Welcome to General Chat - GAW Community Area
This General Chat area started off as a place for people to talk about things that are off topic, however it has quickly evolved into a community and has become an integral part of the GAW experience for many of us.
Based on its evolving needs and plenty of user feedback, we are trying to bring some order and institute some rules. Please make sure you read these rules and participate in the spirit of this community.
Rules for General Chat
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Be respectful to each other. This is of utmost importance, and comments may be removed if deemed not respectful.
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Avoid long drawn out arguments. This should be a place to relax, not to waste your time needlessly.
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Personal anecdotes, puzzles, cute pics/clips - everything welcome
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Please do not spam at the top level. If you have a lot to post each day, try and post them all together in one top level comment
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Try keep things light. If you are bringing in deep stuff, try not to go overboard.
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Things that are clearly on-topic for this board should be posted as a separate post and not here (except if you are new and still getting the feel of this place)
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If you find people violating these rules, deport them rather than start a argument here.
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Feel free to give feedback as these rules are expected to keep evolving
In short, imagine this thread to be a local community hall where we all gather and chat daily. Please be respectful to others in the same way
Rules For the rest of the Site also accessible on the sidebar.
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There are many factors in how less a technology you can use and get away assuming the world is a free market economy.
The rate of growth of technology (productivity) needs to be in line with rate of growth of population for a country to sustain itself. A large population with primitive technology will struggle to cope.
In a free world, the free market will dictate the growth of technology. Only way to push primitivism is by enforcing it against the will of people, and this would inevitably lead to the collapse of the country.
Progress in technology almost always also has a military component. A primitive country will not be able to defend itself from other countries who have surpassed it in military technology.
The fear of technological dictatorship, does not arise from technological progress itself, but who controls that progress and how much aware people are in general. We are so blessed that the most powerful progress in technology is happening with "our guy" in charge, while the population itself has undergone a level of awakening not seen in 2000 years. This means, the new technological progress will not become a weapon against people but a tool for the people for prosperity.
It looks good on paper, but the fact is "power rules society". In a group of kids, the strongest or the smartest kids will lead the group. This applies to every segment of the society not just kids. In a truly anarchist society, we will have a small group of strong people who would rule the society in mafia-style.
This is why US constitution enumerates the powers delegated to the federal government. That is the bare minimum necessary to keep the society functioning properly and fairly.
I think one objection to this "free market development of technology" is that it forces everyone to go along with it; primitivism versus a society with technology are kind of two "total" systems: for example, if you didn't have technology, it's kind of "forcing" others to cope without technology (like some people who rely on technology to survive, who might die) - this is often focused on as an argument against primitivism, however the same problem exists with the technological society we live in: the technology we develop gets forced on everyone.
No one can really meaningfully "opt out" from the building of datacenters and march of AI for example, but are forced to deal with them to some extent - technology has this kind of "forceful" sense to it. The outmatched primitive tribe with basic weapons like a bow and arrow, are forced to get guns if facing an opponent with such weaponry. Hence technology forces people to keep adopting more technology, in something of a vicious cycle. I think some primitivists argue these technological developments ultimately take away our freedom and make us "slaves to technology".
I think anarchists would argue in response that we could have the same kind of problem with governments as we currently have abusive elites rule us involuntarily; so it's not intrinsic to anarchy or governments existing, it's just both systems can go in a good or bad direction.
It's certainly possible anarchy could devolve into a bunch of gangs or warlords fighting against each other, much like governments like we have now could be semi-functional also as we experience.