All of Jelle Donders's Comments + Replies
Marc Andreessen pens “Techno-Optimist Manifesto.” Discuss
The precautionary principle is objectively bad? That's a massive assumption that only holds if you are somehow confident that nuclear war, engineered pandemics, advanced AI derailing society etc. are all impossible, right?
36moNo. The Precautionary Principle doesn't just mean “take precautions when
warranted.” No one would be against that. It has become more like a bias towards
inaction, regardless of cost/benefit calculations. See Ridley's quote above,
about how this “superficially sensible idea” was transformed into something
irrational.
Why consumerism is good actually
To see the other perspective, try replacing "consumption" with food and "consumerism" with obesity. We only have 1 earth (for the foreseeable future), and rampant consumerism leads to a very inefficient conversion from its resources to value.
Also, you can still be anti-consumerism while agreeing that the global south would ideally see higher consumption. Reducing obesity doesn't mean we shouldn't feed the starving.
This works both ways imo. You can boldly state things in a manifesto, and people can boldly criticize it.