nexus

orib.dev: The Mislabeled Brick of Utopia

The building blocks for the torment nexus are mislabeled.<br>Few people would be stupid enough to build the torment nexus if<br>the labels were honest.

The building blocks for the torment nexus have many labels.<br>Each one is desirable. This one says that no more children will<br>be abused. That one says transportation will be cheap and fast.<br>The one over there says that you'll get all you need without any<br>work. Who would object?

Most people building the torment nexus don't care to torment<br>anyone. Some believe they're building a better future. Others<br>question a little, but they've got to feed their family, and<br>questioning too hard makes it difficult. They're not evil. But<br>the world is adversarial, and what can be used for advantage will<br>be. Questioning is tiring, and life is hard enough. It's easier<br>to be a cog.

Those who mislabeled the bricks, too, are rarely cartoon<br>villains. Some are, but most are desperate for an edge, and if<br>building the torment nexus will give them that edge, they're not<br>so concerned about stepping on a few people to win. As long as<br>the people getting hurt are abstract, it's ok.

And thus, the brick used to save children allows<br>authoritarians to monitor and arrest journalists. The brick used<br>for transportation demolished minority neighborhoods and put in<br>freeways and misery. The brick used to end work ends negotiating<br>power. By the time that people realize what they lost, protests<br>will be safe to ignore. The economy will go on without workers.<br>We're currently investing an awful lot into that last brick,<br>looking for the next breakthroughs.

So, brick by brick, the torment nexus gets built. Brick<br>by brick, people look at the labels, shrug, and ship them.

Are you building the world you want to live in?