Great piece. I would attribute the subdued influence of the industrial party to their success rather than "its blind spot on humanistic care" that prompted an introspection. Ma Qianzu has been advocating the same approach as solutions to social issues. Not a clear sign of introspection to me...
Great piece! I think science is the only religion that promises transcendence during your lifetime - in the form of social mobility. But when social mobility stops, so does the faith regardless of technologic achievements.
My dad went from peasant to city technician and from pot on a stove to gas burner - progress! Me, I went to college but I deliver food in a electric flying car - my LCD microplasma egg boiling machine is not progress anymore, just a trinket.
Fred, this is a brilliant cultural autopsy. You have perfectly described the human interface of what I call the R.I.C.E. Operating System (Redundant, Integrated, Computational, Evolutionary). In fact, the "Industrial Party" is simply the personification of this system.
And regarding the backlash against "996": The public's resentment will not stop this self-reinforcing process. On the contrary, it is pushing the system into "Total Factor Saturation."
1. Cruelty is a Feature, Not a Bug (The "E" Layer) The R (Redundancy) in the system creates immense pressure (Neijuan), which drives the E (Evolutionary Pragmatism) layer—the "Gu" (养蛊) process. This system is designed to be cruel. It trades individual burnout for species evolution. The "Profit Pool Destruction" is not a bug; it is the Kernel Driver that physically filters out the weak. The system does not care if the individual is tired; it only cares if the Industrial Species survives.
2. From "996" to "Full-Stack Saturation" The "Industrial Party" is not retreating; it is upgrading its method of Redundancy.
Phase 2 (Total Factor Saturation): Now, the system is saturating Capital, Energy, Time, and Tech simultaneously.
Look at the EV war. It is not just engineers working late; it is factories running 24/7, grid infrastructure being overbuilt, and R&D cycles compressed by 50%. This is Redundancy and Integration pushed to the absolute physical limit.
The "Industrial Party" will not vanish into a "post-industrial" twilight. It is evolving into a Hyper-Industrial Machine. It will continue to grind—devouring labor, capital, and energy—until it fills every void in the global market. We are not watching the end of the movie; we are watching the start of the Scale-Up.
the most fundamental question: the simple, repetitive labor that traditional manufacturing relies on is almost universally undesirable in contemporary society.
Their solution seems to be to impoverish those people they can not afford to expel or kill, and to destroy education, hope, and community, and thus give rise to a great slave class, until eugenics can take over and produce them factory style.
Nice one. The Self-strengthening Movement 自強運動 of 1861 to the early 1890s, ie, Qing-dynasty Open Door and Reform avant la lettre was very much akin to this. There is voluminous writing on the theory and practice of the movement in Chinese, no fictional scenarios required.
Great piece. I would attribute the subdued influence of the industrial party to their success rather than "its blind spot on humanistic care" that prompted an introspection. Ma Qianzu has been advocating the same approach as solutions to social issues. Not a clear sign of introspection to me...
Great piece! I think science is the only religion that promises transcendence during your lifetime - in the form of social mobility. But when social mobility stops, so does the faith regardless of technologic achievements.
My dad went from peasant to city technician and from pot on a stove to gas burner - progress! Me, I went to college but I deliver food in a electric flying car - my LCD microplasma egg boiling machine is not progress anymore, just a trinket.
Fred, this is a brilliant cultural autopsy. You have perfectly described the human interface of what I call the R.I.C.E. Operating System (Redundant, Integrated, Computational, Evolutionary). In fact, the "Industrial Party" is simply the personification of this system.
And regarding the backlash against "996": The public's resentment will not stop this self-reinforcing process. On the contrary, it is pushing the system into "Total Factor Saturation."
1. Cruelty is a Feature, Not a Bug (The "E" Layer) The R (Redundancy) in the system creates immense pressure (Neijuan), which drives the E (Evolutionary Pragmatism) layer—the "Gu" (养蛊) process. This system is designed to be cruel. It trades individual burnout for species evolution. The "Profit Pool Destruction" is not a bug; it is the Kernel Driver that physically filters out the weak. The system does not care if the individual is tired; it only cares if the Industrial Species survives.
2. From "996" to "Full-Stack Saturation" The "Industrial Party" is not retreating; it is upgrading its method of Redundancy.
Phase 1 (Labor Saturation): 996 (Pressuring biological limits).
Phase 2 (Total Factor Saturation): Now, the system is saturating Capital, Energy, Time, and Tech simultaneously.
Look at the EV war. It is not just engineers working late; it is factories running 24/7, grid infrastructure being overbuilt, and R&D cycles compressed by 50%. This is Redundancy and Integration pushed to the absolute physical limit.
The "Industrial Party" will not vanish into a "post-industrial" twilight. It is evolving into a Hyper-Industrial Machine. It will continue to grind—devouring labor, capital, and energy—until it fills every void in the global market. We are not watching the end of the movie; we are watching the start of the Scale-Up.
Ref [The Underlying Operating System of Chinese Manufacturing: The R.I.C.E. System] https://chinarbitrageur.substack.com/p/the-underlying-operating-system-of?r=71ctq6
Let's work harder. Let's work harder, to make things for the working class easier... ... ... hey, wait a minute...
the most fundamental question: the simple, repetitive labor that traditional manufacturing relies on is almost universally undesirable in contemporary society.
Their solution seems to be to impoverish those people they can not afford to expel or kill, and to destroy education, hope, and community, and thus give rise to a great slave class, until eugenics can take over and produce them factory style.
Nice one. The Self-strengthening Movement 自強運動 of 1861 to the early 1890s, ie, Qing-dynasty Open Door and Reform avant la lettre was very much akin to this. There is voluminous writing on the theory and practice of the movement in Chinese, no fictional scenarios required.