Yes; it’s strongly implied that being an upload is great, but however Deva has been captured by a tyranny which deliberately keeps resources restricted in order to force ems to scramble for survival and compliance with the central government in order to stay alive, and which reacts to events by doubling down on control & liquidation of dissenters and outside elements. (So you could easily read this as a critique of North Korea, with Deva=Pyongyang.) Which is entirely true and I expect that an upload society could very easily tilt into an even more extreme totalitarian tyranny between the evolutionary pressures and direct modification of minds.
Before we even make this comparison, I find it extremely hard to believe that the fall in real wages over the past few decades was created by following the advice of our best political theorists. Neoliberalism has not been known for listening to theorists.
If it wasn’t imperfect, there wouldn’t be much of a story. I think it’s a well done transhuman society simply because it’s bad in a way that is not just possible but a pretty plausible extrapolation: someone is usually root.
Just from reading the wiki page: it has a critique of a transhumanist society?
Yes; it’s strongly implied that being an upload is great, but however Deva has been captured by a tyranny which deliberately keeps resources restricted in order to force ems to scramble for survival and compliance with the central government in order to stay alive, and which reacts to events by doubling down on control & liquidation of dissenters and outside elements. (So you could easily read this as a critique of North Korea, with Deva=Pyongyang.) Which is entirely true and I expect that an upload society could very easily tilt into an even more extreme totalitarian tyranny between the evolutionary pressures and direct modification of minds.
That sounds like a very badly done transhuman society.
What’s the point of comparison? Our best political theorists have not managed to make good societies. Look at real wages over the last few decades.
Whose real wages?
I haven’t looked, but I suspect that global real wages went up.
Before we even make this comparison, I find it extremely hard to believe that the fall in real wages over the past few decades was created by following the advice of our best political theorists. Neoliberalism has not been known for listening to theorists.
If it wasn’t imperfect, there wouldn’t be much of a story. I think it’s a well done transhuman society simply because it’s bad in a way that is not just possible but a pretty plausible extrapolation: someone is usually root.
Ah. So you’re only really interested in bad things.