3 ms·

I think you are wrong. Social processes are driving us towards less privacy and not technology. If we consider physical strength disparity between men and wome

I think you are wrong. Social processes are driving us towards less privacy and not technology. If we consider physical strength disparity between men and women, then an average strength man could rape as many women he likes, there is no technical restriction. Yet this does not happen.

TeMPOraL 11y ago
I'm becoming more and more strongly convinced that technology is what drives social processes. I.e. feudalism because agriculture, reformation because printing press, women's right movements because wars and washing machines, privacy because dirt cheap computing and the Internet. In a way, I feel social norms are like a gas in a multi-dimensional parameter space; they expand to cover all the volume allowed by the technology we have.
- eveningcoffee 11y ago
  Yes, of course, some social processes are made available by technology, but this is not inevitable course. I would say that agriculture made possible the first known democracy and women rights are still subpar in many parts of the world despite the washing machines.
- PavlovsCat 11y ago
  > In a way, I feel social norms are like a gas in a multi-dimensional parameter space; they expand to cover all the volume allowed by the technology we have. I'd say if anything technology is a gas that fills a space restricted by both what is technically possible (both generally and for us in particular), and our social norms [0]. The (lack of) prevalence of rape is not just a result of the technical possibility and the efficiency of law enforcement. Most people don't want to do it, just like most people don't want to be terrorists, and like at least some people genuinely don't want to spy on others (which is hard to believe for some I know). [0] that is, our individual choices - since individuals are the only place where things like norms, laws, societies, nations and even technology actually exist, as fragments that together with other fragments in other actually existing people form shape the emergent patterns and behaviours (in the context of technology: hardly anyone, if anyone, understands everything involved in making a CPU, and that involves medicine and food and infrastructure for the workers required, I really mean everything, which for even things much simpler than a CPU is a lot). To consider technology or other things actual agents is just false IMHO, technology doesn't do anything, and it can be pretty much be forgotten within one generation. In that sense, it's not like gas at all, it doesn't just "march on" or "expand".

TeMPOraL 11y ago

I'm becoming more and more strongly convinced that technology is what drives social processes. I.e. feudalism because agriculture, reformation because printing press, women's right movements because wars and washing machines, privacy because dirt cheap computing and the Internet. In a way, I feel social norms are like a gas in a multi-dimensional parameter space; they expand to cover all the volume allowed by the technology we have.

eveningcoffee 11y ago
Yes, of course, some social processes are made available by technology, but this is not inevitable course. I would say that agriculture made possible the first known democracy and women rights are still subpar in many parts of the world despite the washing machines.
PavlovsCat 11y ago
> In a way, I feel social norms are like a gas in a multi-dimensional parameter space; they expand to cover all the volume allowed by the technology we have. I'd say if anything technology is a gas that fills a space restricted by both what is technically possible (both generally and for us in particular), and our social norms [0]. The (lack of) prevalence of rape is not just a result of the technical possibility and the efficiency of law enforcement. Most people don't want to do it, just like most people don't want to be terrorists, and like at least some people genuinely don't want to spy on others (which is hard to believe for some I know). [0] that is, our individual choices - since individuals are the only place where things like norms, laws, societies, nations and even technology actually exist, as fragments that together with other fragments in other actually existing people form shape the emergent patterns and behaviours (in the context of technology: hardly anyone, if anyone, understands everything involved in making a CPU, and that involves medicine and food and infrastructure for the workers required, I really mean everything, which for even things much simpler than a CPU is a lot). To consider technology or other things actual agents is just false IMHO, technology doesn't do anything, and it can be pretty much be forgotten within one generation. In that sense, it's not like gas at all, it doesn't just "march on" or "expand".