Fantastic perspective - it really illustrates the incentives creating support for this nightmare.
"when a sacrifice for the common good also happens to be closely aligned with one’s convenience, I have to ask questions about whether I accidentally found myself on the “winning” side of a phenomenon that is somewhat less selfless than what it presents itself to be."
Great discussion. Regarding "how we can use technology to optimize convenience", a major challenge is to do that for the less sophisticated types of work. Work from home hi-tech, universities, etc., and even healthcare doctors can do some of the analysis work remotely.
However, most of the healthcare workers, people the work at grocery stores, cleaning, etc. cannot work remotely. In general, these are also the people that are paid less, so they have less power and resources to make changes. Therefore, finding technologies that can improve the convenience of these people should be a main goal.
Great point, David. If technology benefits some people but not others, the result will be an unequal society with a great deal of well-justified resentment and mistrust among people.
Fantastic perspective - it really illustrates the incentives creating support for this nightmare.
"when a sacrifice for the common good also happens to be closely aligned with one’s convenience, I have to ask questions about whether I accidentally found myself on the “winning” side of a phenomenon that is somewhat less selfless than what it presents itself to be."
Thanks, Julius. Yes, we have to look closely at the incentives to not speak out about COVID culture.
Great discussion. Regarding "how we can use technology to optimize convenience", a major challenge is to do that for the less sophisticated types of work. Work from home hi-tech, universities, etc., and even healthcare doctors can do some of the analysis work remotely.
However, most of the healthcare workers, people the work at grocery stores, cleaning, etc. cannot work remotely. In general, these are also the people that are paid less, so they have less power and resources to make changes. Therefore, finding technologies that can improve the convenience of these people should be a main goal.
Great point, David. If technology benefits some people but not others, the result will be an unequal society with a great deal of well-justified resentment and mistrust among people.