Breakdown
Our technocracy is detached from competence. It's not the technocracy of
engineers, but of "thinkers" who read Malcolm Gladwell and Thomas
Friedman and watch TED talks and savor the flavor of competence, without
ever imbibing its substance.
These
are the people who love Freakonomics, who enjoy all sorts of mental
puzzles, who like to see an idea turned on its head, but who couldn't
fix a toaster.
...
You can see it in black and white photos of men working on old planes.
You can see it in the eyes of the astronauts who first went to the moon.
You can read it in the workings of the men who built the longest
suspension bridges, laid undersea cables and watched their world change.
They were moderns and their time is done. They have left behind savages with cell phones who make decent tinkerers, but whose ability to collaborate falls apart in large groups.
Balderdash.
ReplyDeleteA great deal of what goes on in Silicon Valley interests me very little, but there is utterly amazing engineering there also. And it is by no means limited to Silicon Valley. What was the mortality rate per mile traveled for those old planes, and what is it for air travel now? The cheapest econobox on the market, whether made in Seoul or Shanghai or Detroit is vastly better engineered and safer than the best car of 1970.
I think you are right George
ReplyDelete