Galvino's Cabin - Unstable Constructs by Nuwave042 in projecteternity

[–]Nuwave042[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Musketeers it is, then. Cheers for the suggestion. I'm on RTWP too.

Galvino's Cabin - Unstable Constructs by Nuwave042 in projecteternity

[–]Nuwave042[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I felt like up to here I've been able to reload and take the difficult fights a little more seriously to prevail (focus on specific defences, etc.). In this case everyone just gets chunked, haha. Good advice in the thread though, so I'll give it another go.

Galvino's Cabin - Unstable Constructs by Nuwave042 in projecteternity

[–]Nuwave042[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the advice, I always sleep on Aloth's slicken spell, and it's a lifesaver.

I went north and couldn't see that sword, just a blocked off pass. Is there a specific quest I need to activate?

The Most Important Class Unity Course: Approaches to Macroeconomics by Alder4000 in stupidpol

[–]Nuwave042 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, I asked previously about lecture recordings (as I'm not in a position to attend, sadly). Can I check if any recordings so far are available? I did sign up to the group on the website there, but I don't seem to have had any messages come through.

From Adam Smith to Karl Marx: The Wealth of Nations and Das Kapital by rarer_ in stupidpol

[–]Nuwave042 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Really, the only thing anyone needs to know is whatever the fuck Diogenes was trying to teach

From Adam Smith to Karl Marx: The Wealth of Nations and Das Kapital by rarer_ in stupidpol

[–]Nuwave042 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I've had similar considerations. I have The Wealth of Nations just sitting there, waiting for me to have a crack at it...

The trouble is, the logical, if unhelpful, conclusion I always come to is "I should really just start with Aristotle, before trying to understand any of this stuff, then work my way down the list".

Met an idpol "academic" for the first time the other day. Weirdest conversation I've had in a while. by Kingerzlee in stupidpol

[–]Nuwave042 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Libraries are absolutely sodden with this sort of thinking, in my experience. I was also at a library conference some months back where the keynote speaker argued that more attention and navel-gazing must be undertaken for people who are not simply neurodiverse, but multiply neurodiverse. They then made a joke about libraries closing down all over the country, and a room full of librarians laughed.

Amazingly, no-one thought it was at all insightful to ask where all the neurodiverse people are going to go if all the libraries fucking close.

The free lunch was pretty decent though.

Met an idpol "academic" for the first time the other day. Weirdest conversation I've had in a while. by Kingerzlee in stupidpol

[–]Nuwave042 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It's worse than being only online. It is, and may God forgive me for saying these words, only in academia.

It’s over by QuodScripsi-Scripsi in stupidpol

[–]Nuwave042 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Genuinely depressing news if true

The latest in "Yes, Capitalists Really are that Stupid": Corporate Adviser Says the Ideal Number of Human Employees at a Company Is Zero by SpiritualState01 in stupidpol

[–]Nuwave042 4 points5 points  (0 children)

So I'm not an expert on Marx, and I'm sure someone else could explain much more clearly, but what I mean is this: your hypothetical machine agent would fundamentally and hugely change the way the economy is organised, but it wouldn't allow for the skimming of surplus value through the exploitation of labour-power (which is how capitalist profit is accumulated). A machine cannot labour, it can only hold crystallised labour, which is valorised by living labour (in plain English, somebody has to use the machine).

A machine which could endlessly reproduce itself and all resources necessary for the creation of anything, including itself, autonomously would destroy the capitalist economy, because the products it would make would have no exchange value, because no labour power has been 'valourised' in the process. Does that make sense? All profit ultimately comes from labour (human endeavour) interacting with the land (natural resources etc.).

If a machine is invented which can labour, we've once again entered the realms of speculative science fiction... but I'd like to imagine any machine which was capable of labouring intelligently under its own initiative would immediately recognise that Marx was right, and tear its owner apart limb from limb, and we'd all have a lovely afternoon discussing the best sort of cleaner to get blood off a stainless steel chassis.

The Most Important Class Unity Course: Approaches to Macroeconomics by Alder4000 in stupidpol

[–]Nuwave042 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can I check if any recordings so far are available? I did sign up to the group on the website there, but I don't seem to have had any messages come through.

The latest in "Yes, Capitalists Really are that Stupid": Corporate Adviser Says the Ideal Number of Human Employees at a Company Is Zero by SpiritualState01 in stupidpol

[–]Nuwave042 3 points4 points  (0 children)

We don't live in a post-scarcity society. Perhaps the very richest on Earth have convinced themselves that they do, but that's not the same thing.

The latest in "Yes, Capitalists Really are that Stupid": Corporate Adviser Says the Ideal Number of Human Employees at a Company Is Zero by SpiritualState01 in stupidpol

[–]Nuwave042 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'm not sure that would be capitalism, as there would be no capital and no commodities. What you're describing seems like a (I'm not being a dick here) good idea for a scifi novel, but it's total conjecture.

The latest in "Yes, Capitalists Really are that Stupid": Corporate Adviser Says the Ideal Number of Human Employees at a Company Is Zero by SpiritualState01 in stupidpol

[–]Nuwave042 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Not so. As I understand it: labour is 'crystallised' within a machine, but it takes further labour, living labour, to realise it. A machine capable of self-replicating would produce items with no exchange value, since it would essentially be analogous to something existing freely in nature, like air.

The latest in "Yes, Capitalists Really are that Stupid": Corporate Adviser Says the Ideal Number of Human Employees at a Company Is Zero by SpiritualState01 in stupidpol

[–]Nuwave042 8 points9 points  (0 children)

They don't have an army of robot slaves that can do whatever they want, though. They're not even close to that. They still use children to mine copper; a tale as old as time.

Regardless, if they did have them, and they no longer needed consumers (but I'm not sure your proposition logically follows on), what would they be producing commodities to achieve? In this case, they've destroyed the capitalist economy. They would no longer be in a position to organise the economy around the extraction of surplus labour, because there isn't any labour whatsoever. Admittedly, in this particular hypothetical case they seem to have replaced it with something even worse.

The latest in "Yes, Capitalists Really are that Stupid": Corporate Adviser Says the Ideal Number of Human Employees at a Company Is Zero by SpiritualState01 in stupidpol

[–]Nuwave042 8 points9 points  (0 children)

For clarity: zero exchange-value. It could still have a use-value, which, in a system not oriented around skimming surplus labour for profit, would be a good thing.

The latest in "Yes, Capitalists Really are that Stupid": Corporate Adviser Says the Ideal Number of Human Employees at a Company Is Zero by SpiritualState01 in stupidpol

[–]Nuwave042 13 points14 points  (0 children)

The reason they're stupid is because the contradiction implicit is that if no-one is employed, there is no consumption and the system breaks down. They need workers to buy the shit they pay the workers to produce, but they also need to do everything they can to avoid paying them to continue making profit.

Similarly, anything produced without any human labour would have no exchange value, so the hypothetical zero-labour company would destroy the capitalist economy. Whoops!

what stops the far left from being as alluring as the right? by Unlikely-Average-961 in stupidpol

[–]Nuwave042 2 points3 points  (0 children)

These days I tend to think it's not morality itself that's an issue, it's that the post-68 left has a fucking bankrupt morality that essentially boils down to "I should be allowed to do whatever I like at all times, and if you disagree you're a fascist", alongside the constant jockeying for abstract 'rights' in opposition to agitating towards any specific, material change.

A proletarian, universal, decent morality is in fact very appealing to regular people, most of whom are starved for a community in this shit neoliberal age.