ah, back to the days when instapundit was young (way before the train wreck of pjmedia) and the blog-a-sphere was where the cool kids were. it was a more optimistic time and it does feel like tech never achieved the promise it held. Back when we all had attention spans...
Mar 14, 2023·edited Mar 14, 2023Liked by Glenn Harlan Reynolds
Nope. It always was a false promise. The makers and controllers of tech are corrupt, and the corruption is therefore in the product. Calvinism for technology if you'd will
"It's a different world now. In the 1990s it seemed plausible that the work force of tech companies would rise up in revolt if their products were used for repression. In the 2020s, they rise up in revolt if they aren’t. Commercial tech products spy on you, censor you, and even stop you from doing things they disapprove of. Apple nowadays looks more like Big Brother than like a tool to smash Big Brother as presented in its famous 1984 commercial."
Nietzsche writes:
"One desires freedom so long as one does not possess power. Once one does possess it, one desires to overpower; if one cannot do that (if one is still too weak to do so), one desires ‘justice,’ i.e., equal power.”
This essay on the concerns about tech reminds me of an acronym that a tech person once told me about. PICNIC: problem in chair, not in computer. Tech is not good or evil per se. The person in the chair is. Some people forget that.
You're not wrong. As dependent on my iPhone as I am--and I do little social media, dip my toe in Twitter water since Trump, that's about it--I'd give it all up to go back to a time when people treated each other civilly and honestly. Yeah, I'm a geezer.
In, I think, 1980, I represented my undergraduate school at a conference at Texas A&M for SCONA (Student Council On National Affairs). The theme that year was "Technology - Tool or Tyrant?"
Then, I was amazed at the number of Leftists in attendance. Being an Econ major in the "Austrian School" I was really taken aback at the fact that as a college student, I belonged to a tiny minority of Limited Government thinkers.
Along with the reps from the USMA and Naval Academy I was a strong supporter of technology, innovation, the Free Market, and American Corporations. The Left was unanimous in denouncing these things.
My, how times have changed.
All those Leftists are now in support of the tyranny of technology to eliminate free speech, increase the power of a highly centralized government, and also screech for the incarceration - and in some cases killing - of those who disagree. They have captured the very things they hated in 1980 - and control them.
Today it is plain that technology has become oppressive, that our "free trade" experiment with China was a total disaster, and that corporatism (fascism really) has taken over the American board-room.
I can remember how wildly enthusiastic I was about the Internet when it first broke out, that you could potentially make all the world's knowledge one click away. That euphoria probably lasted for 15-20 years until we started to realize it was being used for control, power and most importantly to sell our personal information to the highest bidder, which more and more is the Deep State!
Now we have to use the Internet to try to fight back against the propaganda and the censorship that controls so many people's minds. It's exhausting! I was just noticing in the last few days that I am on a constant treadmill interacting with people through Facebook, YouTube, Substack, Twitter, Telegram, Messenger, Text and email, not to mention Instapundit comments! It never ends.
Now more than ever I feel like, "Stop the world I want to get off!"
Like any tool tech is as good or evil as the human who controls it. When the spear thrower was invented it allowed humans to stand further and safer from their prey and was a boon to hunting. Then some with spear throwers found they could dominate the clan that didn’t have them. Then as now it’s people that control the tech advance it for good or evil. At the present we have those that wish to use it to control other people and insure their superior position. Very human. I also was a early user of tech in my field and it was a tremendous aid in my ability to more efficiently help people. It still is, but it is also now used as a means of control and limitation on the ways I was able to treat. We will just have to learn to use the advances to our advantage and that nmay take some time.
We agree on some things, but disagree on others. When open networks get shut down, often something comes that is an earthquake to reopen them. What's that going to be in the Valley? Don't know, but as techies continue to flee, the earthquake might not happen in SF/Bay Area.....
What I find interesting is that the Left (and I don’t mean the pretend Left that just lusts for power, I mean the true believers and the useful fools) believe in technology and experts. They believe in it in spite of all the times it has blown up in their face. They believe in tech and experts the way that CHarlie Brown believes this time he’s going to be able to kick that football and Lucy is actually going to hold it for him. It’s the right that has woken up to the disaster that is tech + experts. And it really started (this time) with the Bush Administration. Especially with Donald Rumsfeld, the NeoCons, Just War, and Bringing Democracy To Iraq. Now, basically the entire right in this country has realized that tech + expert is a recipe for disaster.
I've been writing code for four decades and I've grown to despise modern computers. Too much spyware, updates, unnecessary distractions, and automation. Computers were fun in the old days because they did exactly what you told them to do.
These days I hold onto my 30 year old Toyota because its computer is dumb. The car does what I tell it to do.
I want to smash my "smart" phone every time I attempt to use it. If I had the resources I'd develop a dumber smart phone which is properly obedient -- and has some real buttons.
But I don't have the resources [yet], so I'm settling for building a new social network, one which gives users complete control over which posts they see and who sees their posts. No evil robots to curate the content. It also has some powerful text formatting capabilities using old school ideas from the 1970s.
If you are sick of addictive social networking sites developed by authoritarians from California, have a peek at a new social networking site developed by a former Libertarian Party national committee member, who lives in rural North Carolina. See:
It's an alpha test site. So there's bugs, including some scary palmetto bugs. But it's also got some cool features that you won't find elsewhere.
But even when I get the bugs ironed out, I wonder if it will take off. With Great Control comes a lot of controls. Are enough people willing to suffer a bit of a learning curve in order to escape the clutches of evil robots?
ah, back to the days when instapundit was young (way before the train wreck of pjmedia) and the blog-a-sphere was where the cool kids were. it was a more optimistic time and it does feel like tech never achieved the promise it held. Back when we all had attention spans...
