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Hard to disagree with his core point. > I do not see that computers are bringing us one step nearer to anything that does matter to me: peace, economic justice
by paxys 2y ago
Hard to disagree with his core point.
> I do not see that computers are bringing us one step nearer to anything that does matter to me: peace, economic justice, ecological health, political honesty, family and community stability, good work.
Most of us who were around in the 80s and 90s were convinced that computers and then the internet were an express ticket to world peace. How could it not be? Turns out were were laughably naive.
- strict9 2y agoI was around then and remember the promises of equalizing knowledge and removing conspiracies and falsehoods from public discourse because of the internet. If everyone had access to instantly fact check a wild claim, then false wild claims would disappear. We were indeed laughably naive.
- jhbadger 2y agoI do think that for good faith arguments the Internet has been very successful in removing unintentional falsehoods -- there's a lot less of the "Eskimos have 100 words for snow" nonsense than there used to be because people can easily check that that's a myth rather than just repeating something they once heard. But obviously things are different when people are trying to promote a falsehood even (or even especially) one they know to be false.
- zdp7 2y agoIt's very easy to disagree. The Internet was used quite effectively for Arab Spring. It's effective enough that turning it off is a key tactic used by oppressors. I also suspect his typewriter use rapes our forest far beyond what a Raspberry Pi or any low wattage SBC and e paper monitor does. Both solar and a human powered generators would be much more environmentally concious than producing paper and ink. The computer is a tool. It can be used for good or bad. Computers don't create the bad things, people do.
- zdp7 2y agoJust to note this is from the perspective of him reiterating the thought in 2019.