"Just Jeepin'" (macintux)
11/16/2018 at 11:50 • Filed to: None
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"Just Jeepin'" (macintux)
11/16/2018 at 11:50 • Filed to: None | 3
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!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , Michael Sacasas looks at the loss of faith in technology as an unalloyed positive force. Scientists and engineers had spent years perfecting tools for destruction, and a generation was lost to their efficacy.
I was particularly struck by J.R.R. Tolkien’s quote.
One has indeed personally to come under the shadow of war to feel fully its oppression, but as the years go by it seems now often forgotten that to be caught in youth by 1914 was no less hideous an experience than to be involved in 1939 and the following years. By 1918 all but one of my close friends were dead.
It’s been 100 years, but the war still reverberates .
3point8isgreat
> Just Jeepin'
11/16/2018 at 12:03 |
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Tolkien has some great quotes with regards to death and killing. I’m especially fond of: “Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement.” (Technically said by Gandalf)
The Ghost of Oppo
> Just Jeepin'
11/16/2018 at 12:10 |
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We had to read All Quiet on the Western Front in 10th grade if I remember correctly. A t 14/15 years old, the book was boring, and I couldn’t come close to grasping significance of the story. I reread it last summer and it greatly affected me.
ttyymmnn
> The Ghost of Oppo
11/16/2018 at 13:12 |
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I think it’s important to read books more than once, at different stages of life. And that can go both ways. I’ve read Lord of the Rings many times, and get more out of it each time. I read Breakfast of Champions in high school and my head exploded. I read it again a couple of years ago and had to stop because it was so depressing. Another book I’d like to read again is A Tale of Two Cities .
Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks
> Just Jeepin'
11/16/2018 at 13:37 |
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I work in technology, to put it mildly. I have for more than two decades.
So believe me when I tell you: absolutely not a single piece of technology in the past century has been developed for good. Not. A. Goddamn. One.
It has been developed to kill, to maim, to destroy, and to control. Facebook is not a force for good and never has been. The World Wide Web? Tim Berners-Lee was nai ve enough to think what they had created would not be perverted as it has been.
Hell, the Polio vaccine? Yes, nobody can argue that Salk did not develop it for good. But the underlying technology - vaccines - developed from 10th century China. Something called v ariolation. The first widespread vaccine in the west? Edward Jenner’s smallpox variolation in 1796.
Unrestrained, unmoderated technological development is always destructive . When some company says “we have the noblest intentions” it has always been pure bullshit. They have the intentions of making as much money as possible. If people are hurt emotionally, financially, or physically along the way? Well, “ that’s just business!”
I’m working on developing a product of my own. A security product. Know what my second, third, and fourth thoughts were? “Well, this portion is trivial for an unethical employer to abuse.” Because that’s the reality. It’s not being cynical when it’s absolutely true.
There shouldn’t be any faith in technology as a force for good. There never should have been in the first place.
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Just Jeepin'
> Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks
11/16/2018 at 13:40 |
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The Internet certainly is looking increasingly dubious these days.
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Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks
> Just Jeepin'
11/16/2018 at 13:55 |
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Dude, that shit does not even scratch the surface of the shit that the Internet was used for back in the wild-west days.
You’ve barely even tasted spam, nevermind the credit card fraud involved in operating spam rings. They would use stolen or fraudulent credit cards to sign up for dozens of dial-up accounts and send millions of emails a day.
And that’s the LEAST disgusting or criminal thing that was going on in the 90's. The only difference is that now, terrorists like QAnon have a huge audience.
gmporschenut also a fan of hondas
> Just Jeepin'
11/16/2018 at 19:37 |
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Worst were the “Pals battalions ”. The British thought if men enlisted and fought as a group, they would be more brave in the face of the enemy. The result were a number of instances of which over a couple days, all the men from a street may be killed.
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Just Jeepin'
> gmporschenut also a fan of hondas
11/16/2018 at 19:52 |
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Ouch. I wasn’t aware of that, but it makes sense in a sad sort of way.
Such an incredibly pointless war. But then most are, I suppose.
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gmporschenut also a fan of hondas
> Just Jeepin'
11/16/2018 at 19:57 |
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Dan carlin did a great 20+hour series of podcasts on the subject. There was an interesting book called “Is war now impossible” writ ten @1900. An the main point was, Yes because it would backrupt empires, and an insane number would be killed in the first few months. What it didn’t take into account was how industrialization could feed a conveyor of men and material to the front.
SBA Thanks You For All The Fish
> Just Jeepin'
11/10/2020 at 09:05 |
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!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
He’s simply wrong on this one. WAP browsers, Bluetooth, DLNA, Zigbee. They were all designed for connecting people to entertainment and info better.
Curt’s Theorem: Anybody that claims to “work in tech” probably doesn’t have the credentials to back much up. It’s a pretty amorphous, 80s sounding way to self-identify.
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SBA Thanks You For All The Fish
> Just Jeepin'
11/10/2020 at 09:09 |
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Freeman Dyson, who grew up in the rubble of The Great War, had some very poignant recollections of what a loss of an entire generation of men meant to some communities in England. It was an awful, senseless thing.
He later emigrated to work with Oppenheimer at Princeton, post-war, then early attempts at rocketry. Genius guy with a brilliant penchant for observations on men-and-tech-and-war. Check out his books.
Azrek
> Just Jeepin'
11/10/2020 at 09:27 |
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You can Google Earth and look at the trenches of WW1 still around
Snuze: Needs another Swede
> gmporschenut also a fan of hondas
11/10/2020 at 09:35 |
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The US military did similar things, with buddy programs and whatnot . There’s a destroyer, in active service right now, call the USS The Sullivans (DDG-68) named after the 5 Sullivan brothers. The all enlisted together on a buddy program in WWII, and were all killed when the ship they were stationed on, the USS Juneau (CL-52), was sunk by a Japanese torpedo.
This (along with a couple of other incidents) led to the US DoD to adopt the Sole Survivor Policy, meaning that the final child of a family is to be relieved of combat duty (and exempt from the draft) if all other siblings have been killed in military service.
One of the other incidents is the Niland brothers, their story served as the basis for Saving Private Ryan.
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The Ghost of Oppo
> Just Jeepin'
11/10/2020 at 09:58 |
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I had to read All Quiet on Western Front in probably 10th grade, and for one reason or another pretty much the whole thing went over my head. But I reread it a couple of years ago and holy shit is that book powerful. I would seriously have to stop reading at some points to collect myself.
Edit: I didn’t realize this was a repost and just saw that I wrote nearly the exact same comment two years ago.
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Just Jeepin'
> The Ghost of Oppo
11/10/2020 at 10:10 |
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Yeah, just sharing some of my favorite posts before the door shuts.