[HN Gopher] Does computing make the world better?
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       Does computing make the world better?
        
       Author : brundolf
       Score  : 11 points
       Date   : 2020-06-21 21:47 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.brandonsmith.ninja)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.brandonsmith.ninja)
        
       | tomrod wrote:
       | Along several dimensions, computing makes the "world better"
       | under several philosophical approaches.
       | 
       | Utilitarian/capitalist: we are more efficient with resources.
       | 
       | Artistic: new media channels and techniques allow for increased
       | expression
       | 
       | Experiential: one of the claims about the benefits of books, pre-
       | Internet, is that it allowed you to experience places you'd never
       | seen before. Computers, built on top of computing, allow us to
       | have even deeper and richer self-driven experiences. How cool was
       | it when Google Maps launched! I could explore parts of the world
       | I pined for, wanted to visit, and eventually integrated its
       | utility into my life much deeper -- no more need to purchase
       | maps, etc. etc.
       | 
       | So from a practical perspective, I think computing has made life
       | unambiguously "better" in several ways.
       | 
       | Is the "world" better? Probably not. But this isn't due to the
       | tools themselves, but to the tool wielders. Power consolidation
       | and maintenance is the realm of political science and political
       | action. Computing has impacted this, some in positive ways and
       | some in negative ways.
        
       | eat_veggies wrote:
       | I've written a similar thoughts on computing's mutual recursion
       | with the offline world, and the software engineer's place as
       | code-writer and code-reader [0]. Computers, like any means of
       | production, are only furthering inequality in the world (along
       | the usual lines -- wealth, race, geography, social standing,
       | etc). Computing _can_ make the world better but right now it can
       | 't and won't -- and that kind of sucks.
       | 
       | I really like the author's sentiment that "It's okay to invent
       | useless things, create beautiful projects for their own sake,
       | etc." and I think that's the first step to creating something
       | that doesn't take computing as capital, as dead labor.
       | 
       | Computing can be experimental, playful, and helpful to our
       | communities. It doesn't have to scale, make big profits, or
       | attract billions in VC bucks; in fact, all of those things just
       | seem to bring us misery. And importantly, they are all orthogonal
       | to the software itself. I'm inspired by Robin Sloan's "An app can
       | be a home-cooked meal" [1] and initiatives like NYC Mesh [2].
       | It's okay if our software _merely_ brings joy to our families and
       | local communities.
       | 
       | [0] https://blog.jse.li/posts/software/
       | 
       | [1] https://www.robinsloan.com/notes/home-cooked-app/
       | 
       | [2] https://www.nycmesh.net/
        
       | haram_masala wrote:
       | He makes the point that "the idea of having fun and doing good at
       | the same time is incredibly seductive." He's right, of course,
       | but I think the real problem is that (for most people) your work
       | can be at most two of the following: fun, socially beneficial,
       | and lucrative. In fact you're lucky if it's just one of those.
       | 
       | That may seem like a pithy observation, but I think it actually
       | says a lot about whether technology is a force for good, because
       | it seems like technology also follows that same two-out-of-three
       | rule.
        
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       (page generated 2020-06-21 23:00 UTC)