"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor."
-- Desmond Tutu
Programming is not -- an...
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Thanks for speaking up Andrew. Very good points. I would like to add to this that also choosing to build software that is controlled by a central authority where users have 0 rights it's also something we should keep in mind.
The false COVID news, purchasable votes, promoted racist videos and hate speech are all problems we should be focusing on as software developers these days.
I was writing passionately the last days about the topic, especially trying to explain how design your next app's software architecture without forcing 6 billion people to get news from the same corrupted algorithm.
We need to build an open web, right now the majority of the world is controlled by 3 companies taking orders from few rich politicians.
THREAD on how to do it -> twitter.com/Web3Coach/status/12682...
This seems like a logically fallacious statement. I think it falls under hasty generalization. (IE the statement has a flaw in reasoning)
More now than ever, as we automate more and more with black boxes based on modeled data. It's scary to think that so much of this is going to be done by people with their fingers in their ears refusing to acknowledge the potential ramifications.
I understand and share your concerns, but just a few reflections:
This type of argument (reduce complex matters to 0 or 1 positions) has been used in the past several times to justify all sorts of atrocities against innocent people. One thousand years ago, you either believed Jesus or would face being set on fire in the public square. It was considered immoral not to side by Jesus' "representatives".
Just because agricultural-related businesses lobby in Congress, it doesn't make soybeans or corn become political characters. It's the same with tech. No, it's not a political thing. Businesses can be political, and they can use tech. Google & Apple ARE NOT tech. They USE tech.
Be careful with these thoughts. I understand this is highly emotional and change is required. But just be careful not to make things worse. I believe many of the ideas circulating now are going to make things a LOT worse for humanity.
Interesting choice of counterexample, since agriculture is one of the most politicised industries in the world:
For instance, the U.S. government has manipulated the price of corn so much that it's now essentially owned by the American taxpayer, with the nation's largest producers netting tens of billions of dollars in subsidy payments annually. This is a political issue. That money could be spent on public infrastructure, education, or healthcare, but it's tied up in this industry which regularly and repeatedly lobbies Congress.
To any possible example I give, your thought will suggest it's one of the most politicised things in the world. Because the purpose is to say everything is political. Hence the title of your article.
The argument tries to prove it by itself, which I don't consider a reasonable position, at least not if we're pursuing the truth, as opposed to pursue the imposition of beliefs.
As I said, this is the same avenue used by draconian episodes in the human history, such as the "Holy Inquisition".
The production and distribution of corn may be controlled by governmental organizations, but that doesn't make corn a political character. Tech companies may be political actors, but not code. They can use code for their shady political purposes, just as cars are used by bank robbers. But we don't go out saying that "cars are bank-robbing tools".
Of course people can misuse (sometimes abuse :D) software which ends up being called "hacking". Now if one might notice that they're being asked to track users and find such information irrelevant to the software function, they can stand up and refuse it. Same goes for developing low quality code just to make boss happy and accepting that he's selling it as state of the art. So by not doing anything this may lead to those scenarios you described.
So knowing you have a job which pays enough to support family may lead to turning the blind eye and letting things like racism, sexism, anti-this/that go through. There's a report button on most social media platforms. Why don't people use it? Why do we only blame companies? Who works at those companies?...
A lot of stuff in the world right now is messed up
Why only focus on cynical aspects? If code is political, surely there has been some positive outcomes?
Right. Code has the power to do tremendous good, but also tremendous harm. Just because it runs on unthinking circuitry doesn't mean it's free from political, moral, or ideological agendas -- good or bad. We must acknowledge that potential for abuse and avoid making those mistakes.
can i ask what you think are some of the positive examples?
No, but you're welcome to write your own article in response.