Comment by keiferski
4 months ago
It’s pretty depressing to see every ostensibly American value be replaced by profit-driven utilitarianism. “It improves X problem marginally and it makes money, so why not?” seems to be the reasoning for just about everything anymore. No discussion of values, of the society we want to build, or anything else. That’s the world the tech industry is building.
> by profit-driven utilitarianism.
That's generous. To me it's just felonious corruption possibly bordering on treason.
> and it makes money
It doesn't make money. Which is why these rent seeking entities attach themselves to the federal and state budgets with onerous contracts that they will defend to the death. If they had to actually compete for private business they would be out of money by end of year.
> of the society we want to build
This isn't directionless either. The people doing this have a vision for your society and they're willing to do almost anything to secure that.
> That’s the world the tech industry is building.
Which is why I find monopoly law enforcement so important. "Too big to fail" has become the norm and it seems to me is a required ingredient in order to achieve these outcomes.
Too big to fail shouldn’t even be in the vernacular of our society. Every private business should be able to fail. Let it happen and the let new entrants take over and compete.
Is something does become so large and critical to the functioning of the nation that means we have either failed to trust bust or it needs to be nationalized and made a public service. If Microsoft for example were to fail tomorrow, no way in hell should we bail them out. Let them fail, let others enter the market and pick up the pieces.
You know you're in trouble when someone brings up "treason", the only crime defined specifically in the Constitution, exactly so people wouldn't randomly call everything they don't like "treason".
> defined specifically in the Constitution
It also requires at least two witnesses to the same overt act.
> exactly so people
I imagine they were more concerned with what US attourneys would do. The people have always more broadly defined "treason" outside of the constitutionally narrowed "treason against the United States."
>It doesn't make money. Which is why these rent seeking entities attach themselves to the federal and state budgets with onerous contracts that they will defend to the death
Flock and friends are just the most flagrant tip of the iceberg. This behavior goes all the way down to your goddamn licensed plumber and his stupid trade group that lobbies to make it illegal for anyone unlicensed to install a gas stove, and it's all crap.
It makes someone money. And the "great thing" about government money is that when you lose it it doesn't come out of your pocket!
Honestly, we should treat these people like we would with any other employee wasting money. They need to justify their expenses. I don't mean with just words, I mean data. Words aren't enough. I can claim all day that painting this red dot on a ceiling with my special paint that costs 10 cents to make and $10k to install just right is an effective solution to stopping terrorists, pedophiles, and even cancer but words aren't proof. And except for the utmost security concerns, this data and justifications should be public. Otherwise there is no accountability.
People often say they don't trust politicians. I'd like to see those words be reflected in actions. It seems we only don't trust certain politicians. And it seems we hand over all trust as soon as they claim they are protecting children and fighting terrorists. I'm sorry, but what class of people are we finding in the Epstein list? Last I checked he wasn't hanging around low class people with no political or monetary influence. So why do we let them use that phrase like some cheat code?
Stopped reading at the silly word "treason". Come on. The word treason has a meaning. This forum is an incredibly rare thing: a place of measured, reasonable, fact-based debate. Let's keep it that way.
Reminds me of the school 'vape detectors' that can also be programmed to listen for "loud noises" and "keywords" but basically handwave away the fact it violates wiretapping laws because they're claiming they're basically doing pattern matching on RAM buffered audio then dumping it.
Do you have a link to an analysis of one of these?
https://halodetect.com/
Look at "spoken keyword" and "gunshot" for instance
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It really feels like there is no debate anymore when it comes to things actually being implemented, they are just thrust upon us and maybe discussed later after there have already been consequences
And by discussion you mean discussion about removing safety/privacy/any other laws in the way the the 'new thing' being implemented.
> It’s pretty depressing to see every ostensibly American value be replaced by profit-driven utilitarianism
That's the difference between mythos and ethos - they were never the actual values to begin with (profit-driven utilitarianism is exactly American ethos)
Have you read The Technological Republic recently? What you said is an echo of the Palantir CEO's thesis there. In the book he calls for discussion of what "the good life" is. I found it a bit ironic that you seem to come to different conclusions about surveillance.
This country literally had a civil war to prevent rich capitalists from owning other human beings. America’s “values” have always been rooted in profit-driven utilitarianism.