zlacker

>>ajyoon+(OP)
I'm convinced that >30% of this comes from ideas leaking out of fiction such as like Neuromancer, and percolating through the minds of wealthy people attracted to some of the concepts. Namely, the dream of being a hyper-wealthy dynasty, above any earthly government, controlling an extraterritorial Las Vegas Fiefdom In Space. (Which in the book, also hosted a powerful AI.)

Then they work backwards, trying to figure out some economic engine to make it happen. "Data centers" are (A) in-vogue for investment right now and (B) vaguely plausible, at least compared to having a space-casino.

>>Terr_+qx
Stole Grok from Heinlein. At least it’s a good heuristic for people-I-don’t-have-to-take-seriously.

>>threec+j11
Heinlein's sci fi didn't age well, because it was written for juveniles and then later his social ideas overtook his sci fi ones.

He had the same blind spots that Ayn Rand did, but perhaps better informed of the fascist-adjacent US culture.

One of the good sci fi/social ideas he had was about what it meant to "grok" something. groklaw.net of happy memory was exactly what that verb was supposed to mean, dive into something until you understand it at a molecular level.

The fact that Musk et al have stolen terms like "grok" and even "cyberspace" as if they own them is something I loathe.