Hacker News
points by Nursie 20 hours ago | 0 comments
Sorry, but I very much disagree.

Firstly, it made no mention of showing off to potential mates, to my reading. But have no fear, regardless of scarcity people will have ways to signal fitness to find mates and build hierarchies out of it, we're very good at that. It might come down to fashion choices, leisure activity choices, really anything.

Secondly, every example of how this person connects with others is to do with technology and career advancement. He wasn't asking knowledgable friends for advice, he was asking questions to strangers about linux on IRC. He doesn't talk about social groups or sports clubs, he was talking about communities of practice and his professional work. He values learning only for career advancement.

Those ways of building relationships might disappear, but old ladies will still get together to crochet and natter. Middle aged men will still make and drink beer together, or practice woodworking skills. Younger guys and gals will still form sports teams. And people will still learn for the love of learning.

You know, things which already happen away from the screen. Ordinary, everyday human stuff.

tl;dr - touch grass, the article says a lot more about the author's life than our future prospects as humans.

[–] ShinyLeftPad 20 hours ago
> He wasn't asking knowledgable friends for advice, he was asking questions to strangers about linux on IRC.

A stranger is a friend you haven't made yet. Asking strangers is one good way to make friends.

[–] gherkinnn 20 hours ago
Then ask strangers about identifying birds instead of Linux.
[–] ShinyLeftPad 18 hours ago
The stranger will tell you just ask a model.
[–] Hamuko 19 hours ago
Isn't that exactly the kind of thing that would be offloaded to an AI? If you can just take a picture, record the sound, or vaguely describe a bird and it instantly gives you an answer.
[–] Nursie 19 hours ago
It's true, but it's far from the only way to break the ice.

Really on top of the particularly narrow viewpoint the OP has on life and human relations, I find the core notion itself absurd - "In the future because of X, Y and Z, why will people bother to socialise?"

Because ... people like socialising.

[–] ShinyLeftPad 18 hours ago
I think they like socializing decreasingly less

https://www.derekthompson.org/p/the-death-of-the-american-ho...

[–] Nursie 17 hours ago
I think there are some valid points to be made about how people's socialising patterns are changing in the light of modern interactions with tech, but also about using US social habits as a proxy for everyone else's. I've rarely entertained people in my home even during my most sociable times, pubs, clubs and restaurants much more frequently figure in my calendar.

All that and the author of this article still needs to get out and touch grass.

[–] ShinyLeftPad 15 hours ago
I think these stats are true for most western developed countries

https://www.dw.com/en/germany-sees-loneliness-epidemic-among...

Telling people to touch grass doesn't magically invert trends.

[–] Nursie 2 hours ago
These are somewhat orthoganal - young people are lonelier != everyone else has a fixed supply of friends and can never make more.

Nor does it change the fact that the author, who clearly does want to socialise, would benefit from doing something outside of their tech bubble and widening their horizons beyond "things that could conceivably further my career".

[–] ShinyLeftPad 20 minutes ago
> the fact that the author, who clearly does want to socialise, would benefit from doing something outside of their tech bubble

I am not in SV and i don't have a single irl tech friend. OK, maybe just one.

Most of my friends would agree with me and with article author. One of them goes further and doesn't even have a smartphone.

IME techies very rarely have these concerns.

So I'm not sure who is in a tech bubble between me and all those people in this thread saying how the logic is illegitimate because the author doesn't go out (which I guess is a "fact" because they all know him personally lol)