J.K. Rowling returns human rights award amid criticism from organization

[hazard]

It's a horror because your values deem it a horror, not because people are actually unhappier in Yang's society.  I mean, the nerve stapling makes sure of that.  Miriam would think it equally a horror that people could change their sex to catgirls in violation of God's plan.  (Of course, as the canon story goes on, Miriam's enthusiasm for technology becomes less and less)

I wonder if the talents of Yang's Hive would consider nerve stapling a horror if they got strapped in and stapled? Or is it just a thing for the drones? I mean, the effect does turn people into compliant servants of the state, and kills their creative productivity in the process.

And yes, Miriam becomes less enthousiastic of technology over time given the moral implications of at least some of the higher level technologies she is not wrong to be careful. Zakharov on the other hand goes from dismissing the existence of gods to advocating for being a god, so... yeah.

Society changes slowly, then all at once.  Twenty years ago, did you think that everyone would willingly carry a microphone and camera around with them everywhere, even the bedroom?  And yet it has come to pass.  We all walked into the surveillance state willingly.

Lab, plenty of people had a telephone in their bedroom, that they'd place a microphone there is no surprise. And if they could carry a telephone with them at all times they'd probably do so because being able to connect with people across large distances at any one time is useful. There's a reason cellphones became so popular. The smartphone with the integrated camera and internet access? Just convenience that saw it replace the cellphone.

The human condition has changed, and it makes physical changes in our body and brain.  Tooth decay and obesity are almost unknown among ancient man, but they're widespread problems now because of vast changes to diet and habitat.  Addiction is a real problem, and there are so many things to get addicted to now.  Birthrate is falling, fast.  Our physical selves have been changed by society.  It started with the medical appliances: first eyeglasses, then hearing aids, then pacemakers and cochlear implants.  The process of becoming cyborgs began hundreds of years ago, but the pace is only increasing.

Yet human nature has not changed. Hell, addiction has always been a problem, that there is such a wide selection of things to get addicted to has not changed that. People were not less prone to get addicted in the past, they were much less likely to get recorded in history as addicts, if they were recorded at all.