I have little to add to this before comments start going below the fold. Other than to say that I had this realization in the late 1990s as 1 GHz processors were coming online and software was still as slow as ever. Today we have eye candy, but tech has mostly abandoned its charter of bringing innovation that increases income while reducing workload. Like phantom wealth that fixates on digits in a bank account instead of building income streams, today we have phantom tech that focuses on profits instead of innovation which improves the human condition.
We used to have a social contract between industry, academia and society. Company invents widget, it pays into a university's endowment, student goes on to start the next company.
Today that's all gone. Now company invents widget, billionaire keeps the money, student gets forgotten as university is defunded and discredited through various forms of regulatory capture. Often to thunderous applause.
The stagnation of tech and the subjugation of the best and brightest under the yoke go hand in hand. Your disempowerment is a reflection of how far society has fallen. Loosely that means that even though we know how to make programming better, we will never get the opportunity to do so, because we'll likely spend the rest of our lives making rent. Which is the central battle that humanity has faced for 10,000 years. Like the tragedy of the commons, we work so hard as individuals that we fail at systems-level solutions.
Programming won't get fixed until we stop idolizing the rich and powerful, and get back to the real work of doing whatever it takes to get to, say, UBI.
We used to have a social contract between industry, academia and society. Company invents widget, it pays into a university's endowment, student goes on to start the next company.
Today that's all gone. Now company invents widget, billionaire keeps the money, student gets forgotten as university is defunded and discredited through various forms of regulatory capture. Often to thunderous applause.
The stagnation of tech and the subjugation of the best and brightest under the yoke go hand in hand. Your disempowerment is a reflection of how far society has fallen. Loosely that means that even though we know how to make programming better, we will never get the opportunity to do so, because we'll likely spend the rest of our lives making rent. Which is the central battle that humanity has faced for 10,000 years. Like the tragedy of the commons, we work so hard as individuals that we fail at systems-level solutions.
Programming won't get fixed until we stop idolizing the rich and powerful, and get back to the real work of doing whatever it takes to get to, say, UBI.