Dogecoin and the Hyperreal
Also, there's a new rideshare worker co-operative!
If I had to see this, then so do you
Recently, Elon Musk posted something.
The song goes exactly how you’d expect, with multiple references to “daddy Elon”, “buy more”, and “never sell.”
It seems pretty clear to me that Dogecoin, and probably all the other coins too, have entered a sort of hyperreality. If you’re not familiar yet with the concept of the hyperreal, then you’re probably not part of the same pretentious left theory circles that I am and I’m really happy for you.
In short, hyperreality is whenever it becomes difficult to distinguish reality from fiction. Or worse yet when the fiction itself starts to have a stronger hold on us than reality. If this sounds like some really wanky postmodernism to you then that’s because you’re right, but it’s really quite an interesting lens through which we can critique a lot of what goes on in tech.
Some examples: a fiction novel isn’t hyperreal, because it doesn’t actually purport to be true, and neither does its world attempt to replace our own. The entirety of Instagram influencing, however, is hyperreal, because it creates a fiction of the influencer’s amazing life and effortless glamour that becomes quite real in the mind of the audience, even though the influencer isn’t at all living the way they do in those photos. Dan Olson has an informative video on the hyperreality of Youtube vlogs, and how so many of them are carefully crafted to appear effortless and authentic. A lot of conspiracy theories such as QAnon exist in the hyperreal since they’ve created entirely separate worlds that the believers now reside in. I’d even argue that the social Darwinist propaganda of “human nature is naturally evil and we need laws to keep us in check” which you see parroted in every post-apocalypse movie is exposed as the hyperreal nonsense it is the moment you go make some friends and see the dignity and care with which most people actually treat each other.
So what does all of this have to do with the cult surrounding cryptocurrencies? Who cares. Go outside.
Rideshare co-operative!
This is cool, and I hope a similar thing happens in more places. Uber is a horrible scam for both the drivers and the riders, so it’s nice to see an alternative that’s actually owned by its workers. There’s only so much that co-ops can do while still existing in an economy that values private ownership above all else, but it’s a start.
Check out the Yayagram
Someone made a little machine that helps their grandparents send Telegram messages to their grandchildren. We like to berate old people for not adapting to new technology, but what if we did things the other way around sometimes? I think this is cute.
Spam can spam filter
Spam can spam filter.
BECOME A 10000X ENGINEER
ASCEND THE MORTAL PLANE. BECOME ONE WITH THE MACHINE. FEEL YOUR FLESH BECOME ENTWINED WITH THE SILICON AND YOUR NEURONS BECOME MERELY A CONDUIT FOR MACHINE DATA. PRODUCE MORE VALUE FOR INVESTORS.
A children’s book that explains Apache Kafka
https://www.gentlydownthe.stream/
I mean, why not?
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Any typos in the above post are caused by bit flips and are not my fault.
Cryptocurrency is so annoying. Yes let's make yet another computer component a scarcity so that you can keep on gambling on pisscoin. Good idea. Very cool.