@remixtures Part 2 of 2: So what happens when there are no more "growth industries"? When there are no startups that if you buy in at the beginning you can sell decades later for 20x what you paid? The answer apparently is to create the illusion that something is the Next Big Thing that will transform the world. But unfortunately the science fiction vision of steady progress towards ever-more advanced tech isn't panning out. Technology is apparently plateauing.

@remixtures Part 1 of 2: Perhaps the problem ultimately is that our entire economy, founded in the early days of the Industrial Revolution, is inextricably geared towards growth: not merely successfully supplying a useful good or service indefinitely, but growth. This made sense when new technology was creating entirely new arenas that hadn't previously been possible. But arguably computer chips and the PCs and other devices they made possible was the last true innovation to come along.

@retech @scifi@a.gup.pe @sciencefiction @scifi@kbin.social @cyberpunk@lemmy.zip @cyberpunkhub @cyberpunk@lemmy.ml What I'd like to know is if the telescreens in "1984" continually transmitted the signals from their cameras or if they had to be remotely activated. Because if the latter, anyone with a modest knowledge of electronics could have rigged a warning light to let people know when it was safe to talk.