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Bruce Schneier Recommends New Type of Technologist

posted by Fnord666 on Sunday October 13 2019, @03:11PM   Printer-friendly
from the last-throes-of-public-culture dept.

jmichaelhudsondotnet writes:

https://public-interest-tech.com/

Mr. Schneier and friends have created a new website to promote a change to the socio-economic technical milieu we are currently facing.

He suggests we need to have "public interest technologists" to help the situation.

He writes:

"We need technologists who work in the public interest. We need public-interest technologists.

Defining this term is difficult. One Ford Foundation blog post described public-interest technologists as "technology practitioners who focus on social justice, the common good, and/or the public interest.""

Is he right? How can this be implemented without becoming as riddled with government agents, spies and mafias as the key positions of our corporations and institutions are right now?

Full disclosure: this writer has been a public interest technologist for a while now and I have actually alluded to the need for something like what is being suggested on multiple occasions, 'a different kind of organization' is the way I put it, way back a few months ago.

Discuss.

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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday October 14 2019, @06:31AM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday October 14 2019, @06:31AM (#906853) Journal

    the chasm between rich and poor seems to be ever-expanding

    Let us keep in mind that we don't actually know whether the "chasm" between rich and poor is "ever-expanding" because nobody has a clue how to value it (always a strong sign in the financial world that something is overvalued), and it's not particularly valuable to poor people in the first place. Can't eat or sleep in a credit default swap.

    At this point, I'm completely blowing off all concerns about wealth inequality because it's measured in an extremely bullshit way (ignores future income), is probably way exaggerated due to the crazy valuation of such things, and doesn't mean anything even if it were true.

    There has been an ongoing theory that if it is raining on the rich, it will drip on the poor, which recent research has proven wrong.

    More accurately, has shown isn't always right.

    if you work hard and diligently, keep your head down and pursue your goals then you could become the next Bill Gates/Jeff Bezos/Steve Jobs/...

    Who really is trying to be the next Bill Gates? What people are trying to do generally has a much better chance of success.

    The sooner we realise that technology needs to benefit all,

    Absolute bullshit. For example, I come up with some bit of gear that helps people who hang-glide. Should my bit of technology get deep-sixed because it doesn't help anyone who isn't a hang-glider?

    Technology doesn't need to benefit everyone. As long as it's helping someone without causing problems of a similar scale, it's fine.