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Silicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum

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Re: Silicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum

#41

Post by angersock »

robbrown451 wrote: post #11

I don't see how the things he discusses have to do with empathy in Silicon Valley. Driverless trucks, for instance, have nothing to do with empathy and a lot to do with simple economics. Someone is going to build them if they can make a buck doing it, and empathy isn't going to somehow stop that. On the other hand, I do think companies like Facebook and Google and the news sites (or whoever makes their comment system…

Counterpoint: a lot of things like automated cars and whatnot are only possible by the wide-spread reallocation of resources to their accomplishment.

Uber is able to afford this beachhead because they flaunt local laws and exploit workers, Google because they have a massive surveillance apparatus they are able to charge money for advertisers to access.

The simple explanation "oh well somebody would've built it anyawys" is incorrect.

Re: Silicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum

#42

Post by noir-york »

lambdasquirrel wrote: post #8

I'm just going to cut right through this from the start. Unlike most of my tech friends, I actually have tried to reconnect outside our privileged circles (and if you don't think that's what they are, you're kidding yourself). And you know what I found? A lot of echoes of the personal past. Lets face it. A lot of techies — engineers specifically — are who they are because they were socially rejected in younger years.…

I was the first in my (working class) family to go to university, followed by my younger siblings. We may not now move in the same circles as the other children of the neighbours on our street, but we sure don't patronize them, think them any less, or dismiss their and so many other people's genuine concerns be it immigration, or crime, or job security. Unlike certain media and others who claim to be left-wing in the outlook, but may as well be from a different planet.

No one is asking anyone to hang out or connect with "normal" people, but we can surely start with the generally valid assumption that most people act in good faith and not dismissing anyone as being "deplorable" or any of the -isms.

Re: Silicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum

#44

Post by scottishfiction »

doubleunplussed wrote: post #3

It's not a private company's job to have empathy for the people affected by progress. Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of empathy. But petitioning private companies to change their ways will get you exactly nowhere unless it comes with a corresponding profit motive. It's the government's job to redistribute wealth and income to the needy, and provide safety nets and retraining opportunities for people whose industri…

This argument then goes full circle. The government reflect the will of the people and the people currently believe that globalization and immigration are the source of all their ills - not automation. Why do believe this? Because of a failure of the free press, exacerbated by the filter bubble of social media - which is the responsibility of SV.

Re: Silicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum

#45

Post by rhodri »

robbrown451 wrote: post #11

I don't see how the things he discusses have to do with empathy in Silicon Valley. Driverless trucks, for instance, have nothing to do with empathy and a lot to do with simple economics. Someone is going to build them if they can make a buck doing it, and empathy isn't going to somehow stop that. On the other hand, I do think companies like Facebook and Google and the news sites (or whoever makes their comment system…

> Someone is going to build them if they can make a buck doing it, and empathy isn't going to somehow stop that.

the problem is that we are all chasing that buck, rather than imagining what that buck could do

> What if there were simply richer tools for users to rate things?

they would be abused by those with underdeveloped empathy to marginalise views that threatened them. emotional problems require emotional solutions.

Re: Silicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum

#46

Post by throwaway729 »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #27

> If you are Amazon, you have to acknowledge that you are slowly corroding the retail sector, which employs many people in this country. If you are Airbnb, no matter how well-meaning your focus on delighting travellers, you are also going to affect hotel-industry employment. > Otto, a Bay Area startup that was recently acquired by Uber, wants to automate trucking—and recently wrapped up a hundred-and-twenty-mile driv…

Exactly. These are the same truck drivers who have overwhelmingly conservative political views.

If they don't want to help themselves then I'll take the tax breaks and avoid being affected by their self inflicted pain.

Re: Silicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum

#48

Post by rhodri »

noir-york wrote: post #42
lambdasquirrel wrote: post #8

I'm just going to cut right through this from the start. Unlike most of my tech friends, I actually have tried to reconnect outside our privileged circles (and if you don't think that's what they are, you're kidding yourself). And you know what I found? A lot of echoes of the personal past. Lets face it. A lot of techies — engineers specifically — are who they are because they were socially rejected in younger years.…

I was the first in my (working class) family to go to university, followed by my younger siblings. We may not now move in the same circles as the other children of the neighbours on our street, but we sure don't patronize them, think them any less, or dismiss their and so many other people's genuine concerns be it immigration, or crime, or job security. Unlike certain media and others who claim to be left-wing in the…

> we sure don't patronize them, think them any less, or dismiss their and so many other people's genuine concerns be it immigration, or crime, or job security

great! perhaps you have been raised well and have managed to recover from emotional trauma you may have experienced in life so far. some people unfortunately have not been so lucky.

Re: Silicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum

#49

Post by SomeStupidPoint »

lambdasquirrel wrote: post #8

I'm just going to cut right through this from the start. Unlike most of my tech friends, I actually have tried to reconnect outside our privileged circles (and if you don't think that's what they are, you're kidding yourself). And you know what I found? A lot of echoes of the personal past. Lets face it. A lot of techies — engineers specifically — are who they are because they were socially rejected in younger years.…

I don't expect any fairness or warmth from those people, and I still find many of the same ones pretty thoughtless and boring.

All the same, I try to sprinkle a little more warmth and kindness on what I do now than they did then, or likely would now were our positions of influence reversed.

Not because it's fair, not because they really deserve it, not even abstract reasons like their kids shouldnt suffer for them being dicks in high school, but because I want to be in a world that errs on being nicer than it should. I want to fundamentally break the rules we grew up by, and we're genuinely on the cusp of technology enabling that.

And at the end of the day, I simply have more power than them, so we'll live a little more how I want and a little less in their Darwinian shithole.

Re: Silicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum

#50

Post by c0nducktr »

talideon wrote: post #38
illumin8 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right on. Silicon Valley may have an empathy vacuum/problem, but let's place the blame for this problem where it really lies: government policy makers. They are the ones that have watched globalization gut the middle class, while sitting back and collecting their fat stock grants and salaries for sitting on the board of the companies that are the beneficiaries of these policies. We need universal basic income to soft…

> We need universal basic income to soften the impact of the rise of automation in the workforce. People need to feel useful. Universal basic income doesn't give that to people by itself.

True, but neither does a job.
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