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The "brilliance" of any technology is not intrinsic to the technology. It's determined by humans. It's always politics.
by ukj 5y ago
The "brilliance" of any technology is not intrinsic to the technology. It's determined by humans.
It's always politics.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- listenallyall 5y agoI see, so when I need to travel from Los Angeles to New York, deciding whether to fly on a commercial airplane or ride a bicycle, is a political decision? Reducing travel time by 99.99% isn't an intrinsic feature of airplane travel?
- ukj 5y agoWould you say the 99.99% reduction in travel time is “brilliant”? Me, I like sight seeing. A bicycle ride sounds brilliant. Even though it is much slower.
- listenallyall 5y agoYes, I would absolutely state that there are dozens, perhaps hundreds or thousands, of brilliant innovations, technologies and engineering feats that make it possible for a 757 to exist, and fly so safely, routinely and inexpensively that the general public takes it entirely for granted.
- ukj 5y agoI’ll try make the point one last time then let you be. “Brilliance” is a human attitude towards technology. It is not an intrinsic property of technology.
- listenallyall 5y agoI agree that the word brilliant is an adjective that humans can choose to use or not use to describe a particular technology. Your initial statement was that making that decision is always due to politics, as opposed to a person's genuine opinion... or perhaps implying that people simply don't have the ability to evaluate something independently.
- ukj 5y agoBecause brilliance is about the people not about the technology it is political by definition
- addicted 5y agoIt actually is. A country which would have made different political decisions may have decided to not provide a direct airplane flight, or as good of an interstate road system that makes the drive possible. They may have provided high speed rail instead that could have potentially been better if that’s what the country had chosen.