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Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

nytimes.com

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Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

#221

Post by rendang »

tomatotomato37 wrote: post #64
throw8383833jj wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds plausible: all the benefits have gone to the rich. So, I set out to see what a world would be like if we "redistributed" all those "benefits". So, simply take the entire wealth of every billionaire in the US and divide it by the number of citizens and number of years required to acquire that wealth. It's a relatively simply equation: Billionaire wealth / Citizens / 30 Years = Yearly Redistribution 4T / 300…

I'm reality it would be even less than that since the wealth of most billionaires is in the form of speculative wealth such as company stock. If tomorrow everyones wealth was liquidated through a magical oracle that could know the true economic value of any given asset you'd find there would be a lot less billionaires in the world

"True economic value" will vary depending on how much the owner discounts future vs present value produced by the asset (e.g. dividends or imputed rent)

Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

#222

Post by andreilys »

Barrin92 wrote: post #122

Because new technology is as Thiel often quips limited to the world of bits rather than the world of atoms. Paul Krugman once asked, if you go into an average house right now and you take out all the screens, could you tell that you're not in the 80s? Gordon in the Rise and Fall of American Growth gives a similar example, what if you went into a time capsule between say 1890 and 1950 compared to 1960 and 2010? In one…

The difference between a car right now and a car 30 years ago is that you can now play angry birds on a tablet

Except we now have cars with self-driving (however limited, it's a massive improvement over a car from 30 years).

Another interesting thought experiment is, how many digital services, modern tech and so on would you be willing to trade for something mundane, say your dishwasher, a hot shower, the toilet, a car, soap, if you could only have one or the other?

I would absolutely choose a mobile phone over any of those things.

Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

#223

Post by mountainriver »

Barrin92 wrote: post #122

Because new technology is as Thiel often quips limited to the world of bits rather than the world of atoms. Paul Krugman once asked, if you go into an average house right now and you take out all the screens, could you tell that you're not in the 80s? Gordon in the Rise and Fall of American Growth gives a similar example, what if you went into a time capsule between say 1890 and 1950 compared to 1960 and 2010? In one…

I find this statement absolutely insane. We’ve made huge progress on just about every facet of life I can think of and continue to. It’s cool some guy wrote a book on it but it’s a pretty narrow and contrived view of the world.

Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

#224

Post by rowanG077 »

Barrin92 wrote: post #122

Because new technology is as Thiel often quips limited to the world of bits rather than the world of atoms. Paul Krugman once asked, if you go into an average house right now and you take out all the screens, could you tell that you're not in the 80s? Gordon in the Rise and Fall of American Growth gives a similar example, what if you went into a time capsule between say 1890 and 1950 compared to 1960 and 2010? In one…

You could very easily tell by literally any of the other tech in the house. Roombas, Solar panels, space heaters, electric car. Or even by the the general utensils, encyclopedia, flooring, type of heaters.

Besides computers have changed the world just as much in the last 40 years as we have moved from horse carriages to cars, if not more. Just because it didn't require retooling of cities doesn't mean it isn't a giant leap.

Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

#225

Post by arcticbull »

marginalia_nu wrote: post #129
Barrin92 wrote: post #122

Because new technology is as Thiel often quips limited to the world of bits rather than the world of atoms. Paul Krugman once asked, if you go into an average house right now and you take out all the screens, could you tell that you're not in the 80s? Gordon in the Rise and Fall of American Growth gives a similar example, what if you went into a time capsule between say 1890 and 1950 compared to 1960 and 2010? In one…

There's a weird disconnect with computers. The software we use is 1000 times more complex than it was 20 years ago, leading to performance that really have not improved a lot, and a lot of functional stagnation. Many applications are slower to start today than they were 10 years ago, because back then they were binaries and today they are Electron apps. Your average web based word processor with cloud storage perform…

> The software we use is 1000 times more complex than it was 20 years ago, leading to performance that really have not improved a lot, and a lot of functional stagnation.

Performance has improved dramatically, but latency went up too.

Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

#226

Post by petra »

Barrin92 wrote: post #122

Because new technology is as Thiel often quips limited to the world of bits rather than the world of atoms. Paul Krugman once asked, if you go into an average house right now and you take out all the screens, could you tell that you're not in the 80s? Gordon in the Rise and Fall of American Growth gives a similar example, what if you went into a time capsule between say 1890 and 1950 compared to 1960 and 2010? In one…

I do wonder really:given a choice between having a car and having internet, what would people prefer?

My guess is that many would prefer having internet access.

Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

#227

Post by maxerickson »

Barrin92 wrote: post #122

Because new technology is as Thiel often quips limited to the world of bits rather than the world of atoms. Paul Krugman once asked, if you go into an average house right now and you take out all the screens, could you tell that you're not in the 80s? Gordon in the Rise and Fall of American Growth gives a similar example, what if you went into a time capsule between say 1890 and 1950 compared to 1960 and 2010? In one…

Does my instant pot have a screen?

Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

#228

Post by KptMarchewa »

arcticbull wrote: post #225
marginalia_nu wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a weird disconnect with computers. The software we use is 1000 times more complex than it was 20 years ago, leading to performance that really have not improved a lot, and a lot of functional stagnation. Many applications are slower to start today than they were 10 years ago, because back then they were binaries and today they are Electron apps. Your average web based word processor with cloud storage perform…

> The software we use is 1000 times more complex than it was 20 years ago, leading to performance that really have not improved a lot, and a lot of functional stagnation. Performance has improved dramatically, but latency went up too.

I don't think I've ever had computer with lower latency in any application than when using my M1 Pro MacBook. Sure, it's 20 years of hardware innovation, but at least someone is doing something right.

Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

#229

Post by oldsecondhand »

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #158
Barrin92 wrote: post #122

Because new technology is as Thiel often quips limited to the world of bits rather than the world of atoms. Paul Krugman once asked, if you go into an average house right now and you take out all the screens, could you tell that you're not in the 80s? Gordon in the Rise and Fall of American Growth gives a similar example, what if you went into a time capsule between say 1890 and 1950 compared to 1960 and 2010? In one…

Personal computers have become a distraction, like TV sets. People watching TV are generally not very productive.1 Before the internet we referred to TV as "the opiate of the masses".2 Not only do we now have a worse figurative opiate than TV in the form of today's www,3 we have the legalisation of literal opiates for the masses thanks to Purdue Pharma. 1 A plaintiff's lawyer specialising in class action securities f…

> Before the internet we referred to TV as "the opiate of the masses"

No, that's religion.

Re: Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?

#230

Post by dieselgate »

KronisLV wrote: post #162
marginalia_nu wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a weird disconnect with computers. The software we use is 1000 times more complex than it was 20 years ago, leading to performance that really have not improved a lot, and a lot of functional stagnation. Many applications are slower to start today than they were 10 years ago, because back then they were binaries and today they are Electron apps. Your average web based word processor with cloud storage perform…

> The software we use is 1000 times more complex than it was 20 years ago, leading to performance that really have not improved a lot, and a lot of functional stagnation. Many applications are slower to start today than they were 10 years ago, because back then they were binaries and today they are Electron apps. Also known as Wirth's law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirth%27s_law Sometimes it worries me. If we had…

Ruby on Rails? Edit: for web apps
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