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Comment by jart | Hacker News Reader

I was born in 1984 and I consider that part of the Oregon Trail generation because I played Oregon Trail in school as a child. I didn't get my first computer until 1998. Before that I rode my bicycle around, watched nickelodeon where half the airtime was commercials, played with pogs, and life sucked! I was about as unhappy a child as you can imagine before I found the Internet and programming. Everything the tech industry does makes the world a significantly better place. So don't listen to these subversive treacherous nytimes clowns.

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> Everything the tech industry does makes the world a significantly better place

Ever-increasing centralized surveillance/control makes the world a better place? I guess one might think that if one assumes they themselves will be part of the managerial class pulling those levers of power, like the New York Times staff for previous generations. Personally, I favor individual liberty.

I grew up on a computer, I was a child around the time you're describing, but was on the Internet & toying around on the computer. It kicked off a lifelong passion for technology & computers.

I would be hard pressed to say computers & the Internet are a net positive for the world. For me personally, they unlocked a passion & interest I haven't been able to find in any other domain. I have plenty of other interests & loves, but anything to do with computers is my passion.

For the rest of the species, where a computer is either a means to an end, a necessary evil, or a way to brainwash yourself, I don't view computers as something beneficial. The undiscerning get sucked into YouTube black holes & allow themselves to be swept up by bullshit they read on Twitter. It gave a platform to the absolute worst people among us, which would be fine if people would reject the garbage they're spouting.

Our collectively stupid ape brains aren't ready for computers. I believe we (the royal "we") moved too fast & poisoned our shared, objective reality. And that's all before I even start talking about the people intentionally making life worse with technology. Your Zuckerbergs & Musks & Ellisons, the people who use these machines as tools to spread suffering & chaos.

Technology has been a rising tide that lifts all boats. It enables people to have more impact being whatever it is they are. Some people have badness in their hearts. Just because they're using technology, doesn't mean the badness came from technology. It was already there. If that's what you choose to focus on, then it shows you care about those people. Why not just let them be as they are?

I thought I was pretty clear that I don't think technology is a net positive. There are many, many ways computers have been a huge positive for a great many people. I'm still not convinced it's an overall "good" thing we've put into the world.

I'm focusing on the negatives right now because how can I not? The people who have introduced all this technology are weilding it for bad things & negatively impacting my life & many others. The negatives are currently front & center, hard to ignore or deny.

What have the technologists done that's hurt you?

"Everything" is a pretty big word...

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