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Comment by ramblerman | Hacker News Reader

I think the stasi world was actually more terrifying than an AI eye in the sky.

Because you couldn't trust anyone, not your friends or family. Everyone was part of a big network out to get you, so you were sort of locked in your own head.

The more realistic fear for me is ending up in a cyberpunk dystopia where the world is run by 3-4 big corporations. Which is ofc not something they like to bring up.

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A lot of people already live that former reality. Try to have a professional from Hong Kong tell you what they really feel. A student and child won't have any issue with that. A professional deriving benefits from corporate life is worried about the network of people snitching.

More similar to someone in the west offering their thoughts on Israel or Palestine. There are consequences for your ongoing standing in society, or ability to have any standing in society, no matter whether your own government is involved in those consequences or not.

> Because you couldn't trust anyone, not your friends or family. Everyone was part of a big network out to get you, so you were sort of locked in your own head. Have you seen Twitter?

Consider reading "To Destroy You Is No Loss". It's the only book to have ever made me cry while reading it. It's a true first hand account of the genocide in Cambodia in the 60s. I read it after having read 1984, and I could not help but pick up on the parallels. There was no AI technology, but it reminded me of what you said: "Everyone was part of a big network out to get you"

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