2y ago

"Innovation"

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Is innovation fundamentally/inherently a good thing? Are things that drive innovation fundamentally/inherently good?
I'm starting to feel like 98% of what we call "innovation" is really just trial and error as capital owners try out methods of extracting the wealth of the working class. Like some dudes in suits said "lets make 5 new hot sauce flavors and make this profit graph go up", or "This year we'll see if big bags and platform shoes are more effective at increasing profits", or "this new drug will allow people to eat like shit and still live long enough to continue to consume".
The remaining 2% of real innovation are things that help people and fix damage caused by the other 98%.
- While you can debate if "the good ol days" were better...innovation has completely changed the would multiple times in the last 30-40 years. We are likely in the most innovative time in human history and not just for multiple hot sauce flavors.
  
  Completely changed the world in ways that I now am forced to trade most of my life for survival money, have little access to many of the innovations, and that have caused massive irreparable damage to the planet we all share.
  My claim is that about 2-5% of those innovations, the basic science, the innovations that enable those with poor vision to see, the victims of accidents to heal, those that enable us to share high quality audio and video reproductions, and speak to friends and family too far travel and a few others are the good ones and the rest are unneeded waste that causes more problems than they solve that came about to take our money.
  This is why I like Solarpunk, it's about the simple life using technology that helps and discarding the rest. Just because we can doesn't mean we should when it comes to technology and innovation.
  Because of a few with high ambitions and low empathy, we are all forced into a rat race. Having a desire for innovation does not mean it's ok to force others to innovate.
  
  You are saying you have little access to these innovations, on the Fediverse, probably wirelessly on a touch screen? The world was extremely different 30 years ago, but the slow transition may have made it not so easy to notice.
  Cell phones, and not anything close to the modern type, are only 50 years old. Internets closer to 30... Social media/Fediverse is a little more than 20...
  Also, if you think people weren't working to survive before modern day, I recommend you learning a little more about history. We are generally in some of the easiest living times, even if it feels the hardest. Everyone's stories different though, so your time could be harder than thousands of years of people before you so I'm not trying to take away... but just speaking in generalities.
  But 100% agree we should be focusing on the planets health.

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