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Comment by inimino | Hacker News Reader

The other commenter's point is that decisions are increasingly being made by a techno-scientific elite which is ethically ignorant and disconnected from the concerns of the majority.

Your reply perfectly demonstrated that very elitism and blindness that was being criticized: we are more developed and we know better, so we don't need the input of the impoverished majority of humanity while we are making decisions about humanity's future.

You regard what you know (the internet and supercomputers and genetics) as the relevant knowledge, while assuming that the rest of the world has no relevant wisdom to offer and deserves no input.

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> You regard what you know (the internet and supercomputers and genetics) as the relevant knowledge, while assuming that the rest of the world has no relevant wisdom to offer and deserves no input.

You are putting words in my mouth. We know people are staving and need access to food, clean water, and sanitation.

If the supercomputer could be used to feed a million people today, we would be doing it. It would be stupid not to. Just because some are taking the long view doesnt me we are out of touch elite.

On the contrary, I'm explaining how the words you wrote are perceived.

You mark yourself as out of touch as soon as you said the feedback of the world would be mismatched and out of date. The translation is "we have solutions, but you lack the education and foresight to understand them, so we don't need your input." This is colonialism revived as techno-utopianism. Of course you'll say you didn't mean it that way, but that isn't the point.

The rest of the world sees that technology has unintended side effects and that the benefits tend to be swallowed whole by Moloch, and they suspect your "long view" is just another delusion.

> If the supercomputer could be used to feed a million people today, we would be doing it.

Unless it could generate better ROI by optimizing some Facebook ads or some trading algorithms, and then we would probably be doing that.

The translation is: my computer cannot grow your food today. It is not that i\we don't care, is that there is a mismatch in tools to solve the current problems.

My longview is pretty simple: We can do both. Just because some of us are working for a longer term goal doesn't give you any moral authority to demonize us. It is foolish and arrogant.

Translation: the ends justify the means.

translation: People who work to future problems do not inhibit others from working on today's problems and those people are not blind or out of touch. Go browbeat someone else.

Just because you are working for a long term (technological, scientistic) goal doesn't mean you are above the many different perspectives of the rest of the world.

Some of those perspectives may be even longer-term than yours, and may be skeptical of promised future technological solutions to problems exacerbated by the technology we already have.

What marknutter is highlighting is the need for a broader perspective. Many of these problems have been with us since the beginning of human history, and the only tools we need have always been within reach: human intelligence and effort. What is lacking is the moral and political will to solve them.

It's not the tools we lack, it's responsibility in using the tools we already have.

> Just because you are working for a long term (technological, scientistic) goal doesn't mean you are above the many different perspectives of the rest of the world.

I've never implied this. You are making severe assumptions and putting words into my mouth

This is what you said above:

> the feedback of the world at large would be terribly outdated and terribly mismatched.

Yes, because of the skill set mismatch. What is confusing about this? My supercomputer cannot feed you today. This isn't elitism, this is reality.

It comes across, in the context of the comment you replied to, as incredibly dismissive. If you can't see that, I can't make you see it.

It also seems to imply that the rest of the world would tell you to stop working on your supercomputer and go deliver rice in Africa or something. This actually is elitist and condescending, as it assumes that just because people are starving today they would be unable to understand the value of your work. You should give the rest of the world more credit. That's the elitism.

No, it isn't elitism. It is reality and your attempts to browbeat me are laughable at best. The only one showing elitism is you and people like you who seem to take perverse pleasure in trying to castigate others so you can feel superior.

So until you start delivering bags of rice yourself or dedicate your life to non-profits and the collective good, remember that every time you point a finger three are pointing back at you.

I'm criticizing ideas that you wrote on the Internet, not how you spend your time. Apart from the fact that you comment here, I have no way of knowing what you do with your hours.

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