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Silicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum

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Re: Silicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum

#81

Post by hash-set »

amelius wrote: post #19

> However, when you are a data-driven oligarchy like Facebook, Google, Amazon, or Uber, you can’t really wash your hands of the impact of your algorithms and your ability to shape popular sentiment in our society. We are not just talking about the ability to influence voters with fake news. If you are Amazon, you have to acknowledge that you are slowly corroding the retail sector, which employs many people in this co…

Is Amazon really corroding the retail sector or is brick and mortar largely just obsolete?

Re: Silicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum

#82

Post by grzm »

theWatcher37 wrote: post #59
pmoriarty wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And why were they patronized and treated like children again? Oh, perhaps it was because they claimed Obama wasn't born in the US. Or because they denied global warming. Or because they hate Mexicans and Muslims. In short, because they bought in to the steaming pile of bullshit that is the right wing media echo chamber. When they think like children, talk like children, and act like children, they shouldn't be surpri…

Dude was a media darling for 30 years, was never called a racist until he ran against a Clinton.

Things change when you enter the political arena, particularly run for president. Regardless of your political stripes or those of your opponent.

Re: Silicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum

#83

Post by talideon »

c0nducktr wrote: post #50
talideon wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

With a job, at least you've an outside chance of feeling useful.

Re: Silicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum

#84

Post by atemerev »

pmoriarty wrote: post #40
atemerev wrote: post #4

People had voted for Trump not because of lack of empathy, but because they were fed up with being patronized, negged, treated like children, observed, modeled and disempowered, belittled and generally discounted. And this article is not helping it.

And why were they patronized and treated like children again? Oh, perhaps it was because they claimed Obama wasn't born in the US. Or because they denied global warming. Or because they hate Mexicans and Muslims. In short, because they bought in to the steaming pile of bullshit that is the right wing media echo chamber. When they think like children, talk like children, and act like children, they shouldn't be surpri…

You are not helping it, too. :)

Re: Silicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum

#85

Post by douche »

misiti3780 wrote: post #39

“Productivity is at record levels, innovation has never been faster, and yet at the same time, we have a falling median income and we have fewer jobs. People are falling behind because technology is advancing so fast and our skills and organizations aren’t keeping up.” It is, he said, “the great paradox of our era.” While I believe this is true, and understand why it is a problem, I do not think there is anything tha…

One of the things I think we forget about here, where most of us are smarter than the average bear, is that there are a lot of people that aren't so smart. If you have an 80 IQ, you might be able to learn how to code, but it's going to be really hard and you're never going to be as good as somebody with more mental resources to start with. My mother works as a special ed teacher - her main concern is trying to get her kids reading and doing math within one or two grade-levels of where they ought to be, and with a lot of effort and one-on-one work, she sometimes succeeds. Some years, 25% of the entire grade will be on her case-load.

A hundred years ago, these people could do pretty alright working on the farm. Fifty years ago, they could do real well working in the mills. Today, they struggle to subsist on WalMart and McDonald's wages. Already, we're automating those jobs away.

Re: Silicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum

#86

Post by heartbreak »

hash-set wrote: post #71
allemagne wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"Everybody worked for Trump. He couldn’t lose." Hillary comfortably won the popular vote, and something like 100,000 voters in strategic states were what swung the election to Trump. "He couldn't lose" is a lot different from "he could win", and is a ridiculously strong claim that nobody who believes in evidence and logic-based reasoning would have made previous to Nov. 9th.

I'd be very careful about that "won the popular vote" meme. First off, it isn't relevant. Second off, if people who were ineligible to vote, aka illegal immigrants and felons (and maybe dead people, too) then what we know about the popular vote is a fallacy, too. The media does nothing but propagandize 24/7.

Your second point is incomplete. Can you elaborate?

Re: Silicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum

#87

Post by atemerev »

nkohari wrote: post #33
atemerev wrote: post #4

People had voted for Trump not because of lack of empathy, but because they were fed up with being patronized, negged, treated like children, observed, modeled and disempowered, belittled and generally discounted. And this article is not helping it.

The effects you list are a result of others not having empathy for people who would end up supporting Trump.

They do not need empathy. They wanted to be left alone and act according to their own judgement, something that the left really could not process.

Re: Silicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum

#88

Post by throwaway729 »

talmand wrote: post #65
throwaway729 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Maybe they view that "helping themselves" is stealing from their children's future with unsustainable debt and taxes?

Except they didn't vote for a fiscal conservative, they voted for a guy whose primary policy proposals are tax cuts and public works programs. So they're stealing from the future either way.

If Cruz or Rubio or Ryan had been the GOP nominee, I would take your comment more seriously.

Re: Silicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum

#89

Post by internaut »

adamnemecek wrote: post #55
noir-york wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's because the educational system has failed them by wasting their youth and giving nothing in return Ah, the deserving poor! Some never consider getting an education because it was not something to aspire to, let alone spending enough time in the system to fail them. Maybe these people are getting the short end of the stick not because they were idle, but because their family were too busy working three jobs try…

> A strong welfare state and job security can break the cycle, but who is willing to pay - in taxes - for that? Don't get me wrong, I fully agree. But I think that if I were to pick a single element of a welfare state that can bootstrap the whole thing, I'd pick education. It seems like a lot of the largest country growths were bootstrapped by betting on the educational system (Finland, Singapore and South Korea come…

I really really disagree with this.

I think the evidence is against you. The economics research shows that the 'best returns' come from early education, with diminishing returns the further progress is made.

It is counter intuitive I know, but mass education is similar to macro economics. Helping everybody can help nobody.

South Korea and Japan put a lot of focus on education, work insane hours for comparatively low pay, pay stupid rents and are also in a wage stagnation.

Put it like this:

You get to a middle income economy by doing 1 thing. You get to a high income economy by doing another thing. It is unlikely getting to a very high income economy is accomplished by replicating the former process that took you up a step originally.

Re: Silicon Valley Has an Empathy Vacuum

#90

Post by robbrown451 »

rhodri wrote: post #45
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 soluti…

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

So....tell everyone to stop being self interested?

> emotional problems require emotional solutions.

What emotional solution do you propose? Send everyone to therapy?

I see a dramatic difference in sites that have sophisticated moderation tools, such as Quora, vs those that don't, for instance YouTube. I just think they should go further.

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