How somehow our fixes to our problems may actually make things worst.
September 14, 2003
1968: The Start of the Technological Revolution: When did the tech revolution really start?
Affordable Rural Broadband: Some high speed access is out in the country, but it's expensive.
All Hand Coded: I enjoy coding things myself despite all the extra work it creates.
Am I Old Fashioned? Thoughts on Change: Andrew writes about his thoughts on a changing world.
As A Computer Programmer: One of a series of essays on different carrer options and what they entail.
Bureaucracies Have Political Cultures: Despite the image of apolitical life in bureaucracy, the people who make government work are often very political.
Bureaucracy: It's Problems: The reality of bureaucratic thought in our society.
Canned Reality: A discussion of video games, and television, and their effects on society.
Criticizing Technological Rationality: A careful analyisis of role of technology and bureaucratic rationality on the world around us.
DTV: Time To Get Rid of Your TV?: They won't work next year, so recycle 'em, and look to other sources of news.
Email and Spam: Many of us just get too much useless information but at least we don't have to dispose of it.
Highly Urbanized Computing: How Windows XP is not unlike our big cities.
Hudson Valley Not Tech Valley: Our future is in diversity, not technology.
In a Computerized World: Are We Humans Anymore?: Andrew asks if in a computer dominated world, if being a person means anything anymore.
Malta's Reality: Far from being a great tech center, it shows the freedom of rural life.
Nation of Managers: Management is not a solution to our problems.
Post-Modernity: Five areas of study that allow us to see beyond the limits of science and technology.
Running out of Freedom: It sometimes seems like that I've seen everything locally (eventhough I haven't), and that finding cgreener pastures is getting harder.
Simplicity: For the Web, For the World: Simple webpages present information quickly. A simple world makes sure we get that infomation.
Tech Valley Realities: High Tech in Albany won't just give us jobs, it will also change cultures and increase sprawl.
The Parthenon: Technology and Politics: Reviewing the relationship between technology, politics, and a greater society.
The Story of the Non-Programmer: Sometimes thinking about who you have been, can take the stress off a rough day, and the bad memories that a class may bring back.
Tired of Computers? I Don't Think I'm Alone.: After a long semister of dealing with them, and doing lots of school work, he's just plain tired...
Twitter: A fun way to share what your doing with the world.
Webpages: Keep 'em Simple: We need to have simple webpages that load quickly.
Wireless Internet: Free hotspots make it possible for us to access high speed internet without cost.
Oh great, another article by Andrew repudiating the growth of technology and bureaucracy and the negative approachment it has had on our liberties. There is nothing like repudiating our technocratic society with the latest in high tech.
Okay, I'm abusing the english language. As any moron with a dictionary will point out technocracy refers to a society governed by a bunch of 'specialized' experts who suppostly know a lot about their fields. I'm incorrectly using it to refer to the modern bureaucracy generated by specialized knowledge and technology that has driven us to do things that are unnatural and unhuman like.
Maybe that's the same thing though, when I think about. Max Weber seemed to babble on and on like I am doing, as did C. Wright Mills. At least some people took those fools far more serious then they take me. The power of the expert is the power of the elite (who are in relality are cluebees).
Computers are an interesting device and pose many new problems to society that we never had before. Privacy is a big issue, and despite what some people claim, nothing is private on a computer. You may not post it directly on the internet, and you may encrypt it, but a creative hacker or even a governmental agency can get to it. Moreover, computers have a great ability to track on you. Data mining and the PATRIOT Act are scary enough. Even worst is big companies are already using this technology to try to figure out how to milk you for all that they can.
So thanks to computers, we can track you better, and harrass more people easily. It gives the government spy powers it never had before. I know the obvious solution. We will feed the machine with creating new agencies to protect our rights and rules to ensure our privacy is protected. Which will lead to new technology and rules that will work to circument our rights to create a more perfect state.
Sigh... I guess that's an idea, although do we really want that? More rules to create more infringement on freedom?
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