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SF to Establish Office of Emerging Technology

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41–50 of 74 posts

Re: SF to Establish Office of Emerging Technology

#41

Too comical. Scooters are a threat to society but not record level property crime, car break ins, and opioid addiction and mental health issues among the homeless

Nobody said those aren't a problem. Is SF only allowed to work on one problem at a time?

Re: SF to Establish Office of Emerging Technology

#42
post #41

Too comical. Scooters are a threat to society but not record level property crime, car break ins, and opioid addiction and mental health issues among the homeless

Nobody said those aren't a problem. Is SF only allowed to work on one problem at a time?

No, but it seems like SF has made the choice to ignore one and restict the other, and most residents would probably prefer the opposite.

Re: SF to Establish Office of Emerging Technology

#43
No mention of the scope. What types of emerging technology falls under this office? Will it require approving every new app used within city limits?

My cynical take is that this is just another gatekeeper to pay off and appease. The city wants more money from tech.

Re: SF to Establish Office of Emerging Technology

#44

Just one more nail in the coffin for SF/bay area as an innovation center. It's been really sad to see that rent seeking and bureaucracy have completely choked that place out. I'm not sure if there will ever be another time and place like existed in silicon valley from the 70s-2000s where forward thinking creative individuals can come together in a critical mass, with an environment that allows risk taking and innovat…

As a San Francisco native, it has always astonished me that people would want to start tech companies here. The city government is just so hostile.

Kevin Erdmann wrote an interesting thesis about this. In the past, American cities were built densely, but in the 20ᵗʰ Century they all embraced cars and NIMBYism.

The few existing densely built cities thus have become a sort of limited natural resource, impossible to replicate elsewhere in the country and (in purely economic terms) worth the extreme cost of entry.

Re: SF to Establish Office of Emerging Technology

#45
post #33
post #4

Directive 10-289: In the name of the general welfare, to protect the people's security, to achieve full equality and total stability, it is decreed for the duration of the national emergency that: Point One. All workers, wage earners and employees of any kind whatsoever shall henceforth be attached to their jobs and shall not leave nor be dismissed nor change employment, under penalty of a term in jail. The penalty s…

I agree with the goals of this directive, but it's written in a deliberately silly way. No non-fictional agency would put restrictions on increasing production or creating new technology. On the contrary, abolish the USPTO and let people invent all they want, but the new inventions can be used freely by anyone for the good of the country, too. Preventing people like d'Anconia from shutting down their manufacturing si…

Googling "Directive 10-289" would give you more context.

Re: SF to Establish Office of Emerging Technology

#46
post #41

Too comical. Scooters are a threat to society but not record level property crime, car break ins, and opioid addiction and mental health issues among the homeless

Nobody said those aren't a problem. Is SF only allowed to work on one problem at a time?

No but with limited resources what they prioritize is telling. Scooters should be near the bottom the list, not the top.

Re: SF to Establish Office of Emerging Technology

#47

No mention of the scope. What types of emerging technology falls under this office? Will it require approving every new app used within city limits? My cynical take is that this is just another gatekeeper to pay off and appease. The city wants more money from tech.

No the purpose of this legislation is to provide a one stop shop for businesses that would have to interact with city departments anyways: scooters with SFMTA, rental startups with DBI or planning. It is not in theory supposed to be a gatekeeper for businesses that can operate independently of local regulation, though Mar has written bad legislation before.

The Hacker News outrage is non-sensical. These are businesses that would have to interact with the city no matter what; a single department instead of many is a strict improvement from status quo. The United States used to have an office of emerging technology too, and it was for the most part very good. Their reports are fun to read.

Re: SF to Establish Office of Emerging Technology

#48
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention re emergence of medieval diseases like Typhoid [1], large and widely spread amount of human feces (which is a biohazard), and lack of housing supply which contributes to untenable housing costs. [1]: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/03/typhus-tu...

Yep. Can’t wear sandals anywhere either for fear of stepping into a used needle and contracting something.

Counter-point: every fourth person wearing Birkenstocks this weekend.

Re: SF to Establish Office of Emerging Technology

#49
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with the goals of this directive, but it's written in a deliberately silly way. No non-fictional agency would put restrictions on increasing production or creating new technology. On the contrary, abolish the USPTO and let people invent all they want, but the new inventions can be used freely by anyone for the good of the country, too. Preventing people like d'Anconia from shutting down their manufacturing si…

Googling "Directive 10-289" would give you more context.

I'm aware of the context, as you might have been able to tell from my mention of d'Anconia.
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