Post #2481255
2026-04-16 17:02 UTC
@mijustin@mastodon.social That is Jacque Ellul in The Technological Society. That is my paraphrase of his ideas that technology is "morally autonomous" and that it always seeks it's "most efficient use". That's why it wants to exist. Nobody designs a sub-optimal technology on purpose.
Maybe a better way I should say it is that the combination of those principles means that technological innovation is sociopathic. Sociopaths can do some good in the world, but they will also do their worst. They're driven to.
Replies (2)
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@dave@podcastindex.social 2026-04-16 17:06
@mijustin@mastodon.social Writing that out actually helps me understand my own thinking a bit. In my mind I have always had this vision of LLM's as a sort of computerized facsimile of Patrick Bateman - ruthlessly driven to efficiency with complete disregard of morals and a layer of fake humanity on top.
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@mijustin@mastodon.social 2026-04-19 16:13
@dave@podcastindex.social thanks. I think it’s also helpful to think about “what has this technology done to us?” (Both good and bad) There are all of these second order effects we never considered