Wealthy San Francisco tech investors bankroll bid to ban homeless camps

Post by monktastic1 » Mon, Oct 17, 2016, 6:54 PM UTC

Kalium wrote: post #150

monktastic1 wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I implore you to consider something objective, countable, and measurable. Like people helped for money spent, rather than genuineness of kindness or blooming of intent. I don't think we disagree there. I even attended a conference (the Effective Altruism Summit) on just this topic. I also put my money where my mouth is. The only reason I spend time on any of this is because I've spent more than a little time intros…

I understand why you feel this way. It seems impossible that so much talent and intelligence could fail to solve such obviously tractable problems, if but moved by basic empathy and kindness and decency to examine them seriously. Silicon Valley can do anything it sets its mind to. History makes that plain! I don't think I agree. I think the kinds of problems Silicon Valley can effectively solve are limited in nature…

Post by monktastic1 » Tue, Oct 18, 2016, 3:00 AM UTC

Kalium wrote: post #152

monktastic1 wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It seems impossible that so much talent and intelligence could fail to solve such obviously tractable problems It's not that I think that Silicon Valley can solve the problem. It's really only that I think it's disingenuous to claim one is trying to help people if one is really only trying to shovel them out of sight, and that this chasm will ultimately be reflected in the outcome of any plan that results. That sai…

I agree. It's quite likely that competent people who set out with ill intent will manage to achieve some ill. This should not be confused for a belief that setting out with good intentions will yield good results. It's far, far harder to improve things than it is to make things worse. Social policy does not function on the "Law of Attraction".