> Does anyone have ideas how to write a utopia that would fulfill people's need to be needed by each other, rather than just their material needs?
And got an amazing response from user "fubo":
> Cross OKCupid with TaskRabbit: the AI tells you what favors to do for people to get you to love each other.
I wish the internet would grow into something like that, instead of making people more isolated under the guise of "social", "sharing" etc.
I for one like this kind of "technomyopia", because it works off a framework that lets humans eventually figure things out.
No, to laugh at people who think that because they have a hammer, that every problem is a nail, and maybe also the people who believe that the analogy is really really true, so long as you're using the magic hammer of technology.
Starting from the assumption that every worthwhile problem must have a scientific or technical solution is exactly the hammer looking for nail that comments here are complaining about.
Maybe the OP was just meaning to criticize the app idea, but the way they wrote, it looks like a general criticism of technology as a problem solver - criticism I believe is naïve and unwarranted.
> most social change is neither scientific nor technological but word-driven and operating in the emotional domain
I disagree with that, but that's a longer discussion about technological determinism.
I think it's possible to believe in the efficacy of science and technology, while at the same time doubting that crossing OKCupid with TaskRabbit will usher in "a utopia that would fulfill people's need to be needed by each other" (which is the concept that started this whole subthread)
Not saying we should give up, but this is a social problem, better analyzed with more apt tools like social science. Relationships grow with time & investment in interacting with someone else - given that, no amount of "apps" or tech magic can make a fundamental difference.
It doesn't matter whether you're joining an 18th century gentleman's club or looking for a healthy relationship. Love and acceptance comes from understanding and meeting the other's emotional needs. If you think about what it takes to actually do that for another person, you'll find out why people watch rom-coms. Meeting someone else's needs feels like living under a dictator.
I think the solution to that is to have more group identities and subcultures, and better ways to discover them.
> I wish the internet would grow into something like that
That could be great, but how would it be paid for?
What if you don't have a need like that ? The only reason I wouldn't sign up for a one-way trip to Mars is because they would probably want to send other people too.