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Comment by maerF0x0 | Hacker News Reader

When technology goes well it provides tons of value and becomes invisible. Like the layers in an OS or 1000s of parts in a car for example.

The complaints that life is more complex than before usually fail to compare it to the complexity of things we're accomplishing and what that could have looked like 50,500, 500 0 years ago...

made up example: Communicate with someone on the other side of the planet...

Now: type a message or skype, instantaneous, searchable, recorded backup...

- 50 yrs ago, make an international telephone call. Its unclear, not recorded, difficult to verify(securely) who you're talking with etc.

- 500 yrs ago, write, if you can, on some paper and send it via horses or merchants... who knows if its delivered or if an answer is coming

- 5000 yrs ago. No. You can only talk with people in your village unless you're wealthy, royal or otherwise powerful.

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This makes an assumption that there is value from being able to talk to someone on the other side of the planet.

I am not trying to argue that it does or does not. Just that we are operating on that assumption. I could see the counter example that a simpler life could be a more fulfilling.

Clearly there is value to some people, as evidenced by them doing it.

Note that the capabilities introduced by telephone-based technology also presented issues that were seldom entertained by the minds of people. This was also true for the car and horse VS the mere walking traveler.

Telephones/Telegrams allow for quick communication at the cost of guaranteed integrity of the information (in the case of an eavesdropper altering data in transit), at the cost of privacy and at the cost of reliability. None of these issues have to be problems faced by the users but all have the capacity to be introduced by the service providers at leisure or as a byproduct of their foresight.

Telephones, telegrams, cars, horses, houses, boats, schools and governments have all brought with them new forms of dependence -- and people have thus far been able to perform cost-benefit analysis of and bring innovation to these technologies. However, it seems that today more and more people are incapable of coming to true results when performing an analysis on the integrity of today's technologies and service providers, perhaps out of naivety -- and this is likely the product of not understanding the technology well enough to move on, to develop an alternative platform, or to properly govern one's activity on the platform to mitigate perceived risks.

Look at the number of people you can potentially communicate with, and there will be a visible increase in complexity. 5000 years ago it would max out at a few thousand even if you were one of the rare people living in major cities. Now you could instantly communicate with billions and have to take active counter-measures to prevent the ones you don't want to communicate with from doing it.

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