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Interesting that you chose to specify social problems. I would say that social problems are perhaps those which technology is particularly poor at addressing, e
by dylandrop 13y ago
Interesting that you chose to specify social problems. I would say that social problems are perhaps those which technology is particularly poor at addressing, even though it is very good at solving practical ones (how to get from point A to point B, how to live longer, how to better keep track of your information, etc.). As opposed to these practical problems, social problems seem to be the ones without any clear cut "correct" answer, and I couldn't really say that technology is a good tool for solving ambiguous problems.
(By the way the "social" I'm referencing here are things like class conflict, racism, etc. - not "social" as in communication tools.)
- pablovidal85 13y agoWhat do you mean there is no clear, correct answer to social problems? I think there are many solutions, the impossibility to solve them has more to do with either upper social classes not wanting to lose power (nothing can be enforced to the enforcers) or precisely because is "morally" wrong to do what will surely work.
- dragonwriter 13y agoSocial problems aren't objective in the way that, say, math problems are. They are conflicts of the current state of objective reality with some set of subjective preferences. And the fact that a group of people shares preference to an extent that they can agree on the problem doesn't mean that they share preferences enough that the same solution would be optimum—or even better than the status quo—for all members of the group.
- pablovidal85 13y agoYou made a very interesting point here, I guess I will re-evaluate my opinion on this topic, thanks!