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Divine Automation: Factorio and phantasies of mechanization
(reincantamentox.substack.com)
Dreaming of transport belts
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Last updated: 2023/06/05
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I posted this on the other thread about this article:
It was rather difficult to understand the point of this essay. It doesn't state its thesis until about the middle. The first half is a philosophical review of automation games, taking a detour to explain what the word automation could mean (why?) to eventually arrive at the conclusion that tech bros (incorrectly associating them with Silicon Valley, which is focused on hardware, not software) are bad. The reasoning for which seems to be largely an opinion stated as fact with the supporting evidence being that these games are unrealistic.
I found it difficult to engage with these ideas because the linkage between them is so incredibly stretched that it is hard to see the connection at all.