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I hope that technologists are also students of history. You do understand where all this is going don't you? What are you doing now to safeguard the future? "N

by pcunite 11y ago

I hope that technologists are also students of history. You do understand where all this is going don't you? What are you doing now to safeguard the future? "Not my problem, won't happen in my lifetime" - yes it will.

marcosdumay 11y ago
You talk like if anybody had the power to change the course of history. What do you think will happen if "technologists" decide to stop working on those projects? That the projects won't get done? Not a chance. And "what are you doing to safeguard the future"?! What is any other group doing? Because almost everybody that is doing something will self identify as "technologist" nowadays.
- pcunite 11y ago
  I do believe we can change the course. It starts with questions and from that discussion. Question what is happening.
omginternets 11y ago
>I hope that technologists are also students of history. Not in the good ol' USA they aren't. This is precisely why I cringe every time I hear the usual anti-intellectual rant about how STEM fields are the only thing worth funding. If you're serious about creating benevolent technology, you must necessarily be in favor of funding the humanities.
- HiLo 11y ago
  Very good point, I think it's very telling that they seem to have minimal appreciation for those fields. These techies hate the Wall Street types but are quickly becoming them, like the nerds who became jocks.
superuser2 11y ago
A historical perspective should tell you that communities want to detect people who violate norms and inflict pain(ful death) on them. We have for most of human history. The urbanization incident to the industrial revolution made the detection part harder for a little while, since communities were too large to meaningfully police themselves ad-hoc anymore. Professional police band-aided the gap for a while. Now we're returning to a total surveillance society, except with computer systems instead of your neighbors doing the watching.

by pcunite 11y ago

marcosdumay 11y ago

You talk like if anybody had the power to change the course of history. What do you think will happen if "technologists" decide to stop working on those projects? That the projects won't get done? Not a chance. And "what are you doing to safeguard the future"?! What is any other group doing? Because almost everybody that is doing something will self identify as "technologist" nowadays.

pcunite 11y ago
I do believe we can change the course. It starts with questions and from that discussion. Question what is happening.

omginternets 11y ago

>I hope that technologists are also students of history. Not in the good ol' USA they aren't. This is precisely why I cringe every time I hear the usual anti-intellectual rant about how STEM fields are the only thing worth funding. If you're serious about creating benevolent technology, you must necessarily be in favor of funding the humanities.

HiLo 11y ago
Very good point, I think it's very telling that they seem to have minimal appreciation for those fields. These techies hate the Wall Street types but are quickly becoming them, like the nerds who became jocks.

superuser2 11y ago

A historical perspective should tell you that communities want to detect people who violate norms and inflict pain(ful death) on them. We have for most of human history. The urbanization incident to the industrial revolution made the detection part harder for a little while, since communities were too large to meaningfully police themselves ad-hoc anymore. Professional police band-aided the gap for a while. Now we're returning to a total surveillance society, except with computer systems instead of your neighbors doing the watching.