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Your problems in life come from computers because your life is computers. If your life was cars you would soon find most of your problems in life come from car

by xwdv 4y ago

Your problems in life come from computers because your life is computers. If your life was cars you would soon find most of your problems in life come from cars.

doodlesdev 4y ago
Perhaps, but as I said I also see it around me. Many of their problems also arise from computers. There are two way I see people dealing with this: - It's normal, I don't need to do anything. These people are the ones who were born 90s or later. They see computers as a simple fact of life. - It's not a problem, at least we have something. These people will generally be older and I think fail to see the incredible potential benefits of tricking a rock into thinking for you. These are all generalizations of course, not social facts but simply representations of how I experience reality. The thing that really ticks me in the wrong is that people in other industries don't always see the things they do as a net negative for humanity. For instance, most types of engineering such as civil, eletrical, chemical, etc. have real net positive benefits in the way I and everyone around me experiences life. I've never seen a civil engineer say they hate how we built bridges. I've met very few computers scientists who were confident about the way we deal with computers. Anyways, this is just a long way of saying I agree, but that I don't think it invalidates what I talked about tech companies not being a net positive.
- andyferris 4y ago
  > most types of engineering such as civil, eletrical, chemical, etc. have real net positive benefits in the way I and everyone around me experiences life They do _now_. During their exponential-growth phase I think there were lots of negative externalities? (Pollution, etc). And we still have to regulate them heavily to avoid societal problems. Another post in this thread mentioned it's all the closed-platform/walled-garden/attention-grabbing/rent-seeking behavior which is the worst aspect of "tech"... honestly I have the feeling we just haven't gotten around to learning how to regulate these well yet, just like it took a while to figure out how to control (local) pollution (I mean, even this is still a huge problem with global carbon pollution).
- quanticle 4y ago
  >I've never seen a civil engineer say they hate how we built bridges. You must not have spoken with any of the civil engineers I've spoken with. They all describe an absolute wasteland of arbitrary and capricious regulations, competing stakeholders, and last minute requirement changes that require extensive redesign and often very expensive rework. Software engineering really isn't all that different from all engineering, for better and for worse.
strangattractor 4y ago
> If your life was cars you would soon find most of your problems in life come from cars. I understand your point but take for examples: 1. 20 years ago I was never locked out of my car because my phone's battery was dead. 2. 20 years ago I never wasted 20 minutes going through a phone menu at a bank only to lose the connection or eventually talk to a human which is what I wanted in the first place. 3. 20 years ago I couldn't work while on vacation because I just couldn't. 4. 20 years ago lies didn't spread through the Earth's population so fast it that it was a political tactic to lie soon - lie often. Sure there are a lot of advantages and good things that have come out of tech - much better medicines for example. We will likely cure most cancers in the next 50 years. But it has also caused a lot more wealth to be concentrated in fewer people. Not everyone can be an Entrepreneur but deserve to live decently. Just because something becomes cheaper for everyone doesn't mean it is better. Ask the plastic filled Ocean.
- dragonwriter 4y ago
  > 20 years ago lies didn't spread through the Earth's population so fast it that it was a political tactic to lie soon - lie often. Only just barely true, the RAND report that identified the Russian “Firehose of Falsehoods” propaganda model which got picked up quite quickly by other actors noted that it began being used shortly after the initiation of the 2008 invasion of Georgia.
  - strangattractor 4y ago
    I disagree. I wasn't even thinking of foreign intervention. I was thinking more like our current roques gallery of Congressman and Presidential candidates that understand that people tend to over weight as true the first thing they hear concerning some subject. It is now de rigueur for a politician to simply get out a lie on Twitter or Fox as quickly as possible simply because they know this. It has always been this way but it never use to be free and so rapid.

by xwdv 4y ago

Your problems in life come from computers because your life is computers. If your life was cars you would soon find most of your problems in life come from cars.

doodlesdev 4y ago

Perhaps, but as I said I also see it around me. Many of their problems also arise from computers. There are two way I see people dealing with this: - It's normal, I don't need to do anything. These people are the ones who were born 90s or later. They see computers as a simple fact of life. - It's not a problem, at least we have something. These people will generally be older and I think fail to see the incredible potential benefits of tricking a rock into thinking for you. These are all generalizations of course, not social facts but simply representations of how I experience reality. The thing that really ticks me in the wrong is that people in other industries don't always see the things they do as a net negative for humanity. For instance, most types of engineering such as civil, eletrical, chemical, etc. have real net positive benefits in the way I and everyone around me experiences life. I've never seen a civil engineer say they hate how we built bridges. I've met very few computers scientists who were confident about the way we deal with computers. Anyways, this is just a long way of saying I agree, but that I don't think it invalidates what I talked about tech companies not being a net positive.

andyferris 4y ago
> most types of engineering such as civil, eletrical, chemical, etc. have real net positive benefits in the way I and everyone around me experiences life They do _now_. During their exponential-growth phase I think there were lots of negative externalities? (Pollution, etc). And we still have to regulate them heavily to avoid societal problems. Another post in this thread mentioned it's all the closed-platform/walled-garden/attention-grabbing/rent-seeking behavior which is the worst aspect of "tech"... honestly I have the feeling we just haven't gotten around to learning how to regulate these well yet, just like it took a while to figure out how to control (local) pollution (I mean, even this is still a huge problem with global carbon pollution).
quanticle 4y ago
>I've never seen a civil engineer say they hate how we built bridges. You must not have spoken with any of the civil engineers I've spoken with. They all describe an absolute wasteland of arbitrary and capricious regulations, competing stakeholders, and last minute requirement changes that require extensive redesign and often very expensive rework. Software engineering really isn't all that different from all engineering, for better and for worse.

strangattractor 4y ago

> If your life was cars you would soon find most of your problems in life come from cars. I understand your point but take for examples: 1. 20 years ago I was never locked out of my car because my phone's battery was dead. 2. 20 years ago I never wasted 20 minutes going through a phone menu at a bank only to lose the connection or eventually talk to a human which is what I wanted in the first place. 3. 20 years ago I couldn't work while on vacation because I just couldn't. 4. 20 years ago lies didn't spread through the Earth's population so fast it that it was a political tactic to lie soon - lie often. Sure there are a lot of advantages and good things that have come out of tech - much better medicines for example. We will likely cure most cancers in the next 50 years. But it has also caused a lot more wealth to be concentrated in fewer people. Not everyone can be an Entrepreneur but deserve to live decently. Just because something becomes cheaper for everyone doesn't mean it is better. Ask the plastic filled Ocean.

dragonwriter 4y ago
> 20 years ago lies didn't spread through the Earth's population so fast it that it was a political tactic to lie soon - lie often. Only just barely true, the RAND report that identified the Russian “Firehose of Falsehoods” propaganda model which got picked up quite quickly by other actors noted that it began being used shortly after the initiation of the 2008 invasion of Georgia.
- strangattractor 4y ago
  I disagree. I wasn't even thinking of foreign intervention. I was thinking more like our current roques gallery of Congressman and Presidential candidates that understand that people tend to over weight as true the first thing they hear concerning some subject. It is now de rigueur for a politician to simply get out a lie on Twitter or Fox as quickly as possible simply because they know this. It has always been this way but it never use to be free and so rapid.