What's the biggest piece of technology that everyone thinks or pretends is working fine, but it actually doesn't?
Ask HN: The biggest technology that people think is working, but it doesn't?
1–10 of 12 posts
Re: Ask HN: The biggest technology that people think is working, but it doesn't?
#2Currency and debt.
Currency is a lot like electricity. It's a very portable form of power, easy to store, easy to convert to something else.
Like you can have a lot of political power, you can have charisma, skills, or military power. But you can't convert that easily into the other, the way you can't convert a river into lighting your house.
But the thing with electricity is that it still follows nature. You can't convert 1 MW of electricity into kinetic power, then convert it back to 1.1 MW. You can't lend it to someone with less, expect them to give you more, and have this system run forever. You can't just print as much of it as you think you can get away with.
Banking is a kind of arms race. If nobody used banks and usurious debt, everyone would be better off. But the people who do it have an unfair advantage, forcing others to as well. Except now we're pushing it as far as the concept can go, with every country taking well near their GDP in foreign debt.
The Bitcoin boom didn't come out of nothing. Some people lost faith in fiat and wanted to give alternative currency a shot. The bubble only happened when crypto attracted the attention of those who broke fiat in the first place.
Re: Ask HN: The biggest technology that people think is working, but it doesn't?
#3facial recognition, especially when used by UK police
against certain minorities
ML models making decisions about who gets to receive benefits (according to a bunch of articles in today's Guardian)
Re: Ask HN: The biggest technology that people think is working, but it doesn't?
#4Currency and debt. Currency is a lot like electricity. It's a very portable form of power, easy to store, easy to convert to something else. Like you can have a lot of political power, you can have charisma, skills, or military power. But you can't convert that easily into the other, the way you can't convert a river into lighting your house. But the thing with electricity is that it still follows nature. You can't c…
The money/electricity metaphor has one very fatal flaw. Electricity, as a natural entity, must conform with all the conservation laws of nature. Not so for money.
The key attribute of money is that it's much more efficient than the next best alternative, which is trading my pigs for your shovels and that's why it continues to work even in extreme (eg hyperinflation) contexts.
Re: Ask HN: The biggest technology that people think is working, but it doesn't?
#5The biggest piece of technology that seems fine but isn't is automobiles. They are much too big and ponderous for the 90% of the time they are moving one person around a big city at 30mph. Electrification will produce much smaller, lighter, cheaper, safer vehicles for this purpose.
Re: Ask HN: The biggest technology that people think is working, but it doesn't?
#6Currency and debt. Currency is a lot like electricity. It's a very portable form of power, easy to store, easy to convert to something else. Like you can have a lot of political power, you can have charisma, skills, or military power. But you can't convert that easily into the other, the way you can't convert a river into lighting your house. But the thing with electricity is that it still follows nature. You can't c…
The money/electricity metaphor has one very fatal flaw. Electricity, as a natural entity, must conform with all the conservation laws of nature. Not so for money. The key attribute of money is that it's much more efficient than the next best alternative, which is trading my pigs for your shovels and that's why it continues to work even in extreme (eg hyperinflation) contexts.
I'd disagree with the last bit - the next best alternative could be Bitcoin, ETH, gold, Euro, e-wallet money, stocks, bonds, or even debt. You can trade dollars for an imaginary dollar-backed value in PayPal's database. You can use something like HelloGold if you prefer something gold-backed instead.
You're probably right - that could be money's key attribute. So what happens when someone else does it better?
Re: Ask HN: The biggest technology that people think is working, but it doesn't?
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
The money/electricity metaphor has one very fatal flaw. Electricity, as a natural entity, must conform with all the conservation laws of nature. Not so for money. The key attribute of money is that it's much more efficient than the next best alternative, which is trading my pigs for your shovels and that's why it continues to work even in extreme (eg hyperinflation) contexts.
I'd disagree with the last bit - the next best alternative could be Bitcoin, ETH, gold, Euro, e-wallet money, stocks, bonds, or even debt. You can trade dollars for an imaginary dollar-backed value in PayPal's database. You can use something like HelloGold if you prefer something gold-backed instead. You're probably right - that could be money's key attribute. So what happens when someone else does it better?
That's still money, it's just different currencies. Money (or currency) is something that is widely accepted to have value not from its inherent properties but because it is accepted everywhere in a transaction. If something is difficult to exchange quickly with most exchange partners (e.g. taking days to transfer stocks from you to a gas station) then it's either not a currency or its a bad currency. Bitcoin and other cryptocoins are "sort-of-currencies" because you can't practically use bitcoin and stop using USD. This is why the SEC is starting to treat crypto like a security.
Re: Ask HN: The biggest technology that people think is working, but it doesn't?
#8Advertising data algorithms. Usually they are just promoting things you already have recently purchased.
Re: Ask HN: The biggest technology that people think is working, but it doesn't?
#9"machine learning" in large corporates, when in practice this is 90%+ just maths/algorithms
Re: Ask HN: The biggest technology that people think is working, but it doesn't?
#10Advertising. There is not much published about how actual money people get on their investment in the major platforms, including online. It's not tech that "doesnt work", but it "doesnt work half the time". But since a lot of online advertising is fueled by the wave of high valuations , people seem to be fine with not knowing whether it works or not.