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Therein lies the problem. As the machine scales larger and larger, the cogs at the bottom have worse and worse conditions. Almost as if 'software is eating the
by pacala 6y ago
Therein lies the problem. As the machine scales larger and larger, the cogs at the bottom have worse and worse conditions. Almost as if 'software is eating the world' is not the key to unlock Utopia, as techno-optimists would have you believe.
- Frost1x 6y agoI think technology certainly is a key to a more 'Utopian' (desirable) society. The underlying problem is how we leverage the technology. If technology is simply used to displace and concentrate wealth and power through private ownership without adequately sharing the benefits of growth in technology with everyone (reduced labor, more free time to pursue personal goals, etc.) then yes, it absolutely isn't helping (basically the situation we have now). Can a Star Trek like economy ever exist? I'd love to be apart of one, but it seems unlikely given many underlying human behaviors.
- Ididntdothis 6y agoIt was always that way. It used to be that nobility lived the good life at the expense of the peasants. Now we have replaced nobility with educated office workers. And the system is set up that if you are part of the top x percent you will never have to see how the bottom lives. They are well hidden.
- pacala 6y agoNot at this scale. Not at the scale where the nobility lives in NYC/SF/Shanghai and the peasants live in a different state or even overseas.
- Ididntdothis 6y agoThere are plenty of peasants in the places you mentioned. You just don’t see them. Who do you think provides all the basic services?
- pacala 6y agoCorrect. The point is that the peasant mass center, so to speak, is today more distant that it's ever been.
- Ididntdothis 6y agoWhy do you think it’s different now? The wealthy have always lived in a few places from where they could dominate the whole country.
- aphextron 6y ago>Almost as if 'software is eating the world' is not the key to unlock Utopia, as techno-optimists would have you believe. I'm starting to agree with this as well. It used to be that organizations were made up of vast bureaucracies with a thinking, breathing, human being at every level making decisions. Institutions could be imposing and callous, but there was always a "flexible" human element to things. They never had the level of completely monolithic, soulless, hyper-optimized determinism that modern technologically driven corporations have become. Google was the pioneer here, with their default customer service stance of "go away, we don't care, there's another billion where you came from". But more and more the world has become an automated meatgrinder with no room for people beyond their immediate economic utility. The machines alone determine your worth as a human being, and unsupervised, uncaring algorithms can make or break your entire life.