I remember when you were called "PollyAnna-ish". I'm a little sad to see it go, but I feel exactly the same way. So much trust has been broken...
How much longer, Lord?
Nope. It always was a false promise. The makers and controllers of tech are corrupt, and the corruption is therefore in the product. Calvinism for technology if you'd will
GHR writes:
"It's a different world now. In the 1990s it seemed plausible that the work force of tech companies would rise up in revolt if their products were used for repression. In the 2020s, they rise up in revolt if they aren’t. Commercial tech products spy on you, censor you, and even stop you from doing things they disapprove of. Apple nowadays looks more like Big Brother than like a tool to smash Big Brother as presented in its famous 1984 commercial."
Nietzsche writes:
"One desires freedom so long as one does not possess power. Once one does possess it, one desires to overpower; if one cannot do that (if one is still too weak to do so), one desires ‘justice,’ i.e., equal power.”
I could not agree more!
This essay on the concerns about tech reminds me of an acronym that a tech person once told me about. PICNIC: problem in chair, not in computer. Tech is not good or evil per se. The person in the chair is. Some people forget that.
You're not wrong. As dependent on my iPhone as I am--and I do little social media, dip my toe in Twitter water since Trump, that's about it--I'd give it all up to go back to a time when people treated each other civilly and honestly. Yeah, I'm a geezer.
In, I think, 1980, I represented my undergraduate school at a conference at Texas A&M for SCONA (Student Council On National Affairs). The theme that year was "Technology - Tool or Tyrant?"
Then, I was amazed at the number of Leftists in attendance. Being an Econ major in the "Austrian School" I was really taken aback at the fact that as a college student, I belonged to a tiny minority of Limited Government thinkers.
Along with the reps from the USMA and Naval Academy I was a strong supporter of technology, innovation, the Free Market, and American Corporations. The Left was unanimous in denouncing these things.
My, how times have changed.
All those Leftists are now in support of the tyranny of technology to eliminate free speech, increase the power of a highly centralized government, and also screech for the incarceration - and in some cases killing - of those who disagree. They have captured the very things they hated in 1980 - and control them.
Today it is plain that technology has become oppressive, that our "free trade" experiment with China was a total disaster, and that corporatism (fascism really) has taken over the American board-room.
The future looks very dark...
I can remember how wildly enthusiastic I was about the Internet when it first broke out, that you could potentially make all the world's knowledge one click away. That euphoria probably lasted for 15-20 years until we started to realize it was being used for control, power and most importantly to sell our personal information to the highest bidder, which more and more is the Deep State!
Now we have to use the Internet to try to fight back against the propaganda and the censorship that controls so many people's minds. It's exhausting! I was just noticing in the last few days that I am on a constant treadmill interacting with people through Facebook, YouTube, Substack, Twitter, Telegram, Messenger, Text and email, not to mention Instapundit comments! It never ends.
Now more than ever I feel like, "Stop the world I want to get off!"
Technology has ended up concentrating power, not so much widely spreading it, as some thought for a time. Power corrupts.
Like any tool tech is as good or evil as the human who controls it. When the spear thrower was invented it allowed humans to stand further and safer from their prey and was a boon to hunting. Then some with spear throwers found they could dominate the clan that didn’t have them. Then as now it’s people that control the tech advance it for good or evil. At the present we have those that wish to use it to control other people and insure their superior position. Very human. I also was a early user of tech in my field and it was a tremendous aid in my ability to more efficiently help people. It still is, but it is also now used as a means of control and limitation on the ways I was able to treat. We will just have to learn to use the advances to our advantage and that nmay take some time.
We agree on some things, but disagree on others. When open networks get shut down, often something comes that is an earthquake to reopen them. What's that going to be in the Valley? Don't know, but as techies continue to flee, the earthquake might not happen in SF/Bay Area.....
One must never lose track that all technology bears the imprint of its creator, and that it proceeds largely invisibly.
I hadn't viewed the 1984 commercial for a while. It shocked my system once again.
What I find interesting is that the Left (and I don’t mean the pretend Left that just lusts for power, I mean the true believers and the useful fools) believe in technology and experts. They believe in it in spite of all the times it has blown up in their face. They believe in tech and experts the way that CHarlie Brown believes this time he’s going to be able to kick that football and Lucy is actually going to hold it for him. It’s the right that has woken up to the disaster that is tech + experts. And it really started (this time) with the Bush Administration. Especially with Donald Rumsfeld, the NeoCons, Just War, and Bringing Democracy To Iraq. Now, basically the entire right in this country has realized that tech + expert is a recipe for disaster.
Which means there is some hope left.
Amen!
I've been writing code for four decades and I've grown to despise modern computers. Too much spyware, updates, unnecessary distractions, and automation. Computers were fun in the old days because they did exactly what you told them to do.
These days I hold onto my 30 year old Toyota because its computer is dumb. The car does what I tell it to do.
I want to smash my "smart" phone every time I attempt to use it. If I had the resources I'd develop a dumber smart phone which is properly obedient -- and has some real buttons.
But I don't have the resources [yet], so I'm settling for building a new social network, one which gives users complete control over which posts they see and who sees their posts. No evil robots to curate the content. It also has some powerful text formatting capabilities using old school ideas from the 1970s.
If you are sick of addictive social networking sites developed by authoritarians from California, have a peek at a new social networking site developed by a former Libertarian Party national committee member, who lives in rural North Carolina. See:
http://fnora.net
It's an alpha test site. So there's bugs, including some scary palmetto bugs. But it's also got some cool features that you won't find elsewhere.
But even when I get the bugs ironed out, I wonder if it will take off. With Great Control comes a lot of controls. Are enough people willing to suffer a bit of a learning curve in order to escape the clutches of evil robots?