Sundar Pichai: ‘Technology Doesn’t Solve Humanity’s Problems’
1–10 of 295 posts
Re: Sundar Pichai: ‘Technology Doesn’t Solve Humanity’s Problems’
#2Can someone explain if "right to be forgotten" laws and processes are equivalent to China's "wall" of censorship and processes?
Re: Sundar Pichai: ‘Technology Doesn’t Solve Humanity’s Problems’
#3So technology is turning into a social/philosophical amplifier now; historically any disputes from large or even small philosophical differences were resolved through wars/murders (and it's all going to be about philosophy in an "abundance society" with its surrounding politics), so I can't wait to see what future holds...
Re: Sundar Pichai: ‘Technology Doesn’t Solve Humanity’s Problems’
#4So technology is turning into a social/philosophical amplifier now; historically any disputes from large or even small philosophical differences were resolved through wars/murders (and it's all going to be about philosophy in an "abundance society" with its surrounding politics), so I can't wait to see what future holds...
It's becoming the new cultural infrastructure.
Re: Sundar Pichai: ‘Technology Doesn’t Solve Humanity’s Problems’
#5Well, but at least technology makes these problems less annoying.
Re: Sundar Pichai: ‘Technology Doesn’t Solve Humanity’s Problems’
#6Good to hear. Now we can do real work
Re: Sundar Pichai: ‘Technology Doesn’t Solve Humanity’s Problems’
#7To put the title into context:
"Do you still feel like Silicon Valley has retained that idealism that struck you when you arrived here?"
"There’s still that optimism. But the optimism is tempered by a sense of deliberation. Things have changed quite a bit. You know, we deliberate about things a lot more, and we are more thoughtful about what we do. But there’s a deeper thing here, which is: Technology doesn’t solve humanity’s problems. It was always naïve to think so. Technology is an enabler, but humanity has to deal with humanity’s problems. I think we’re both over-reliant on technology as a way to solve things and probably, at this moment, over-indexing on technology as a source of all problems, too."
Re: Sundar Pichai: ‘Technology Doesn’t Solve Humanity’s Problems’
#8Can someone explain if "right to be forgotten" laws and processes are equivalent to China's "wall" of censorship and processes?
They aren't. But Google really didn't want to obey a perfectly reasonable law in Europe, and absolutely wants to do business in China regardless of the social cost, and so is making a false equivalency to try and justify a morally bankrupt position.
Europe is censoring personal and private information that harms ordinary citizens and is not of the public interest in order to protect European citizens. China is censoring information about the government, people's rights, and major historical events in order to control society. If you remove the absolutist "free speech is always right" position, the former is about protecting citizens and the latter is about protecting the government.
Re: Sundar Pichai: ‘Technology Doesn’t Solve Humanity’s Problems’
#9> But there’s a deeper thing here, which is: Technology doesn’t solve humanity’s problems. It was always naïve to think so. Technology is an enabler, but humanity has to deal with humanity’s problems. I think we’re both over-reliant on technology as a way to solve things and probably, at this moment, over-indexing on technology as a source of all problems, too.
The headline sounds so much like a copout, and to a degree, I think even the completed statement is. However, when you read the overall interview, I think I share a similar perspective:
Right now, technology has clearly amplified everyone's voice to vaguely the same level, and as a result has exponentially amplified the voices of fringe groups. And as a society, we have to confront that. But it's a relatively recent problem, and our earliest attempts at solutions have been entirely based on technology, instead of a better mixture of people and technology.
In other words, we need technology to enable people to better learn, then curate their world, and get involved in ways that show support and organization better than a Like/Retweet button.
I think we're not far from tools like this being widely available, but we're just at the beginning of such a concept, and the overall reticence society now has to technology thanks to the irresponsible stewardship of its leaders will inhibit technology's ability to fix the problem, too.
Re: Sundar Pichai: ‘Technology Doesn’t Solve Humanity’s Problems’
#10Can someone explain if "right to be forgotten" laws and processes are equivalent to China's "wall" of censorship and processes?
It's a slippery slope. It certainly gives fodder to China and other countries to say "Hey, look, you have the tools to censor results for X, Y and Z, because those laws say so. Why not ours?"
The Canadian case was even worse than RTBF.