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This article is spot on. Engineers increasingly define the course of our daily lives, and they've been taught, almost universally, that efficiency is not only a
by vannevar 8y ago
This article is spot on. Engineers increasingly define the course of our daily lives, and they've been taught, almost universally, that efficiency is not only a value in and of itself, it is the highest value we can pursue. But we're all destined for the grave, and if we truly want maximum efficiency, it follows that we should promptly kill ourselves. Clearly efficiency cannot be our only guide, and I think the current technocracy has gone much too far down that dead-end.
- alexandercrohde 8y agoThough I think suicide is a bad example of "efficiency," I think the larger point stands. I think it's a good exercise to think of what a highly-efficient world might look like and whether it would be pleasant at all (one language, perfectly regular architecture, increasing isolation, more interactions with machines instead of people, less chance/wonder in life)
- Pimpus 8y agoReminds me of Universal Paperclips.
- jbottoms 8y agoSo is efficiency the new bias? Efficiency is also closely related to excellency in terms of evaluations. And we don't teach these things in school. I've noticed in practice people use cover-all expressions like "you will know it when it's right", or "oh, that would be too complex". The required level of explanation seems to escape us.