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by luspr 2251 days ago
"ANY SURPLUS IS IMMORAL" "AUTOMATION IS DEADLY"

... wait, what?

4 comments

ANY SURPLUS IS IMMORAL

if you're operating efficiently, and generate or take only what you need, you aren't generating surplus.

surplus could be read as greed, decadence, or even waste

AUTOMATION IS DEADLY

do it yourself, retain the know-how yourself. self-sufficience. don't rely on externalities. natural processes are more, well, natural. machines tend to exploit and create imbalance.

> surplus could be read as greed, decadence, or even waste

Or as a buffer. E.g., who knew that overcapacity in a hospital could be beneficial? So once more, the veracity of such statements depends on the context.

Your statement is 100% correct but misses the entire point

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22854475

The contradiction I saw with "ANY SURPLUS IS IMMORAL" was:

"KEEP SOMETHING IN RESERVE FOR EMERGENCIES"

Where does the something you keep in reserve come from?

Enjoy:

www.jajlouny.com/contradictory-epigrams

ALL HAIL THE DARK LORD OF THE TWIN MOONS
Second one: A machine gun comes to mind.

Of course, I am not sure these are truisms.

The title of the work (or rather the title of her entire oeuvre in this style) is “Truisms”, but I don’t think that means they’re necessarily intended to literally be truisms. There’s a lot of humor and irony involved.