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Do All Problems Have Technical Fixes?
11–20 of 92 posts
Re: Do All Problems Have Technical Fixes?
#12I feel like the framing in the article is wrong. Tech startups are desperately searching for solutions that will generate value. When a "new hammer" is developed or discovered (lets say, radiation) there's a natural inflection point. People will try marketing radioactive medicines, radioactive soft drinks, radioactive toys, radioactive jewelry.... etc etc. Everything will be thrown at the wall to see what sticks. The…
> When a "new hammer" is developed or discovered (lets say, radiation) there's a natural inflection point. People will try marketing radioactive medicines, radioactive soft drinks, radioactive toys, radioactive jewelry.... etc etc.
Have you read anything from the early 20th century? This is a noticeable theme in e.g. stories set in the mythos of Conan the Barbarian or the Wizard of Oz. "Radium" is treated as essentially a form of magic.
Re: Do All Problems Have Technical Fixes?
#13If nothing else, getting people to accept a technical fix is a social problem. On the other hand, yes, some social problems have had technical solutions. Remember when “You just can’t get good help these days!” was a truism? It isn’t said as much anymore because the underlying problem was obviated: Time was, middle-class households were becoming unmanageable due to young women no longer wanting to be servants, such a…
"Wishful thinking".
Maybe Panglossianism.
Re: Do All Problems Have Technical Fixes?
#14I feel like the framing in the article is wrong. Tech startups are desperately searching for solutions that will generate value. When a "new hammer" is developed or discovered (lets say, radiation) there's a natural inflection point. People will try marketing radioactive medicines, radioactive soft drinks, radioactive toys, radioactive jewelry.... etc etc. Everything will be thrown at the wall to see what sticks. The…
> When a "new hammer" is developed or discovered (lets say, radiation) there's a natural inflection point. People will try marketing radioactive medicines, radioactive soft drinks, radioactive toys, radioactive jewelry.... etc etc. Have you read anything from the early 20th century? This is a noticeable theme in e.g. stories set in the mythos of Conan the Barbarian or the Wizard of Oz. "Radium" is treated as essentia…
I don't think "read Conan the Barbarian" is the main takeaway of that, though I'm sure "rays" was a trope in fiction.
Quack "radioactive medicines" actually happened to people. Product darwinism and actual customer darwinism.
See, e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive_quackery
https://www.orau.org/health-physics-museum/collection/radioa...
https://histmed.collegeofphysicians.org/for-students/radium/
https://www.dannydutch.com/post/the-strange-story-of-eben-by...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/the-lethal-legacy-of-e...
Re: Do All Problems Have Technical Fixes?
#15[dead]
Without True Authority and beliefs in Love, any technical achievements is just make us easy to destroy ourselves. Think nuclear bombs and ww3. Do we still want achieve more advanced science advances and use it build more powerful weapons to kill the “aliens”that Our Will feels.
Re: Do All Problems Have Technical Fixes?
#16And the not asked often enough corollary: just because there exists a technical solution to a problem, does that mean it's the right solution?
Re: Do All Problems Have Technical Fixes?
#17A lot of problems do. But sometimes the problem is people related. You can work around those problems with technology but you can't fix them.
In terms of real world problems: climate change, food scarcity, poverty, water quality and access, health care, etc. a lot of the solutions are technical. And a lot of those solutions are directly or indirectly about making energy cheaper and cleaner. With cheap clean energy, you can address climate change. You can desalinate water (at scale). If you have clean water, you can address food scarcity (e.g. irrigate desserts). You can also address sanitation. Cheap energy also enables transport, having light in people's home (education). so that addresses poverty. And so on. All that comes from just a handful of technical solutions that make energy cheap and clean. Anyone working on those things is accomplishing more than decades worth of well intentioned but not very effective activism, charity, diplomacy, etc. I'm sure AI has a role to play here as well.
The point is moot anyway. We're not going to turn into Luddites and competition continuously drives us to do better. Which means people keep on figuring out technical solutions to challenges around them. Technology isn't inherently good or evil. But it can be very effective sometimes. And of course there is a lot of not so effective or misguided stuff as well. Part of the journey.
Re: Do All Problems Have Technical Fixes?
#18no
Re: Do All Problems Have Technical Fixes?
#19No, say you're on a team of five with two consistently poor performers that not only fail to achieve limited tasks, but constantly draw off support from the rest of the team.
There's no technical fix for that. The nuclear option of getting them sacked and replaced dents team morale and probably wouldn't let the team back up to speed for three or four months with all the onboarding required.
Coaching in areas where they should be self-learning consumes the focus of others on the team or in the business.
Ignoring them and ploughing ahead without assigning them work drastically reduces team effectiveness.
Not much in the way of a technical fix in sight - unless copilot suddenly becomes really really good.
Re: Do All Problems Have Technical Fixes?
#20It sort of bugs me when people who claim that a problem cannot be solved with technology act like that problem was caused by technology. You get both or neither, you can't have just one.
I'm with you in the first sentence, but the second doesn't make sense to me.
All 4 combinations of (not-)solved-by-tech and (not-)caused-by-tech are possible.