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Comment by mpalmer | Hacker News Reader

> Why would cognitive overload work better?

You mean the state of affairs humans have enjoyed for the last four millennia? The status quo that led to all of the technology you seem to think we now can't live without?

> Many blank out in school on different subjects and the cognitive overload byproduct follows them all their life making them wary of new things.

They should try putting their phones down before we double down on solving tech problems with more tech.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47456153

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You are over simplifying and sending confusing signals.

There was/is constant progress that constantly demanded/demands more tech. Without more tech, the progress would have/would stalled.

There are multiple ways that people and society can progress, and most of them have nothing to do with tech.

More details please.

Unless you're being willfully obtuse, I'm sure you can come up with your own examples of how some changes in society, culture or politics could massively improve the lives of everyone.

You are willfully evasive, so I'm going to take this as a sign not to waste any more time.

Perhaps some cultural phenomenon convinces people to start taking washing their hands after the bathroom very seriously, preventing tens of thousands of deaths every year.

It's a stupid example, but no tech would be needed. There's loads of problems in the worlds (wars, disease, famine, etc) that can be massively improved (progress) without any change in tech.

Should we go into how much tech is involved with making soap? Or how much tech is involved with running water facilities? Or how much tech is involved with transitioning from outside toilets to modern toilets? Cultural phenomenons are helping none, without the tech to back it up. In fact, cultural phenomenons not backed by tech are the ones making our society a regressive one.

There is only a loose connection between technological advances and progress. Depending on how you define "progress". Technological advances have held back or reversed progress in many areas, just as it has advanced progress in others.

To talk about "progress" as if it were some sort of simple, objective thing is misleading.

The real issue isn't about progress. It's about what sort of lives we want to be living.

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