> rentier class from extracting value from the commons by way of
broken technology.
At least you understand the economic reality; that broken technology
is now more profitable than working technology.
Most of us cling to a 20th century understanding of supply-demand and
value-add. We still think the giant companies and celebrity superstar
"technologists" are trying to "make the world a better place", We have
yet to really grasp enshitification - a fancier word for betrayal and
burning the social capital of science and technology (and people's
belief in it) accrued over many centuries.
You don't even need to be "political" about this, I'm just a computer
guy who wants to understand why everything around me is fucked,
despite so many very smart and hard-working colleagues toiling at this
for 50 years.
We keep trying to fix engineering, but we're tackling the wrong
problem. At some point the social conditions in which engineering
takes place must be addressed. It occurs to me that our ideas about
engineering may not scale beyond the initial industrial revolution
when Telford and Brunel built bridges out of iron that people could
obviously see and benefit from, or they collapsed into the sea.
Nowadays its confusing to know whether a new gadget is a labour saving
godsend or a weapon pointed at you to destroy your life and liberty.
At least you understand the economic reality; that broken technology is now more profitable than working technology.
Most of us cling to a 20th century understanding of supply-demand and value-add. We still think the giant companies and celebrity superstar "technologists" are trying to "make the world a better place", We have yet to really grasp enshitification - a fancier word for betrayal and burning the social capital of science and technology (and people's belief in it) accrued over many centuries.
You don't even need to be "political" about this, I'm just a computer guy who wants to understand why everything around me is fucked, despite so many very smart and hard-working colleagues toiling at this for 50 years.
We keep trying to fix engineering, but we're tackling the wrong problem. At some point the social conditions in which engineering takes place must be addressed. It occurs to me that our ideas about engineering may not scale beyond the initial industrial revolution when Telford and Brunel built bridges out of iron that people could obviously see and benefit from, or they collapsed into the sea. Nowadays its confusing to know whether a new gadget is a labour saving godsend or a weapon pointed at you to destroy your life and liberty.