160
votes
What is the capitalist answer to automation?
In 1800, more than 90% of everyone were farmers. Modernly in the United States, which is a net exporter of food, less than 5% of everyone are employed on farms. That's a reduction of 85%, much ...
- 90.3k
109
votes
Accepted
Why does the EU not seem to pursue technological independence?
The EU does pursue technological independence. For example, it has assembled its own satellite navigation system so that it does not have to rely on GPS and Glonass.
The EU develops a lot of military ...
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76
votes
How can Republicans who favour free markets, consistently express anger when they don't like the outcome of that choice?
I think the misunderstanding comes from how conservatives complain about bias in media and tech. Conservatives often don't call for government action, they just want to shed light on the injustices. ...
- 11.1k
75
votes
Accepted
What is the origin of the fears of racism associated with facial recognition technology?
People often have the mistaken belief that computers are inherently objective and unbiased – and while they may not hold prejudices themselves, the results that they produce reflect the biases and ...
- 26k
64
votes
Why do Republicans want to break up Facebook?
(Caveat: The Republican Party is nowhere near the monolith it works so hard to appear as.)
As the Republican party has fallen more and more in-line with Trumpism (which, really, predates Trump and ...
- 19.4k
63
votes
Accepted
Why do Republicans want to break up Facebook?
Republicans cannot just "use other platforms" because of the network effect. Everyone is already on Facebook, Twitter, et. al. So say die-hard Republicans all go to Parler. Now they're in ...
- 7,891
49
votes
Do voice assistants such as Alexa commonly have political opinions and do people believe them unthinkingly?
I wonder how we should react to a non-sentient robot claiming to hold a particular set of beliefs and principles.
You should bear in mind that it is actually expressing the views of the controllers ...
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44
votes
Why does the EU not seem to pursue technological independence?
It’s not only EU, there is no such thing as a technological independent state anymore. North Korea is the closest one to be. There are enterprises in US and Asia which manufacture nanotechnology, but ...
- 612
41
votes
What is the origin of the fears of racism associated with facial recognition technology?
Let me set aside, for the moment, the question of whether current facial recognition technology (FRT) accurately distinguishes the facial features of non-whites. There is some evidence that it does ...
- 76.4k
34
votes
How can Republicans who favour free markets, consistently express anger when they don't like the outcome of that choice?
It probably depends on what circle of 'conservatives' you're talking to, but the most legitimate complaint I see get thrown around, is that big tech companies should be forced to abide by one of the ...
- 3,050
29
votes
Why do Republicans want to break up Facebook?
The Republican Party
Historically the Republican party has been a big tent which deliberately sets out to include a wide range of opinions on the political right. As a result there are, roughly ...
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28
votes
Dealing with crime in cryptocurrency based economies
Blockchain-based cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin aren't actually that untraceable, because the transfer history of every wallet is public. When cryptocurrencies ever become economically relevant, you ...
- 78.9k
27
votes
Accepted
Why did some US institutions not migrate their very old software systems to use somewhat newer ones?
Because it's hard to do, prone to failure and very costly. And because the newer alternatives aren't always a big improvement.
Very costly in the sense that failure costs in the multiple 100M$ are ...
- 93.3k
26
votes
What is the origin of the fears of racism associated with facial recognition technology?
Every new technology used for policing is thought to lead to racist results, because it is assumed that policing as currently practiced leads to racist results.
Here's a blog post from 4 years ago ...
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26
votes
Why do Republicans want to break up Facebook?
Allow me to preface this by noting that breaking up or regulating large social media companies might in fact be a good idea. It's patently unwise to leave major social and political issues to be ...
- 76.4k
25
votes
Accepted
Was the U.S. surprised about the Huawei breakthrough, how much time did the government or think-tanks expect China to take to produce a 7nm chip?
Here's the Asianometry vid - China's 7nm Semiconductor Breakthrough about just this. He's generally on point with this stuff. From what I can understand it - it's quite dense - he more or less ...
- 93.3k
23
votes
What is the capitalist answer to automation?
It doesn't have one. Full automation in a capitalist society will naturally evolve towards a dystopia without intervention from outside the economy.
When a machine is smart enough, and can do the job ...
- 387
21
votes
Why does the EU not seem to pursue technological independence?
Technological independence is a strategic military goal, not an economic one. One of the basic principles of economics is comparative advantage, which says that trade will benefit both parties if ...
- 21.2k
21
votes
Accepted
Are there any international laws / treaties that regulate the use of AI to coordinate air strikes?
The consensus seems to be no. The United States and 46 other states are endorsers of the Political Declaration on Responsible Military Use of Artificial Intelligence and Autonomy, but that's just a ...
- 11.2k
20
votes
Accepted
What are the cons for Universal Basic Income being a solution to automation?
What are the cons of UBI being a solution to automation?
Automation is not, in and of itself, a problem. It does not need to be "solved" as such. Some of the side effects of automation can be ...
- 90.3k
20
votes
How can Republicans who favour free markets, consistently express anger when they don't like the outcome of that choice?
So I'm on the libertarian side with some leftist and some rightist reservations, so I am not a conservative, but I think there are a few points to be made. I think I should note that I don't buy the ...
- 1,788
19
votes
Why does the EU not seem to pursue technological independence?
A full answer would probably take several books.
But in part it's a combination of economics and politics.
On the economics side, manufacturing is too expensive in Europe (just like in US), due in ...
- 93.3k
18
votes
Is there a way to measure how technologically and economically independent a country is?
No, or at least not easily.
Dependency could be dependency on a source of imports, dependency on a market for exports, dependency on transshipment, dependency on foreign investment or experts, or more....
- 116k
15
votes
What is the capitalist answer to automation?
Capitalism doesn't have an answer, and doesn't need an answer. What people always forget when they worry about automation is that prices for things get less. At the turn of the century, people would ...
- 6,092
15
votes
Why do Republicans want to break up Facebook?
The Republicans are reacting logically to their de facto leader being banned from Facebook and Twitter. If a top Democratic leader managed to get themselves banned from Facebook and Twitter, then you ...
- 93.3k
14
votes
What is the capitalist answer to automation?
I'm not sure if Tim Burton is a Capitalist or not, but he gave a really good illustration of what tends to happen over time in his version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Charlie's father works ...
- 53.1k
14
votes
Accepted
Which "critical technologies" does Russia depend upon the United States and its allies for, that "China does not have access to?"
This refers quite clearly to advanced semiconductors. Axios has an article explaining how the US could make it more difficult for Russia to get semiconductors. The approach is quite simple, as Axios ...
JJJ♦
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