The Politics of the NPC

[rynling]

I keeping thinking about Ganondorf as a representation of a complicated ethical position, and I keep finding interesting references in the weirdest places. For example, these are two panels from a comic (link) illustrating one of the more disturbing ideas to come out of contemporary posthuman philosophy:

Comments

[renegadefolkhero]

Well, that comic puts a nice, fine point on it.

Elon Musk and pop futurists are a source of some derision in the household. A lot of the Big Ideas presented seem to reflect a very narrow personal experience or... honestly, a juvenile worldview. Philosophically shallow, perhaps. I might be talking out my ass, I've only reflected on the more casual aspects that trickle down to me.

[rynling]

I am also not a huge fan of Big Ideas about The Future. I don't actively seek such things out,

(People are like, You should watch this TED Talk, and I am like, NooooOPE.)

so my exposure has been limited, but to me they seem either excessively optimistic or excessively pessimistic. "A juvenile worldview" is probably the most apt assessment I've ever read - thank you for that.

I came across this comic because someone linked me to something posted on the same site by the artist yesterday, 2017 Is a Cyberpunk Dystopia, after I made a stupid joke on Facebook about the Vice Cheeto Nazi being a failed Sephiroth clone.

I get that the "Dystopia" comic is exaggerated for, um, comedic effect, but the real-world technophobia it reflects makes it feel uncomfortably like concern trolling, especially with regard to several of the bioethical issues it references. In the same way, the comic about Elon Musk and Nick Bostrum only feels relevant in its allegorical implications, like, why is it always normal-ass people like me who have to deal with the consequences of macroeconomic modeling? And this is a nice allegory, but why should I be expected to have to read these sort of Big Ideas laterally in order for them to make practical sense?

In any case, having the site direct me to Gemma Correll's Fashion Tips for the Apocalypse made the venture worthwhile, so my short jaunt into speculative posthumanism wasn't a total wash.

Sorry for the long response. This topic is tangentially related to Zelda and I could not, stop writing,, because,