It has been a while since I've checked tech news, so I visited Hacker News this morning to see what's going on the minds of the computer nerds. I looked over one article going over how Amazon's Kindle devices collect a "surprisingly large amoung of data". Various other articles concerned details of various technologies that wouldn't be of interest to general audiences. Hacker News is associated with venture capital stuff, so there were a handful of articles related to funding/finance.

People of the Bubble

For many nerds, life goes on pretty much as normal during covid ². Sure, you might have to wear a mask, but many nerds would probably have preferred to hide behind a mask anyways, so now they can simultaneous virtue signal and conceal their smirks of disdain at all the "idiots" around them acting less straight-laced than themselves.

Going around town, I can see that many people are doing their best to cooperate with authorities and do a good, honest job wherever they are. Every interaction I have had with store employees has been pleasant; no troubles.

From inside my bubble, things like OK logistically. The stock market has had just... ridiculous prices. I haven heard anyone talk about bitcoin being a bubble recently, lol.

Bubble Bursting

What I am describing are relatively peaceful parts of a relatively nice part of California; other cities (e.g. Portland, New York City...) are recieving a lot more... action.

I am assuming most people around me are employed in some way or otherwise have the resources to not face fear of eviction. Major employers in my vicinity include various government agencies and hospitals. In other words, I am surrounded by very institutionally embedded people as well as "normal" businesses like restaurants, gas stations, laundromats, and the like.

Poking around the Internets, I know that many people are not doing well at all. Probably lots of the people I'm connected with on social media aren't going out so much—the relatively pleasant interactions I've had with people outside represent,

• Go-getters trying to improve themselves (e.g. seeing people while exercising outside)
• People with jobs (and thus taking care of at least some things financially)
• People that want to interact with the outside world

Predictions

I don't think that we're going to see a "return to normal" anytime soon in the sense that over the next few months we're going to see lots of lasting changes. ³ Many dystopian trends we're seeing in the USA have been here for... a long time. one might say they are baked into the foundations of this nation. With changes in technology and the expansion of the Internet into more and more places I think we can expect,

• More surveillance, everywhere. The more things that are hooked up to smart phones and/or the Internet, the more data we will generate
• Further consolidation of power for financial/technochratic elites. These people are not independent of government (so don't try some lame "muh free markets!" argument) ⁴
• Further erosion of constitutional rights (e.g. right to assemble, right to bear arms) ⁵
• Many people will be trapped out alone, isolated—consider for example recent college graduates who have maintained employment in a new city; they may opt to continue living in that new city despite the remnants social life continuing to waste away
• Drawn out indecisiveness; most people don't want to get in trouble breaking the law and the current way stuff is laid out, it is difficult to move fast.

I made some predictions about covid stuff back in May of this year). Overall my predictions moving forward are more grim, but not in contradition with those made earlier.

Some more predictions for the coming months,

• America as a whole will continue to drift "blue"/Democrat; Californians will leave California and bring their politics where they go.
• If Trump wins, he may be our last Republican president for a long time (or ever); we can expect massive media outrage/scandal/rioting/etc if Trump wins
• If Biden wins, I expect to see a short-term "return to prosperity". This might mean covid mysteriously "ending" or some vaccine being rolled out. What will follow is increased socialism, surveillance, and everything inbetween—basically leading the USA towards a totalitarian secular state. ⁶
• We will see more rioting in US cities
• We may see the formation of new police-like forces by "community organizers"
• I do not think we will see a large, unified "right wing" defense; we will see small, local efforts, but nothing like a large militia fighting off protestors, at least in the coming few months.

I think many of the businesses that have survived this far will continue to survive; tech companies, banks, etc. will also continue to consolidate power.

Preparing for the future

There is no better time than now to make peace with those around you, build/maintain your networks, and work on yourself than now.

• Landowners—what do you think a nation of broke millennials will vote in?
• Renters—do not squander your time/resources on things that may not be there tomorrow

Connections, skills, and of course good character will take you far in any world. The world we are heading into will not be the "Boomer economy" those before us have known.