An Age of Hyperabundance | Laura Preston
www.nplusonemag.com
Everyone at this conference kept invoking loneliness and claiming the antidote was conversation. That didn’t track with my own experience. My most desperate moments of loneliness have been in conversation: on a Hinge date, doomed but persisting as a form of protocol. At a publishing party, surrounded by people who look and talk like me, all of us a little drunk but maintaining our nervous, manic professionalism.
  • FredFig@awful.systemsEnglish
    21·
    6 months ago

    It must be exciting when you find out your startup is in the only industry that’s in VCs sightlines, and it must be fucking exhausting crafting a pitch for them.

    The VERA story of pet euthanasia reinforces my bias that there is nothing good to be gained at an industry conference, so I’m tempted to believe it’s true. Either it’s truly insane marketing copy crafted to suck up sociopathic VCs attention because these people live in hell, or it’s actually real and they’re happy that they’ve created Uber a killbot for dogs because these people live in hell.

    Even when you luck out and somehow get a chance to win at capitalism by a coincidence of destiny, it still eats your soul.

      • Sailor Sega Saturn@awful.systemsEnglish
        16·
        6 months ago

        From their blog: Acupuncture for Dogs: What You Should Know – I can’t tell if it was written by a chatbot or not, but it could very well be based on the article quality.

        There are no real systemic side effects of using acupuncture as a treatment for your dog because it covers a more holistic approach. For dogs in poor health who could be at higher risk when undergoing certain surgeries or using certain medications, acupuncture might prove a suitable alternative.

        Also note how they call their chatbot “brand-supportive”. Of course it’s not just an unlicensed robo-doc, but a billboard masquerading as an unlicensed robo-doc.

        • grrgyle@slrpnk.netEnglish
          8·
          6 months ago

          I hope that’s generated, because the section you quote makes only a dim amount of sense, and then only if you take on most of collaborative work of communication as the reader

          Actually the main reason I’m commenting is because I wanted to say, I love your username!

    • o7___o7@awful.systemsEnglish
      20·
      6 months ago

      Considering how many attendees were probably recent crypto enthusiasts…

      “thin, sort of stretched, like butters scraped over too much bread.”

      Edit: Even though a news worthy amount of dumb shit happens in Tennessee on the reg, I’ve been smug about the fact that at least this flavor of reified dystopia is something that happens over yonder on the west coast. After reading this article I feel violated, like someone broke into my house and defiled it while I was on vacation.

      A+ writing softened the blow. (except the parts about the Holocaust, old folks, and dogs. That was grim as hell)

    • froztbyte@awful.systemsEnglish
      3·
      5 months ago

      It’s not easy, being on the bleeding edge - all that blood loss has measurable effects on health and vigor!

  • saucerwizard@awful.systemsEnglish
    14·
    6 months ago

    Should have ended on ‘when the man comes around’.

    Bonus Jim Jones reference too. But what the fuck was the chatbot stuff about domestic abuse or putting a dog down - thats Black Mirror* tier nightmare shit. Thats a fuck no from me.

    *shout out to piggate.

  • grrgyle@slrpnk.netEnglish
    11·
    6 months ago

    I’ve only just started in on the article, but I like the writing style. Reminds me of David Rakoff’s carefully incisive voice. I loved his essays.

  • JayjaderEnglish
    9·
    6 months ago

    Maybe it’s just because it’s all actually real, but there’s a mind-melting yet quiet horror to this article that I feel Lovecraft could only dream of imagining.

    Like some sort of Ionesco’s Rhinoceros mixed with a reverse Kafka’s Metamorphosis, grotesquely stretched over Primo Levi’s If This Is A Man.

    That’s probably too convoluted of a metaphor to mean much to anyone else, but, fuck, I don’t have the energy or the will to unpack it further than that.

    To think, when I first read the post title, that my initial reaction was “here we go, techtakes has finally gotten too edgy for me”.

    I need a cigarette and a scalding hot shower.