Hacker News: demritocracy

2026 Hugo Awards

demritocracy — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 03:00:56 +0000

Article URL: https://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/2026-hugo-awards/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49505117

Points: 8

# Comments: 1

New comment by demritocracy in "The internet is kind of a predatory cesspit now"

demritocracy — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 18:59:24 +0000

I saw a video of a doctor answering a call and the caller started saying some strange hate/concensus-pushing message about Jews hating people who hate Jews in a very angry tone. Neither the doctor nor the commenters suggested it was AI, but it certainly sounded like it. I got a flash of a future where every telemarketer call is either an angry voice ready to convince you of something, or the gender you like trying to woo you.

How discouraging would it be (intentionally) if every time an AI had access to your attention, it was trying to make you angry. This would probably cause a lot of people to disengage, a lot to get angry, and a few able to live without being affected by the laser guided anger and manipulation

New comment by demritocracy in "American capitalism has taken an apocalyptic turn"

demritocracy — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 16:34:41 +0000

if wealth is money in this context, and printing is creation in this context, what is the difference between printing money and creating wealth? the new money went somewhere. if i remember correctly it went indiscriminately to business owners, with no stipulations on how it was spent, and then blanket forgiven with no questions asked. to my mind that is wealth creation and the root cause of the inflation we've seen since (the printing not just the PPP)

New comment by demritocracy in "American capitalism has taken an apocalyptic turn"

demritocracy — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 05:09:48 +0000

looks like a lot of wealth was created out of thin air about 6 years ago https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M1SL

New comment by demritocracy in "The newest Instagram “exploit” is the goofiest I've seen"

demritocracy — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 16:00:15 +0000

it's my name formatted firstmlast, nine characters long, and I'm not famous. I would absolutely sell it if it wasn't tied to me like that

New comment by demritocracy in "The newest Instagram “exploit” is the goofiest I've seen"

demritocracy — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 18:29:15 +0000

I was wondering why I got 15 instagram password reset emails over the weekend. It also reminded me I had an instagram account, which I promptly tried to log into and delete.

I created the account when instagram first came out, never used it, and totally forgot about it. I got stuck in a strange position where I had to login from a device I had previously logged in from, but because it's been over a decade, I no longer have any of the devices I might have used to create/access the account.

I still have access to both the email and phone number used for the account, but that was not good enough.

How hilariously incompetent. I filed a CCPA complaint.