Wessie, nicely done! I often tell my CS friends they are a commodity -- the vast majority of computer science is an effort to make money, usually by establishing some sort of monopoly, or (like so much technology) driven by security concerns. They don't like it. But the design process, while often bespoke, is about solving things. Certai…
Wessie, nicely done! I often tell my CS friends they are a commodity -- the vast majority of computer science is an effort to make money, usually by establishing some sort of monopoly, or (like so much technology) driven by security concerns. They don't like it. But the design process, while often bespoke, is about solving things. Certain moral blinders, as Oppenheimer admitted to. I tried to talk about ethics in the design context in the inaugural podcast of the Center for Cybersocial Dynamics at the University of Kansas. Spoiler: Gatling, of Gatling gun fame, was a pretty ethical guy.
With regard to Cowan's weird faith that technology will be good, it's baked into the economist worldview. Invisible hand and all that. It's a sort of primitive, secularized, Christianity (without the fall, without sin). Mary Harrington has a nice piece on tech progress, especially in the US, as a sublimated Christian discourse.
Thanks for sharing this podcast David, very much looking forward to listening to it. It's true of course that history is often more tragic than the formula "design = intention" allows. The worst consequences of design are often not intentional. I should probably address this in another post.
And yes, there is something eschatological about the economist's faith in technology. For Cowen, I think it boils down to the assertion that GDP growth basically means life getting better (I don't buy it). The weirdness really comes through when he uses terms like productivity to evaluate everyday experience.
I was trained in the heyday of law and economics. Everything was reduced to efficiency and rationalism . . . neither of which worked out very well. Most of my scholarly output has been vis-a-vis this sort of stuff. Cowan is a relatively humane/thoughtful/soft version of the worldview.
Wessie, nicely done! I often tell my CS friends they are a commodity -- the vast majority of computer science is an effort to make money, usually by establishing some sort of monopoly, or (like so much technology) driven by security concerns. They don't like it. But the design process, while often bespoke, is about solving things. Certain moral blinders, as Oppenheimer admitted to. I tried to talk about ethics in the design context in the inaugural podcast of the Center for Cybersocial Dynamics at the University of Kansas. Spoiler: Gatling, of Gatling gun fame, was a pretty ethical guy.
https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/center-for-cyber/center-for-cyber-social-ngvpPyBQ61O/
With regard to Cowan's weird faith that technology will be good, it's baked into the economist worldview. Invisible hand and all that. It's a sort of primitive, secularized, Christianity (without the fall, without sin). Mary Harrington has a nice piece on tech progress, especially in the US, as a sublimated Christian discourse.
https://reactionaryfeminist.substack.com/p/immanentising-the-eschaton?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2
Keep up the excellent work. "Designs" indeed!
Thanks for sharing this podcast David, very much looking forward to listening to it. It's true of course that history is often more tragic than the formula "design = intention" allows. The worst consequences of design are often not intentional. I should probably address this in another post.
And yes, there is something eschatological about the economist's faith in technology. For Cowen, I think it boils down to the assertion that GDP growth basically means life getting better (I don't buy it). The weirdness really comes through when he uses terms like productivity to evaluate everyday experience.
I was trained in the heyday of law and economics. Everything was reduced to efficiency and rationalism . . . neither of which worked out very well. Most of my scholarly output has been vis-a-vis this sort of stuff. Cowan is a relatively humane/thoughtful/soft version of the worldview.