Silicon Valley sells snake oil 'solutions'. The Democratic party fell for them https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/06/democrats-iowa-lessons-apps
> If the Democrats take one lesson from Iowa, it should be that simple, > dependable technology is better than flimsy, new technology. That technology > includes paper, an ancient technology that still works best for recording and > counting votes. > > Here is a bigger lesson: it’s not about the app. Just as we fool ourselves by > thinking that an app will fix things, we fool ourselves by blaming an app. > All technologies are embedded in webs of human relations. We say the app > failed because the systems failed – humans failed. Humans built a system too > complex to handle simple tasks. We often fool ourselves into thinking that > speed and convenience are paramount values. So we maximized speed over > reliability, data over truth, attention over depth. > > Maybe the Iowa glitch, one caused because caucuses are poorly designed > rituals and retrofitting custom software to them only widens their flaws, > will show us a better way forward. There is no reason to deploy gizmos and > magic spells when simple, steady, slow work can win – as always. Democracy is > not for the impatient. Democracy is too important to be trusted to the > “innovators”. -- ☣ uǝlƃ ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
