Cellphone Access Has Skyrocketed. The World Is Better for It.

Joanna Andreasson

Comments

[Overt]

Yeah but where would the world cell phone market be if we didn't have the sky roads that government built for cell phone signals? Somalia. That's where.

On a related note, Kevin D Williamson had something similar to say back when Steve Jobs died:
A Jobs Agenda

[dantheserene]

It has worked out especially well for third world countries that hadn't yet put in much landline infrastructure because cell phones let them skip the whole last mile problem and just build cell towers.

[Dick Puller, Attorney at Law]

How Individualism? Ate Itself

[Longtobefree]

Yep. The world is much better now that the left can dominate social media and drive the political agenda and specify what is and is not 'hate speech'.
And I hope not to live to see the day the democrats take over Google, Facebook, and all the cell phone companies in order to prevent the 'hate speech' they spew so broadly.

And was that entire article just one graph, or did I get a left wing speech suppressing link?

[Citizen X - #6]

This guy gets it.

[creech]

"And I hope not to live to see the day the democrats take over Google, Facebook, and all the cell phone companies in order to prevent the 'hate speech' they spew so broadly."

I would think the progs should worry just as much about the other side doing the same.

[Casusbubble]

This guy gets it.

mSpy Review

[Fist of Etiquette]

Cellular phone proliferation was just another lefty scheme to control population growth through testicular irradiation and to facilitate pedophiles to ogle your children as they play Pok?mon GO in public parks.

[Citizen X - #6]

It is known.

[Ken Shultz]

The affordability of technology and qualitative benefits need to be considered separately.

Once it became affordable for the U.S. government to track all of our communications with each other, the government started to do so. Technology created new threats to our Fourth Amendment rights that never existed before.

Social media allowed dissidents in oppressive countries to communicate with each other like never before; social media also allowed oppressive governments to trace and identify people who were critical of the government like never before.

Technology is an ethical null set. A knife can be used to murder or make gourmet meals. Will the government someday use the location data associated with our cellphones to track our movements in real time like they never could before?

Is living in a world where people value efficiency over freedom qualitatively superior?

I don't see how anyone can make such qualitative judgments for other people.

Technology simply isn't a substitute for people who qualitatively value freedom. If a world of mass surveillance were more efficient, wealthier, and safer, how could anyone speak for me and say that it would be qualitatively superior to freedom?

[Overt]

The problem is, of course, the governments not the technology. Give someone enough guns, and they will be your governor. That doesn't make guns good or evil. While I tend to agree that populations need to value their freedoms, the beauty of technology is that it has allowed people to exercise their freedoms.

Despite the dissident tracking and the hyper targeting and the other evils unlocked by technology, they are minuscule compared to the overall net benefits technology has unlocked. Micro-loans and cell phones gave small villages in developing countries the ability to better sell their crops over the last 15 years- sidestepping the middlemen in local governments. They gave businesses the ability to carry their operations into the field. And they helped dissidents get their message to the world.

We hear a lot about the evil applications of technology, but the real power has been in the small ways billions of people have exercised their freedoms in little ways. We always talk about how the real impact of government is the little ways that regulations and laws nibble away at our daily choices. Well, also unseen are the ways technology opens up our choices. And in aggregate, despite the NSA's ability to harness technology for evil, the net benefit of technology has been lifting billions out of poverty.

[Ken Shultz]

Once again, you're making qualitative judgments.

Feel free to do so for yourself. No one can make qualitative judgments on your behalf better than you can.

No one possesses sufficient authority to make qualitative judgments for other people.

[chemjeff]

I agree. Cellphones are a great liberating technology.

[Number 2]

Oh yeah? The world is better for cell phones? TRY TELLING THAT TO ALL THE PHONE LINE REPAIRMENT, SWITCHBOARD OPERATORS, AND TELEPHONE POLE SALESMEN THROWN OUT OF WORK!

WE NEED TO MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN BY REGENERATING OUR LANDLINE ECONOMY!