New York Magazine just published, 'What Does Extreme Wealth Do To The Brain?' https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/what-does-extreme-wealth-do-to-the-brain.html
On Sun, Mar 1, 2026 at 7:47 AM Tomasz Rola via Silklist < [email protected]> wrote: > On Thu, Feb 05, 2026 at 12:18:00PM +0530, Udhay Shankar N via Silklist > wrote: > > The state of the world, and especially the Esptein files cesspool, has me > > thinking of _Altered carbon_ (the book, not the TV show). In my reading, > > the core point of the book is "past a certain level of wealth, you're not > > really human any more". > > > > The key reasons: > > > > * Access to wealth, opportunities, networks and bodily modifications far > > beyond what anyone at a lower socio-economic stratum can access. So much > so > > that you're not really comparable any more. > > This might be so at one point in a future but lets not forget that > currently, new medical procedures require a bit of testing and I doubt > b*aire would volunteer as guinea pig... So those imaginary procedures, > which would better had to be kept secret, cannot be used without > making them known to a huge number of people... Or would have required > a very nasty setup, where guinea pigs are being disposed off after > testing. Still risky - someone may talk, even if years later. Guinea > pigs run, too. > > > * Inability to perceive other people as even being of the same species, > but > > only as exploitable resources. > > In Cixin Liu's trilogy of which first volume is a "Three body problem" > they have a battle in deep space (about 1ly from Earth). Few > spaceships run away from Earth (which is soon to be invaded) and they > have to spend centuries in criostasis before reaching a star system, > where they can get more hydrogen fuel and go even further. But systems > will fail, so there is a need for huge number of spares. Hence the > battle - only one ship survives, the staff dismantles other ships, > taking everything which could be used and probably also bodies of > deceased crew to be used as source of food. They have food processors, > so not literally cannibalising the dead, but after doing so they are > no longer going to be regarded as part of the same culture that > remains back on Earth. > > So it happens. Also sometimes in the middle of the ocean, from what I > read. > > > To be clear, this is not the only artistic work to advance this thesis - > > but it is the one that has made the core point in the most memorable way > > for me. > > > > At an even higher level of abstraction, one might argue that the point of > > all art is to examine the question of what it means to be human. Which > > could easily be also interpreted as what it means to be inhuman. > > > > Thoughts? > > > > Udhay > > I suppose inhuman is harder to understand than fellow human. Or rather > there is some part of motivation which is completely impossible to > understand and requires a lot of explanation. This happens when > members of different cultures meet each other and are not sure who > those other guys are. It is easier to consider the other as inhuman > when there is material gratification for adopting such posture. Again, > human history shows it is very easy to do - travellers robbing natives > of their posessions on the grounds that animals do not have > posessions, natives not sure if travellers are human or maybe gods... > > Interesting thread. I believe the following two links are more or less > on topic, maybe even connected to material posted by Cindy Gallop. > > 1. "Jeff Bezos said the quiet part out loud — hopes that you'll give > up your PC to rent one from the cloud" > > "So, what prediction did Bezos make back then, that seems > particularly poignant right now? Bezos thinks that local PC hardware > is antiquated, and that the future will revolve around cloud > computing scenarios, where you rent your compute from companies like > Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure." > > > https://www.windowscentral.com/artificial-intelligence/jeff-bezos-says-the-quiet-part-out-loud-bezos-envisions-that-youll-give-up-your-pc-for-an-ai-cloud-version > > So you would not own the hardware, only rent it. Pictures of your > family, put into whose hands. Thoughts, talks, ready for the software > to categorise and databased. > > 2. "The pivot" > > "It's my 61st birthday this weekend and I have to say, I never > expected to get to be this old—or this weirded-out by the world I'm > living in, which increasingly resembles the backstory from a > dystopian 1970s SF novel in which two-fisted billionaires colonize > space in order to get away from the degenerate second-hander rabble > downstairs who want to survive their John W. Campbell-allocated > banquet of natural disasters. (Here's looking at you, Ben Bova.)" > > https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2025/10/the-pivot-1.html > > -- > Regards, > Tomasz Rola > > -- > ** A C programmer asked whether computer had Buddha's nature. ** > ** As the answer, master did "rm -rif" on the programmer's home ** > ** directory. And then the C programmer became enlightened... ** > ** ** > ** Tomasz Rola mailto:[email protected] ** > -- > Silklist mailing list > [email protected] > https://mailman.panix.com/listinfo.cgi/silklist > -- *Cindy Gallop* Consultant + Founder/CEO MakeLoveNotPorn Academy is now live in early-stage beta: https://www.makelovenotporn.academy/ You can make tax-deductible donations/donate from Donor Advised Funds to help us grow and scale MakeLoveNotPorn Academy <https://www.makelovenotporn.academy/>: donate here via non-profit Inspire Access <https://givebutter.com/InspireAccessxMLNP>. Watch my SXSW London 26-min keynote 'How Sex Education Can Help End Gender Violence And Bring Back Love' <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOnymx5eTi8> Listen to Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway: Sex, Porn And Knowing The Difference With Cindy Gallop <https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-prof-g-show-with-scott-galloway/id1498802610?i=1000575745417> Book me to speak <http://www.robinsonspeakers.com/cindy-gallop-speaker-speakers-bureau> Hire me to coach/consult <https://cindygallop.com/> | Connect with me on LinkedIn <https://www.linkedin.com/in/cindygallop/> Follow me on Instagram <https://www.instagram.com/cindygallop/> Follow me on Twitter <https://twitter.com/cindygallop>
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