thought experiment

Although most who semi-seriously engaged with this thought experiment recognized it to be farce — Lord, we hope they did – others treated the fantasy wrestling match seriously.

Here is a thought experiment: Tell me a year when hundreds of 1000s of people took the streets in peaceful protest, when elected officials obstructed justice when it came to racism, when the President of the United States had to take to the airwaves to talk about the importance of voting rights not just for Black people, but all people in the country, when people who fought for racial justice had to worry about their physical safety and surveillance.

Instead, Haul’s disclosure was going to be seen by consumers whose annual spend on the site might be closer to $300, and whose economic security is, to people like Trump and corporations like Amazon, an abstract thought experiment.

It’s a capitalist “chicken or egg” question that, just half a decade ago, would’ve been difficult to treat as anything other than a thought experiment.

As those tools become more advanced, it is increasingly obvious how well they reflect the enduring relevance of Nozick's thought experiment, and are revealing of our evolving relationship with the concept of reality.