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vgr's profile
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
@vgr

Tweets

Venkatesh Rao

@vgr

This is my conversational account. For my work follow @ribbonfarm, @breaking_smart, @artofgig. Tweets are 90% vacuous views, apathetically held. Mediocritopian.

Los Angeles, CA
venkateshrao.com
Joined August 2007

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    Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 6 May 2019
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    Almost all moral progress is likely due to tech making it easier and more profitable to be good rather than evil by any moral system you choose. I think humans have changed along a lot of dimensions over cultural-evolutionary history but the moral dimension ain't one of them

    2:48 PM - 6 May 2019
    • 11 Retweets
    • 126 Likes
    • Sonia Isiodos Tsigos Raj Balakrishnan Autotelic Automaton Richard5832 Moisés Macías-Bustos Kent Fitch 😈 Brian Heligman 😷
    10 replies 11 retweets 126 likes
      1. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 6 May 2019
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        Ie the distribution hasn't shifted at all. The span between saints and psychopaths, has remained the same. The median mediocrity has had about the same amount of moral fiber throughout. What has changed is opportunity structure to be good/evil in the environment.

        6 replies 2 retweets 48 likes
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      1. Merijn‏ @Merijnnij 6 May 2019
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        Replying to @vgr

        I would say the perceived moral progress largely consists of increased signaling. While actually practicing morality still has a cost, tech has reduced the cost of signaling morality to near zero.

        0 replies 0 retweets 7 likes
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      2. Brian Heligman  😷‏ @BrianTHeligman 6 May 2019
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        Replying to @vgr

        One of my more controversial opinions. Automation devalues workers and slavery becomes illegal, electrification minimizes the burden of household chores and women’s suffrage follows

        1 reply 1 retweet 3 likes
      3. Scotto‏ @cyclo_geography 7 May 2019
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        Replying to @BrianTHeligman @vgr

        How do the rest of the species on the planet feel about this? The ones that are left I mean.

        0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
      4. End of conversation
      1. CrypticalMass‏ @CrypticalMass 6 May 2019
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        Replying to @vgr

        The most sophisticated tech in the planet is the human himself. We have managed to use tech for external convenience, now we could do with some progress in learning how to work on our interiority.

        0 replies 0 retweets 2 likes
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      1. Josh McMichael‏ @jmcmichael 6 May 2019
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        Replying to @vgr

        I would consider the expansion of human rights through most societies (some more than others) to be a positive change along a moral dimension. Yes technology plays a role, but along with it our intersubjective process of ruling ourselves, politics, has also improved.

        0 replies 0 retweets 2 likes
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      2. Mike Xie - IG: @mikexiereads‏ @MikeYXie 6 May 2019
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        Replying to @vgr

        If you've never witness poverty, you'd also know that scarcity makes people vicious. As wealth is created, people become gentler. You could make the argument that they can become too soft and that's the problem with places that are falling behind economically with no work ethics

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      3. Maynard Handley‏ @handleym99 6 May 2019
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        Replying to @MikeYXie @vgr

        That's an argument that "less vicious" is the most important moral good. As opposed to, eg, swift and certain retribution. Or total social homogeneity. Or massive on-going very public piety. All we can say is we do better by OUR standards.

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
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      2. Sean‏ @Ratic16 6 May 2019
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        Replying to @vgr

        I think it happens in the other direction: managing complexity pushes toward nonviolent (I.e., stable) structures.

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      3. Sean‏ @Ratic16 6 May 2019
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        Replying to @Ratic16 @vgr

        This wants to be a different tweet.

        0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
      4. End of conversation

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