froztbyte @V0ldek But F is obsolete.
It’s now MAGA.

Oh, wait: G is obsolete too
MAAA

reallyzen@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 2y (4 replies)

Don't miss the magazine cover image, it's... something.

I found this excellent, thanks for sharing!

Soyweiser@awful.systems · 5 pts · 2y (3 replies)

The cover is something but also think it is AI generated (the sabers don't actually clash in the next second both of those nerds are getting enlightened by lightsaber), pretty sad they still copyright it to somebody.

swlabr@awful.systems · 6 pts · 2y

The article image is defs AI generated, and the giveaway is of course *drumroll* the fucking hands

also the caption feels wrong. guy on the right looks nothing like musk, it was probably thiel in the prompt.

reallyzen@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 2y (1 reply)

I'm talking about the magazine cover

Soyweiser@awful.systems · 4 pts · 2y

Ah sorry.