3 ms·
But who is the "we" who is guiding the navigation? On the one hand, you have millions of programmers and engineers like you and me, who are working toward some
by mquander 17y ago
But who is the "we" who is guiding the navigation? On the one hand, you have millions of programmers and engineers like you and me, who are working toward some short- or medium-term technological goals. However, those goals are hardly chosen out of the blue. Many of us are working on goals determined by some arcane corporate bureaucracy, which we would never have chosen on our own. Others are working on goals which are self-selected, but reflect the needs of the rest of our society and our existing technological framework. The growth of bandwidth and storage (and the software to power them), for example, have such compelling entertainment applications that if one of us didn't work on them, a thousand others would.
On the other hand, if you look for the driving force behind those needs and corporations, you don't find any more control. In America, we have a central administration, backed by hundreds of representatives, who are guided by thousands of advisors and staff and lobbyists, elected by three hundred million Americans through often dubious arguments and questionable motivation. Hundreds of other nations can claim the same.
Nobody is navigating.
- jerf 17y ago"Nobody is navigating." Stronger: Nobody can navigate. The complexity of the task of navigation exceeds what one human can do by many orders of magnitude and remains firmly out of the grasp of even the best corporations or governments. Moreover, it's getting harder, not easier. Like the sarcastic laws of thermodynamics that end with "You can't get out of the game", we're on a wild ride, nobody is in control, and there isn't anything you can do about that fact. (In truth, it has always been this way. Control over technology has always been an illusion. It's just that now that illusion is all up in your face and you can't ignore it.)
- kznewman 17y agoWhile I can accept the strong notion that no person can navigate, this does not map to navigation doesn’t happen. Smith's invisible hand ala co-evolution (and more appropriately natural selection) guides technology perhaps even more than economics or biology. I want to spend more time reading the article because the suggestion to let it these curves guide investment and personal application of time and effort seems less than straightforward.
- jerf 17y agoIndeed; the reason humans can't navigate is that one human's influence is dwarfed by the "invisible hand". (Which may or may not be exactly Adam Smith's "invisible hand", but there's certainly an "invisible hand" of one sort or another in play.)
- messel 17y ago(btw great comments above gents, voted them all up) We crave efficiency, but always end up in local optima based on resource allocation limitations. Great business opportunities are creatively observed by sharp minds and unleashed by relentless entrepreneurship. There are social forces pushing towards lower cost, ease of access, higher functionality and always entertainment!