[ExI] totalitarian techniques

[Ben Zaiboc]

On 13/11/2021 01:55, bill w wrote:
>
> I would be glad to hear which of my ideas is outdated.

The idea that China somehow needs to catch up with the west, or anyone 
else. See: 
https://statisticstimes.com/economy/united-states-vs-china-economy.php

As far as ideology is concerned, I'm certain that the communist chinese 
think that everyone else needs to catch up with them!

Even the idea that they can't innovate or do original scientific 
research, and have to steal other people's ideas is outdated: 
https://hbr.org/2021/05/chinas-new-innovation-advantage

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/02/these-charts-show-how-china-is-becoming-an-innovation-superpower/


>
> China will become more like us very soon:  they will stop making 
> everything for Amazon because they will no longer have all that cheap 
> labor.  I am increasingly seeing 'made in Bangladesh' and 'made in 
> Vietnam'.  That trend will get bigger and bigger as the average 
> Chinese gets more and more middle class.  bill w

I do hope you're right. I doubt it, though. Even if average citizens get 
wealthier, automation will easily replace human labour, and the chinese 
government certainly won't have any qualms about that.

Communist China is very different in outlook to western democracies. The 
whole 'group is more important than individual' mindset has been very 
successful there, even though it seems to go against human nature. 
Certainly the masses seem to agree with it, or at least acquiesce to it. 
The leaders probably see it as a useful tool for wielding power.

I think that this rapid buildup of economic and technological power, 
combined with their totalitarian ideology, should be making us very 
worried indeed.

Ben

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20211113/41d0198c/attachment.htm>