Does computing make the world better?
If you&#x27;re making useless things, you have a surrogate activity. We use the term “surrogate activity” to designate an activity that is directed toward an artificial goal that people set up for themselves merely in order to have some goal to work toward, or let us say, merely for the sake of the “fulfillment” that they get from pursuing the goal.<p>Here is a rule of thumb for the identification of surrogate activities. Given a person who devotes much time and energy to the pursuit of goal X, ask yourself this: If he had to devote most of his time and energy to satisfying his biological needs, and if that effort required him to use his physical and mental faculties in a varied and interesting way, would he feel seriously deprived because he did not attain goal X? If the answer is no, then the person’s pursuit of goal X is a surrogate activity.<p>Computing is a surrogate activity <i>factory</i>. Social media makes people&#x27;s lives <i>more</i> hollow, less connected, <i>less human</i>, but in exchange, gives them the illusion that they are living principled, meaningful lives, living in caves, like brains in a jar.<p>At root, it&#x27;s not about &quot;making the world better&quot;, it&#x27;s about professionals looting the commons to live in fancy bubbles where the only competition is staying ahead of others in the bubble. Hacker News is not the place to say this, as it is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.<p>Here&#x27;s the situation on the ground for the working class and the supposed social good of the Internet: Every <i>single</i> one of my family members, parents included, is both a precariat and on Facebook all day, every day. They don&#x27;t have social lives. They don&#x27;t have stable employment. They don&#x27;t have careers. They don&#x27;t know how to cook, how to learn, how to <i>grow</i> as humans. They don&#x27;t know how to think for themselves, let alone interpret what they read, see, or watch. They hate what the screen tells them to hate; they like what the screen tells them to like. They&#x27;ve been singularly paralyzed in development, despite every effort to free them from their bondage from people outside the process.<p>Every day, the memory of being a living, breathing human becomes more and more remote to them, and there&#x27;s no stopping it, because the entire process is <i>autocephalous</i>.<p>Don&#x27;t forget to click to subscribe! If you want more content like this, don&#x27;t forget to check out my podcast! Premium articles if you donate to my Patreon! Check me out on Twitch. Join my Discord! #firstworldproblems #ihavenomouthandimustscream