Do you ever get sad because the cyberpunk dystopia we're living in is so much stupider then the one we were promised?
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geekylou :transgender_flag:replied to Jenniferplusplus on last edited by
@jenniferplusplus We are in a cyberpunk dystopia where the gov wants to stop you from modding your body and we don't even get flying cars.
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Hrefna (DHC)replied to Jenniferplusplus on last edited by
@jenniferplusplus Every day -.-
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Jenniferplusplusreplied to geekylou :transgender_flag: on last edited by
@geekylou we're in a cyberpunk dystopia where the difference between an "aligned" and a "rogue" AI is that they'll both put Black and queer people in prisons and make recipes that are literal poison, but the rogue will say slurs at the same time.
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@jenniferplusplus I have largely stopped reading cyberpunk (and sf in general) for this reason.
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Nora Reedreplied to Jenniferplusplus on last edited by
@jenniferplusplus i feel pretty well prepared by snow crash and maddaddam but i can understand having wrong expectations especially regarding aesthetics
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@jenniferplusplus Now, when I need some escapism, I read books about animal communication, ancient peoples' folk stories, history of urbanization, bee cognition, Soviet space iconography, history of literacy, and governance structures among 18th century pirates.
Delightful fantasies, far from the dreary horrors of everyday life as I prepare to have everything I care about be replaced with shitty robots.
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Jenniferplusplusreplied to Nora Reed on last edited by
@NoraReed OK, that's fair. I guess we kind of are living in the snow crash dystopia. I was expecting the Neuromancer dystopia. Or at least the diamond age dystopia.
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Serge from Babkareplied to Jenniferplusplus on last edited by
In my freshman year of college (1996) I was asked to write a fiction about my life after college.
I wrote a story about a dystopian future of a destroyed environment, consolidated corporate power, surveillance capitalism (before there was a term for it), and an underclass of hackers who thought they were free, but had to trade lives of convenience for their freedom.
The teacher gave my draft back to me saying "Where are you in this story?"
I wrote that I was the first person protagonist, the alcoholic peeing in an industrial park.
The actual assignment was "My life after American University" so I added one line to my final copy, "It all went wrong after American University." I got a C-
I'm not an alcoholic, but I think the rest isn't that far off.
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Jenniferplusplusreplied to Serge from Babka on last edited by
@serge I would have failed that assignment for entirely different reasons
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Serge from Babkareplied to Jenniferplusplus on last edited by
Half the students were president of the US, CEOs, etc.
I told the professor that my essay seemed more probable then theirs.
I was a jerk[1] but I was right. Aside from the fact I'm not in that position and it's not raining acid rain that's too toxic to touch, the rest isn't off.[2]
[1] I was a jerk, but I was also deeply depressed, and suicidal for pretty much my entire college career. There's a second story on how Unix and the Free Software movement saved my life.
[2] I didn't anticipate the fires that made the sky orange. I assumed that would be from industrial deregulation.
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BananaBarrowreplied to Serge from Babka on last edited by
> There's a second story on how Unix and the Free Software movement saved my life.
I want to hear this story too.
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Chris Kletschreplied to Jenniferplusplus on last edited by
@jenniferplusplus where is Hiro when we need him most?
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Lev Lazinskiy 🏳️🌈replied to Jenniferplusplus on last edited by
@jenniferplusplus yes, I am waiting for the cats to come take over like in Stray.
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coldclimatereplied to Jenniferplusplus on last edited by
@jenniferplusplus daily
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Kyle Carpenterreplied to Chris Kletsch on last edited by
Delivering pizzas for Uber Eats instead of the Mob
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Jenniferplusplusreplied to Kyle Carpenter on last edited by
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:David Campeyreplied to BananaBarrow on last edited by
@BananaBarrow @serge @jenniferplusplus Here for this too.
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Serge from Babkareplied to :David Campey on last edited by [email protected]
@davidcampey @BananaBarrow @jenniferplusplus
The very short version is that I was very depressed. I felt worthless, I had only a couple of friends, and my girlfriend, who I had felt was the only person who could love me, had broken up with me before college.
On top of that, both because of neudivergence, and because of the depression, I didn't socialize well. I didn't say hello, I would blurt things out in a blunt and thoughtless way, etc.
It made it even harder to make friends- and basically impossible to meet, nonetheless have meaningful connections with women.
In the winter of 1997, I learned about "Linux", in part from a friend, and in part from a homeless man who slept in the computer lab I worked at.
I didn't go home that winter break. I stayed in the dorms. For part of it, I wasn't even allowed to return to my own dorm room, having to be in a temporary dorm. My computer was too big to lug, so it stayed in my dorm.
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Serge from Babkareplied to Serge from Babka on last edited by
@davidcampey @BananaBarrow @jenniferplusplus
I wanted to learn Linux/Unix, so I bought two books, "No BS Linux" and "Teach Yourself Unix in 24 hours". The 24 hour book was really 24 1-hour lessons, so I decided to do one lesson a day over the break.
I studied the book every day more intensely than any textbook. I struggled with the concepts. I tried things that I could, and what I couldn't, or what left me confused... I went to bed angry. I woke up angry too, but determined.
I had to get it done. It drove me, like an obsession, like a purpose.
Eventually when i got back to the dorms, I worked on my PC, getting Linux on it. Back then it wasn't so easy, even with the "easy to use" Red Hat 4.1 disk that No BS Linux came with.
I broke my computer's install so many times, and reinstalled, and broke it and reinstalled.
But by the end of winter break, I knew the system. I really felt I understood it.
I learned Unix!
And then came the second part...
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Serge from Babkareplied to Serge from Babka on last edited by
@davidcampey @BananaBarrow @jenniferplusplus
Knowing Linux was great, but when I learned about Free Software, and that whole ideology, it changed my life.
There was a multi-page article about the movement in Forbes, with a cover of Linus Torvalds, and images of RMS, in *Forbes*, talking about the philosophy of Free Software.
It wasn't just software, it was a new way (for me) of looking at the world, of ethics, of societal structures.
It felt like I saw a way out of the nightmare I'd written about...An alternative world, of freedom and empowerment.
I became obsessed with Linux and Free Software. I had a purpose, a reason to live.
I went to LUG meetings, I made friends. Yes these friends were in their 30s, but they were friends.
I had a community of people, and a philosophy to live by, and a reason to keep going.
I was part of a movement that was at the cutting edge of the (new) thing called the Internet, and the way it would transform people's lives.
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