Our proclivity to believing that all problems have technical solutions is what has largely lead us into out current cultural cul-de-sac. Namely the idea that AI will somehow "save us". I can't think of anything more patently stupid. As stated here in another comment, technology is neutral, but is also a multiplier of force. Many of our technologies simply multiply the force of the already powerful, against the power of the powerless.
Do All Problems Have Technical Fixes?
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Re: Do All Problems Have Technical Fixes?
#22A 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, y…
> A 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.
It depends a lot on what is encompassed in the considered definition of technology. Education and language can certainly be taken as technologies, under certain perspectives at least. And addressing individual behaviors with undesirable social consequences is something that definitely can be solved with appropriate educational "technologies".
In my current perspective, the most weighted factor between a technology and an innate individual trait is how transferable it is.
>We're not going to turn into Luddites and competition continuously drives us to do better.
It all depends on which values we endorse and thus how we deem something "better". On global scale, there was probably never so much passive aggressive competition within humankind (we also never been so numerous to be fair), and its results on global biosphere are to say the least completely disastrous.
>But it can be very effective sometimes.
Sure but working on improving effectiveness means nothing. If we try to enhance efficiency of gaz chambers, we are clearly bringing only more evil to the world. Efficacy is meaningless without a kind and generous purpose.
I could almost say "science sans conscience n’est que ruine de l’âme", but Rabelais actually wasn’t willing to say what it is generally thought it means nowadays. https://theconversation.com/science-sans-conscience-nest-que...
Re: Do All Problems Have Technical Fixes?
#23No, 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 th…
IDK about coaching. If you've ever been seriously coached for performance (think sports) an effective coach will look you dead in the eye and tell you you're terrible. At work, in technical fields, everyone likes to be liked and shy's away from being a bastard to their peers and reports. Especially if the conditions aren't that great and killing yourself for your current gig isn't giving you windfall returns.
Giving people the tools to succeed or at least being clear to them that they and need to do better is a managers job.
Re: Do All Problems Have Technical Fixes?
#24My gripe with titles like this is that problems as a class are much bigger than technical problems.
For example:
Many people on HN seems to have dating problems. Whenever an article on dating is in the front page, I see those issues in the comments. In most cases, that class of problem requires people to work on themselves. Online dating for sure as hell isn’t solving it.
Some of my comments outlined how to solve dating problems for cis heterosexual males. Most of the partial solutions are non-technical in nature. Some are technical if it concerns online dating.
Re: Do All Problems Have Technical Fixes?
#25A 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, y…
I agree with you.
Before we are so eager to solve the problems, we better pinpoint how the problems were introduced and exacerbated. In the US, there are conflicts between illegal immigration and local communities, or conflicts between BLM and ALM. Especially the latter one, which I as an ordinary non-American cannot understand why ALM was abandoned like SHIT in the end. I do not know that initially aimed to advocate for peace. Quite funny we have to choose sides: IsraeliLivesMatter vs PalestinianLivesMatter or RussianLivesMatter vs UkrainianLivesMatter. In the end, I decided to forget about the controversy. And decide to fight back against those who argue against "all lives matter" just because of a few bad apples. And maybe this is also the reason AllLivesMatterWorld was abandoned like SHIT: just because of a few bad apples, we are abandoning all apples.
I do not want everyone to upload the truth that all lives should matter, but I can make everyone see the truth here: all lives indeed matter whether you argue against it or not.
I hope by advocating kindness first, fairness always, and DUKI in action help dissolving the original sin that we all have, we can solve all the problems that technology and science alone cannot solve. DUKI is not dookie as you think. More on Www.AllLivesMatter.World
Re: Do All Problems Have Technical Fixes?
#26Perhaps the title should be "why do tech leaders believe all problems have technical fixes?" To that question, isn't the author analyzing too much into a salesman's pitch? They profit from selling technical solutions, so of course they'll say everyone can use one.
Re: Do All Problems Have Technical Fixes?
#27A 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, y…
Food scarcity, poverty, clean water, basic health care. These are IMO excellent examples of people problems, not tech problems.
If it were tech problems we wouldn’t be drinking clean water, driving Teslas and eating fancy food now would we? These are more or less solved issues. Now what we have not solved is how to share our toys.
Of course, tech could help to lower barrier(s), making access so cheap even “they” can have it, but the fundamental problem here is: why do “we” have “it” and “they” do not?
These are deeply political problems with exceedingly thin ties to technology. I feel focusing on tech distracts from the true issues which are again political and cultural, related to, say, the economy and its underlying philosophy itself, education, geography, history, etc. I don’t know where exactly tech ends up on this list of major factors, but it’s not on the first few pages.
Interestingly I think it is the diplomacy and activism that enabled the resources to open up and drives activity in tech that then eventually winds up where it needs to.
Re: Do All Problems Have Technical Fixes?
#28A 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, y…
I agree with you. Before we are so eager to solve the problems, we better pinpoint how the problems were introduced and exacerbated. In the US, there are conflicts between illegal immigration and local communities, or conflicts between BLM and ALM. Especially the latter one, which I as an ordinary non-American cannot understand why ALM was abandoned like SHIT in the end. I do not know that initially aimed to advocate…
The phrase "all lives matter" was introduced specifically to counteract and silence "black lives matter". It does not literally mean that all lives matter - it means that black people need to shut up and take what they're given.
Much like "one people, one nation, one leader" does not advocate for unity but is, in fact, something Adolf Hitler frequently said.
Re: Do All Problems Have Technical Fixes?
#29No, 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 th…
Putting them on gardening leave is a technical fix to that.
Re: Do All Problems Have Technical Fixes?
#30Perhaps the title should be "why do tech leaders believe all problems have technical fixes?" To that question, isn't the author analyzing too much into a salesman's pitch? They profit from selling technical solutions, so of course they'll say everyone can use one.
You can deal with those scammers, because in the end they know it's not true.
The real problem are the true believers