> The missing link here is how we can use tech to actually take care of people; how to feed them,
Food technology is the only reason we can all survive today and why starvation is essentially unheard of among societies with stable enough governments to get aid.
>clothe them,
Same here. Basic clothing is incredibly cheap and second hand stores are overflowing with clothes.
It’s as if this author doesn’t understand that technology extends beyond smartphones.
>how to make sure the planet doesn’t reach such high temperatures that we all just melt away.
Green energy is one of the huge technology booms we are going through right now. 20 years ago solar and wind were just novelties. They can now generate massive amounts of electricity and we have viable electric cars to run off of the grid.
> What is missing here is that San Francisco is already the tech hub of the world and is one of the most unequal places in the universe, both socially and economically.
That has nothing to do with technology and everything to do with “fuck you” land owners and cripplingly incompetent legislators so dominated by ideology they spend all of their time fighting over how to best destroy the school system while approving essentially no new housing.
Being the “tech hub” has zero to do with where the tech is used. It only takes one ride on the portable toilet and drug den known as BART to know that technology has little place in day to day SF. It doesn’t take breakthroughs in software or AI to stop people from shooting up and making a living stealing. That takes government, which is the one thing technology hasn’t meaningfully changed.
>What is missing here is that the technological revolution made it easier to hail an Uber or order food delivery, but did nothing about how those drivers and delivery people are being exploited, and how some live in their cars to sustain a decent wage.
Technology is the reason that driver can still eat a meal for less than 1/3rd of an hour’s minimum wage in CA. Technology is the reason they can have a car in the first place. Technology is the reason they can keep in touch with family.
That’s just one paragraph and the rest aren’t meaningfully different. This smacks of someone who is so blinded by their political beliefs, they can’t realize all of their complaints are just about the incompetent government around the Bay Area (and wider California to some extent).
This article is inadvertently nearly completely agreeing with Marc Andreessen’s manifesto. All of its complaints are about areas that technology hasn’t disrupted yet.