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Yes, anthropologist David Graeber points out that we shifted from poetic technologies to bureaucratic technologies. Much of the internet is about better ways to

Yes, anthropologist David Graeber points out that we shifted from poetic technologies to bureaucratic technologies. Much of the internet is about better ways to filling out forms. (What I'm doing right now on HN.) In movies/games, we've gotten good at merely simulating the future that previous generations thought we'd actually live in. Maybe anyone born since 1970 expects a cyberpunk dystopia, over starry-eyed scifi alternatives. Graeber writes, "The greatest and most powerful nation that has ever existed has spent the last decades telling its citizens they can no longer contemplate fantastic collective enterprises, even if—as the environmental crisis demands— the fate of the earth depends on it."

snlacks 12y ago
As someone who builds better forms, it's scary to think that I enable bureaucracy and information tracking to expand by making it less of a headache to fill out a form. But I come to grips with it, thinking, "well, if we're going to be tracked and managed, we may as well have nice interfaces and relevant information."
- wsinks 12y ago
  I've been thinking a lot about roles in life in the past couple of years. You are enabling others who feel more compelled to build the environmental dreams by making sure their information is relevant and clean. Garbage in, garbage out. Humans can clean up garbage. Robots can help us clean up garbage faster than we could ourself.
  - snlacks 12y ago
    Excellent point. I tend to think in relative terms myself, where "garbage" as adjective can be new-and-improved "garbage." I work in healthcare-billing-electronic-records, so if I make a form that makes it easier or more pleasant for a doctor (someone who actually does useful stuff) to collect money from insurance or treat a patient, then it's still a net positive. Not everyone can improve the world through social or political change. Some people have to treat wounds and tend to daily care, literally or figuratively. Finally, by removing unnecessary barriers, maybe they get more done or do it more accurately. Edit: Maybe, we can help to make this seemingly inevitable dystopian future a little less bad?

snlacks 12y ago

As someone who builds better forms, it's scary to think that I enable bureaucracy and information tracking to expand by making it less of a headache to fill out a form. But I come to grips with it, thinking, "well, if we're going to be tracked and managed, we may as well have nice interfaces and relevant information."

wsinks 12y ago
I've been thinking a lot about roles in life in the past couple of years. You are enabling others who feel more compelled to build the environmental dreams by making sure their information is relevant and clean. Garbage in, garbage out. Humans can clean up garbage. Robots can help us clean up garbage faster than we could ourself.
- snlacks 12y ago
  Excellent point. I tend to think in relative terms myself, where "garbage" as adjective can be new-and-improved "garbage." I work in healthcare-billing-electronic-records, so if I make a form that makes it easier or more pleasant for a doctor (someone who actually does useful stuff) to collect money from insurance or treat a patient, then it's still a net positive. Not everyone can improve the world through social or political change. Some people have to treat wounds and tend to daily care, literally or figuratively. Finally, by removing unnecessary barriers, maybe they get more done or do it more accurately. Edit: Maybe, we can help to make this seemingly inevitable dystopian future a little less bad?