Comment on AI Startup Flock Thinks It Can Eliminate All Crime In America
AcidiclyBasicGlitch@sh.itjust.works 16 hours agoI’m reading Ellul right now and loving it.
The focus on efficiency as a means to an end that just keeps on digging new holes to fill old ones.
Becoming so focused on achieving efficiency and then losing a piece of our humanity in the process.
He has a belief about prison camps being inevitable in a society where efficiency is the ultimate goal. But most importantly he makes it a point to emphasize that this isn’t inevitable if enough people are warned in advance and revolt against it.
philosloppy@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
his book on propaganda, The Formation of Men’s Attitudes, is also well worth a read.
And, if you like Ellul, you should definitely check out Ivan Illich’s work. He’s another social critic coming from a heterodox Christian perspective (Catholic in this case). His ideas can seem a bit unintuitive at and even off-putting to modern sensibilities at times (especially his idea of Life as Idol and his critique of modern medicine in general) but he’s another guy with a lot going on that has been pretty accurate in his prognosticating of contemporary society.