I am a luddite and to me there is a lot of joy in technology.
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I am a luddite and to me there is a lot of joy in technology. In technology that we deploy for all our wellbeing. Solar panels and vaccines, high-speed rail and wikipedia.
But they joy stems from the feeling of being able to be part of humanity in an embedded, meaningful way. Not from buying shit.
@tante My fondest experience in software was building (over ~9 years) an ERP system with the founding principle: "We want it to work for at least 30 years" which had a lot of knock-off effects. We were allowed to improve things that mattered more for maintenance than functionality.
The joy of being able to shift technology on the frontend with little effect to the backend, having response times in single digit ms and so on.
There was plenty to improve, still, but I had pride in my work.
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@tante My fondest experience in software was building (over ~9 years) an ERP system with the founding principle: "We want it to work for at least 30 years" which had a lot of knock-off effects. We were allowed to improve things that mattered more for maintenance than functionality.
The joy of being able to shift technology on the frontend with little effect to the backend, having response times in single digit ms and so on.
There was plenty to improve, still, but I had pride in my work.
@tofticles that sounds really cool
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I am a luddite and to me there is a lot of joy in technology. In technology that we deploy for all our wellbeing. Solar panels and vaccines, high-speed rail and wikipedia.
But they joy stems from the feeling of being able to be part of humanity in an embedded, meaningful way. Not from buying shit.
@tante 100%
I don’t think anyone really hates technology.
What almost everyone hates, but may struggle to identify or articulate, is the rapacious, capitalist, consumerist, colonialist, patriarchal hierarchy by which our technology is informed.
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I am a luddite and to me there is a lot of joy in technology. In technology that we deploy for all our wellbeing. Solar panels and vaccines, high-speed rail and wikipedia.
But they joy stems from the feeling of being able to be part of humanity in an embedded, meaningful way. Not from buying shit.
> ... we deploy ... solar panels and vaccines, high-speed rail and wikipedia
Who's "we" here? You don't have the skills for that. -
I am a luddite and to me there is a lot of joy in technology. In technology that we deploy for all our wellbeing. Solar panels and vaccines, high-speed rail and wikipedia.
But they joy stems from the feeling of being able to be part of humanity in an embedded, meaningful way. Not from buying shit.
This is such a good distinction. Technology built to solve real problems vs technology built to extract value from people. The joy comes from the former and we used to have way more of it
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I am a luddite and to me there is a lot of joy in technology. In technology that we deploy for all our wellbeing. Solar panels and vaccines, high-speed rail and wikipedia.
But they joy stems from the feeling of being able to be part of humanity in an embedded, meaningful way. Not from buying shit.
I like this concept. Now I have to go look up what a Luddite is
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I am a luddite and to me there is a lot of joy in technology. In technology that we deploy for all our wellbeing. Solar panels and vaccines, high-speed rail and wikipedia.
But they joy stems from the feeling of being able to be part of humanity in an embedded, meaningful way. Not from buying shit.
@tante then there is also the tension between human technology and all other life forms, even if the *intention* of the creators of that technology is benign.
I'm enjoying more and more giving other lifeforms the benefit of the doubt and minimising the tech. Or using the tech to minimise the tech. Like outdoor illumination that responds (gracefully) to human needs, not blitzing night creatures all night. No not the floodlight that flashes 50 times every night when the cat walks past.
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@tante My fondest experience in software was building (over ~9 years) an ERP system with the founding principle: "We want it to work for at least 30 years" which had a lot of knock-off effects. We were allowed to improve things that mattered more for maintenance than functionality.
The joy of being able to shift technology on the frontend with little effect to the backend, having response times in single digit ms and so on.
There was plenty to improve, still, but I had pride in my work.
@tofticles @tante What software is that? If that is still for sale, it immediately tanks high on my list!
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I like this concept. Now I have to go look up what a Luddite is
@DrCampbell You will get some conflicting information depending on how the author of the piece feels about labor politics. I like this article from 2011 from Smithsonian Magazine.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-the-luddites-really-fought-against-264412/
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@DrCampbell You will get some conflicting information depending on how the author of the piece feels about labor politics. I like this article from 2011 from Smithsonian Magazine.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-the-luddites-really-fought-against-264412/
@jessamyn thank you
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@tofticles @tante What software is that? If that is still for sale, it immediately tanks high on my list!
It is a generic ERP-application with an open API - it was bought by EG (sadly VC-backed specialist software house) - they use it as the basis for two or three areas (construction, hairdressers and maybe health care). I left them about two years after the take-over which happened 2017.
The base system is here: https://xena.biz .
