this post was submitted on 03 May 2025
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Alt Text: an image of Agent Smith from The Matrix with the following text superimposed, "1999 was described as being the peak of human civilization in 'The Matrix' and I laughed because that obviously wouldn't age well and then the next 25 years happened and I realized that yeah maybe the machines had a point."

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 15 minutes ago

American civilization? Yes,definitely. Human civilization? I genuinely don't think so. I believe in us as a species and think the best is yet to come (after we rid ourselves of bigots and authoritarians).

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (2 children)

You should read the duology (I’ve only read the first book) Monk and Robot, which is solopunk. The premise is that robots got tired of doing what they were built for, and decided to form a treaty with humans allowing them to wonder into the wild and live without human contact.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Monk and Robot

This sounds like a great one to follow up on after having recently started Murderbot, thanks!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 12 minutes ago

Speaking of… Look at the cover.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 48 minutes ago

Great set of books! Love them.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

The further you get from the gold standard the worse life you'll have. Though you might have more social media and gadgets you'll have a smaller house and worse quality food/services, as everything is financialized through debt in a futile attempt to force the elderly who own all the assets to consume every greater amounts, as automation progressively decreases the costs and companies find more advanced ways to shrinkflate products.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

It literally was the peak though. Maybe early 2000s minus 9/11. But after 2010 it absolutely went downhill.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Oh goodness no. We had the War on Terror for 15 years after 2001. Global civilization took a serious crash dive after that. The terrorists won.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

The terrorists won.

Like Bush, Putin, Erdogan, those terrorists. Yep.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 27 minutes ago

Bin Laden killed less than Bush did. And Obama.

What a fucked up world the state has invented.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 11 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 hours ago

They have better financing

[–] [email protected] 22 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

I mean, Facebook is chatbot hell, with millions pulled in.

If that isn't the matrix, I dunno what is.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

It's even worse, man... At least the robots in The Matrix weren't capitalists (I don't think... I honestly forget most of the Animatrix)

[–] [email protected] 12 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

They definitely weren't capitalist, lmao. They only wanted to make the perfect system. You could consider their quest for perfection "greed".

They didn't really have to try, though, they had a great system in place. Humans lived long enough for turnover and plenty of energy provided. That glitch was an issue, but contained. At least until someone decided to fall in love. Then the whole system failed.

Probably the realist part of the matrix.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (2 children)

Humans as a battery is just a dumb concept.

Now utilizing humans for our biologically assembled computer (brains) so they could offload processing power, that woulda been smart.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Ya but even then if they're so smart just turn the globe into solar powered computronium.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 hours ago

The humans destroyed the atmosphere, there is no solar power if the sun can’t breach the toxic clouds.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 hours ago

I think that was the original concept - battery was the "for the masses" version

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 14 hours ago (6 children)

So much horseshit happened around 2000 that forever split our timeline...

  • W Stealing the election

  • Bin Laden attacking and making the entire world forever lose their mind and hope

  • Never ending wars and climate destruction because no-one cared anymore about collaboration

That 4 year period altered the world's trajectory for the worse on so many levels.

W lies and propaganda led to Putin and Trump and it set the stage for all of the anti queer and anti immigrant rhetoric

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 hours ago

W lies and propaganda led to Putin and Trump

At least talking about Putin, that jerk and his family (both actual and "family") created most of the lies, propaganda and war in the ex-Soviet space themselves. Starting right with year 1991 (Yeltsin had a different public image, but it was one team), hijacking a honest democratic movement, breaking what institutions limiting them USSR still had (under democratic excuses), and making every regional conflict a thorn in its body, either hard to remove or fulfilling their goals when removed. Consummating their achieved right to answer legal arguments with cannons in 1993, their achieved right to arbitrarily wage war on their compatriots in 1996, and their achieved right to kill anyone they don't like in 1999. They literally rule Russia as an occupied country, they even live mostly abroad.

So by 2000 Russia was already deep in shit. Dunno about USA.

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

unless you're queer. queerphobia was much more rampant back then.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

Interestingly enough though, the directors of the matrix are two trans women

But while yes, queerphobia was worse in some ways, it was also not as bad in others. For example, trans people didn't have the massive organized targeted attack back then. In many ways, things have gotten worse in this aspect too

[–] [email protected] 16 points 12 hours ago (3 children)

Question for the trans folk here: which time period was harder for you? Hostile ignorance or hostile attention?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 hours ago

During hostile ignorance:

  • I had to leave the state I grew up in to get into a place I could access medical care, get away from an unaccepting family, and get into a place I wasn't afraid of being attacked while transitioning (being visibly trans till HRT kicked in).
  • Trans panic was seen as more of a valid defence back then for killing trans people.
  • I think we were seen as more of a curiosity/fetish than people, but that's debatable since that's definitely still an issue.
  • People were more afraid of being visibly trans and finding community outside of forums was harder.
  • I was certain I'd lose my job when I inevitably had to come out and had prepared for it by saving up enough to get me through finding another job. I was amazed when that didn't happen and most of the company accepted me. I still had to deal with harassment that nowadays would probably get those people fired.

During hostile attention:

  • I had to leave my home due to the state no longer ignoring us and focusing on passing laws to make our lives more difficult.
  • I know a ton of trans people and have a stronger support network. Finding others is easier now.
  • Medical care is easier to get now if you aren't living in one of the states currently trying to ban HRT.
  • Parents seem a little more accepting but it's still divisive
  • I'm less afraid of the average person fucking with me in most areas of the US
  • I'm afraid of government attempts to round myself or loved ones up into camps within the next few years.

Generally, I prefer the visibility and broader social acceptance we have now. More people know about us, so more people hate us but way more people accept us. I see it as how being gay was in the aughts. More people were out and it was less of a big deal even though there was still a lot of hate crimes against gay people. Now it's way more accepted outside of ultra conservative areas. I'm hoping we are more accepted within a decade instead of being rounded up and killed en masse.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 12 hours ago

It probably would depend on if they pass or not. If you fully pass 15-20 years ago probably was much easier in some regards.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

I never experienced hostile ignorance but I do like to be left alone, so I'd vote ignorance over attention.

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