Comments on: Technology Fatigue, Tyler Cowen, & Autism

By: David Akermanis

David Akermanis — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 01:04:10 +0000

Looking forward to reading this! Just finished Andrew keen's Cult of the Amateur and it sounds as if this will address many of the “but's” I had while reading…

By: David Akermanis

David Akermanis — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:04:10 +0000

Looking forward to reading this! Just finished Andrew keen's Cult of the Amateur and it sounds as if this will address many of the “but's” I had while reading…

By: David Akermanis

David Akermanis — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:04:10 +0000

Looking forward to reading this! Just finished Andrew keen's Cult of the Amateur and it sounds as if this will address many of the “but's” I had while reading…

By: cordblomquist

cordblomquist — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 04:49:25 +0000

Yes! I vote for Barney Frank, Ben Bernanke, and Tim Geithner to be placed at the helm of this global, managed economy. That way, we'll get the best outcomes, right?

By: eee_eff

eee_eff — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:21:37 +0000

You hear it all the time. People complain that they can’t get away from Facebook, Twitter, or even email—that the technology we own ends up owning us, or some similar cliche line about the digital dystopia that is consuming our humanity one bit at a time. I can’t stand these people.

I could not agree more. However, the dystopian aspects of technology are very real. They don't stem from the inability of any inidividual to rise above and become empowered by technology, but rather from unforeseen systemic effects of technology. In particular, the way technology has changed the face of warfare (see John Robb's excellent blog Global Guerillas) or dislocated economic activity from the social and political structures that give society it's form and is the construct of it's social (community) space. (This is a theme of my blog ) It is not a given that the dynamically instable nature of the global economy will automatically lead to increasing prosperity unless it is managed. see Dani Rodrick's excellent blog about that. Note especially his lecture at LSE: Capitalism 3.0.