Robin Berjontweets archive

Thread · 5 tweets · 12 Sept 2020

Robin Berjon @robinberjon ·

Replying to @jessicamalonso and @Rich_Harris

"Why are so many brilliant well-meaning people working together to destroy democracy?" is a question that has been on my mind a lot this past year or two. With my limited capacities I've been trying to dig into it some. I agree with your lack-of-stem assessment, but…
Robin Berjon @robinberjon ·
…I think the problem might start\ earlier? For instance, Veblen in the 1920 is talking about handing the economy over to engineers in ways that feel very contemporary (even if no one would call it a "Soviet of Technicians" today).
Robin Berjon @robinberjon ·

Replying to an earlier tweet of mine

#1 "The Engineers and the Price System", by Thorstein Veblen. Mostly a rant (from 1921) about how industry is being mismanaged (he says "sabotaged") by people who run businesses to make money instead of being run by engineers who would do it optimally, because they know how.
Robin Berjon @robinberjon ·
Also, reading "Seeing Like A State" and "Red Plenty" made me think that the solution needs more than just putting some sociologists in the room. It would help and we should, but I still don't know how to reach out to these technologists.
Robin Berjon @robinberjon ·
I believe we need a much crisper articulation of the problems and of the virtuous ethics of tech that's short enough to draw the attention of well-meaning people and actionable enough that it won't forever be in someone's backlog.