Coronavirus (COVID-19) Discussion Thread

[EricHiggin]

John2290 said:

EricHiggin said:

My point about Musk was using this rock as an 'experiment' if you will to prepare for heading off to Mars before it's potentially too late. He doesn't think mankind should be a multi planetary species just because it would be cool. He see's where things look to be headed.

I was mostly joking about the conspiracy theory point, on purpose. It's all crazy nonsense says the authorities in power, until it's not.

There's a lot to wonder about and prepare for just in case, yet you can only be so prepared without bankrupting yourself or going overboard for nothing. The biggest worry I have is the whole cashless society thing. Right now is the perfect time for that to be pushed through, and it's happening as we speak. Now what happens after this is over will tell whether or not it was extra caution or taking advantage of a situation. I don't think people in general realize how much of a problem that could be. In an online world, of social media justice, digital only banking easily becomes a nightmare for anyone who dares step out of line.

I wouldn't worry too much, in terms of the west anyway, more so NA. Right now we're still far from 1984. As long as certain rights exist and are upheld for the most part, the people would be able to stop it for the foreseeable future. The main question going forward, is will the world come together even more, or separate somewhat? Both lead to very different outcomes.

To your last point first, that is the fucking conundrum. The only way to save the status quo is to form a on world government and the only way to save our freedoms and not have this happen in the future to such a degree of disaster is to revert to pulling everything back to the nation level. The latter seems to be what we are going for but that wipes so much progress to a post scarcity society and practically throws us back to a cold war era if not a full on conflict era. Remember that 1984 is not in the one world government approach, the whole structure of the world order in the book depends on there being other nations, at least the concept of them for the people.

Cashless society? What exactly do you mean? Like a socialist credit system?

What is needed is an in between measure. Nations with borders but willing to communicate and cooperate with other nations so it doesn't lead to war. That's so much easier said than put into practice though, I know, but it's the only way freedom remains as it does now. I wasn't trying to compare 1984 directly, but that the odds of that actually happening are slim in nations with rights that remain mostly intact. For other nations, they may not be so lucky if the free powerful nations don't step in and stop it, which they'd rather not do if they don't have to.

Simply cashless. You do or say something that creates massive controversy, usually in an online global fashion, and next thing you know, online money services can refuse to deal with you, or banks themselves. It's already happening on a very small scale, which means it will likely get worse the less cash there is. Right now you can easily get cash money or hold cash money on your person, without money services being involved, so not all that much pressure can be applied to you. What about when you rely on those services for all money holding and transfers? It's indirectly like digital only gaming. If those servers go down, no games for you. If you break whatever rules are applied to that ecosystem, you're kicked for a period of time to learn your lesson, or you're outright banned period. Some creators on YouTube or other media services have had a serious problem with this. Being kicked off the platform even though they haven't broken any rules, since the rules can be made up on the spot.

That's not to say it's guaranteed to happen, but the opportunity is there and it's being experimented with.

Last edited by EricHiggin - on 12 April 2020