WingNews logo WingNews
top | item 46774512

(no title)

jlipps | 1 month ago

I love the references to Jacques Ellul's ideas, which I think are interesting to reflect on in an AI age. It helps make clear that what is fundamentally at stake in much technological "progress" is an (often only tacitly acknowledged) sublimation of "efficiency" to the place of highest value.

What's fascinating is that this value elevation seems to have gone largely unchallenged, despite being in essence an arbitrary value choice. Other choices are possible. And, I hope, still are possible, despite what the bigcorps declare must be the case in order to maximize shareholder returns.

discuss

order

tikhonj|1 month ago

Efficiency isn't even the best way to optimize for (expected) shareholder returns for an organization! Efficiency fundamentally trades-off against adaptability and resilience.

jlipps|1 month ago

Yes, good point! Further underscoring the fetishistic nature of efficiency as highest value ;-)

sothatsit|1 month ago

Efficiency is easy to measure. And whatever is measured becomes the goal.

It is harder to measure craft, care, or wonder. My best proxy is emails from real people, but those are sporadic, unpredictable, and a lot harder to judge than analytics screens that update every minute.