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Here's a counter argument to all of your points: Superbugs have evolved to be resistant to all antibiotics. Industrial scale food production is a huge strain

by tmuir 10y ago

Here's a counter argument to all of your points: Superbugs have evolved to be resistant to all antibiotics. Industrial scale food production is a huge strain on the environment, and in many cases pretty terrible conditions for the animals. Capitalism exploits consumers' ignorance through information asymmetry. Think of how many businesses would be destroyed if deceit of all kinds were outlawed, and everyone had the true power of a Google or Facebook to analyze exabytes of information for their own benefit. Much of technology is only economically viable as means of advertising and surveillance. I'm a gainfully employed engineer who values western medicine, spends way too much time on the internet, and doesn't want to see billions of people die. However, to claim that capitalism and technology don't have unintended consequences is intellectually dishonest.

_andromeda_ 10y ago
>capitalism and technology don't have unintended consequences is intellectually dishonest Well argued. I respect that line of thought but I don't think I'm being 'intellectually dishonest'. The benefits of technology and capitalism greatly outweigh any negative consequences. It is almost trivial, negligible.
- tmuir 10y ago
  Where there is nuclear power, there is a nuclear bomb. Where there is air travel, there are hijackings. Where there are smartphones, there are intelligence agencies vacuuming up their data. Where there is easy access to your own financial information, there is easy access to other's financial information. Where there is instant access to the worlds information, there is instant access to easy marks for charlatans and con artists. For every action there is a equal and opposite reaction. For every feature, there is an attack vector.
  - _andromeda_ 10y ago
    People die on roads everyday. Should we stop using vehicles?
    - tmuir 10y ago
      That's moving the goal post. My point is that as technology marches on, unintended consequences are right behind it. What will be the unintended consequence of drones? Or the power grid connected to the internet, or driverless cars? Just imagine if someone is able to spread a computer virus to driverless cars once they are ubiquitous. Recent history has shown us that the auto industry is laughably bad at computer security. This is a bedrock principle of computer security: no useful system can be 100% secure, because then even the intended user would be kept out.

by tmuir 10y ago

_andromeda_ 10y ago

>capitalism and technology don't have unintended consequences is intellectually dishonest Well argued. I respect that line of thought but I don't think I'm being 'intellectually dishonest'. The benefits of technology and capitalism greatly outweigh any negative consequences. It is almost trivial, negligible.

tmuir 10y ago
Where there is nuclear power, there is a nuclear bomb. Where there is air travel, there are hijackings. Where there are smartphones, there are intelligence agencies vacuuming up their data. Where there is easy access to your own financial information, there is easy access to other's financial information. Where there is instant access to the worlds information, there is instant access to easy marks for charlatans and con artists. For every action there is a equal and opposite reaction. For every feature, there is an attack vector.
- _andromeda_ 10y ago
  People die on roads everyday. Should we stop using vehicles?
  - tmuir 10y ago
    That's moving the goal post. My point is that as technology marches on, unintended consequences are right behind it. What will be the unintended consequence of drones? Or the power grid connected to the internet, or driverless cars? Just imagine if someone is able to spread a computer virus to driverless cars once they are ubiquitous. Recent history has shown us that the auto industry is laughably bad at computer security. This is a bedrock principle of computer security: no useful system can be 100% secure, because then even the intended user would be kept out.