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These things are good, but have so far been applied carelessly and unevenly. This is where my comment about conscientiousness comes in. We need to start asking

These things are good, but have so far been applied carelessly and unevenly. This is where my comment about conscientiousness comes in. We need to start asking "For what purpose?" and "Who could this hurt?" more often. Packing more transistors into a CPU and working magic with algorithms to squeeze more out of them is not so good if it goes into a machine intended for surveillance and violating privacy, or to wipe out a million jobs because it can all be done by a few people now. We can keep packing the transistors and working the magic, but it's going to keep doing a lot of damage if the people responsible don't think about the human impact.

pizzetta 9y ago
I wholeheartedly agree we spend much of our technology on both frivolous stuff and dangerous stuff (things that are detrimental to the wellbeing of people in general) -but the good offsets the negatives, I think.
JoeAltmaier 9y ago
Anything can be used for good or evil. Its the wrong place to attack the problem - we can't live in the stone age because "somebody might misuse fire".
- rainbowmverse 9y ago
  Someone did invent the fire extinguisher and come up with Stop, Drop, and Roll, though. I'm not saying don't do new things. For example, Bandcamp giving me a way to download a list of people who've bought my music is like a fire extinguisher. If Bandcamp burns, I don't lose everything with it. That's conscientious of them. Most places that sell music don't offer that.
stale2002 9y ago
What are you talking about. Wiping out millions of jobs is a GOOD thing, not a bad thing. I'd argue that it literally the entire point of technology. "Destroying jobs" means that those people are freed up to do some else that is valuable and aren't wasting their time doing stuff that isn't worth anything to anybody. Creating "jobs" is easy. Just implement a tax, and pay a bunch of people to dig holes and fill them up again. Or do the modern equivalent of that and pay people to mess around with spreadsheets in an office and then throw away the spreadsheet. At least that method of "job creation" is being honest.

pizzetta 9y ago

I wholeheartedly agree we spend much of our technology on both frivolous stuff and dangerous stuff (things that are detrimental to the wellbeing of people in general) -but the good offsets the negatives, I think.

JoeAltmaier 9y ago

Anything can be used for good or evil. Its the wrong place to attack the problem - we can't live in the stone age because "somebody might misuse fire".

rainbowmverse 9y ago
Someone did invent the fire extinguisher and come up with Stop, Drop, and Roll, though. I'm not saying don't do new things. For example, Bandcamp giving me a way to download a list of people who've bought my music is like a fire extinguisher. If Bandcamp burns, I don't lose everything with it. That's conscientious of them. Most places that sell music don't offer that.

stale2002 9y ago

What are you talking about. Wiping out millions of jobs is a GOOD thing, not a bad thing. I'd argue that it literally the entire point of technology. "Destroying jobs" means that those people are freed up to do some else that is valuable and aren't wasting their time doing stuff that isn't worth anything to anybody. Creating "jobs" is easy. Just implement a tax, and pay a bunch of people to dig holes and fill them up again. Or do the modern equivalent of that and pay people to mess around with spreadsheets in an office and then throw away the spreadsheet. At least that method of "job creation" is being honest.