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Evidence that we have been living in an increasingly risk-averse culture
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this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2024
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I mean, when people are struggling to survive it’s hard to let yourself get excited about technology that will likely only benefit the most wealthy. All of the “easy” discoveries have been made. Anything else getting research funding is to further capitalism.
By no means do I want to dismiss the socioeconomic issues that you’re hilighting - in fact, I agree on those points. But I think this is more about the pervasive philosophy of risk avoidance that’s been created by letting lawyers, financiers, and business types run everything, instead of anthropologists, sociologists, and engineers.
Corporations don't invent things, people do, as individuals or small groups. Unfortunately, they usually do it at work
You can just make a thing at home. The more time, freedom, and resources you start with, the more likely you succeed
And people do, all the time. There's so many amazing things that aren't profitable to mass produce, but you can do on your own
I reckon the writer is saying this about the West because that's the only data he had access to. And, that this techno-pessimism should be a worldwide phenomena.
On the other hand, I wonder whether other cultures, apart from the West, have adopted a similar risk averse mindset. I mean, "the Haves" (and not the Have- Nots) are the only ones prone to be afraid to loose their accumulated wealth & lifestyle. But probably other affluent groups in the Non- Western world, might have adopted similar tendencies.
Or, they might have not. And this risk averse mindset, is exclusively a Western post-industrial cultural element. It would be very interesting to find out what the cultural & regional differences actually are world-wide.