You can't solve societal problems with technology.

Neil Brown

But what if using societal means - such as elections - fails?

Do technical approaches, even if second best, become the most realistic approach?

Neil Brown

For instance, society should respect pregnant people's bodily autonomy, and their right to choose and have an abortion, and also recognise that miscarriages happen.

Pregnant people should be able to access high quality medical care without fear (or cost!).

They should not need to fear that their online searches for medical information, or discussions of their experiences, could be used to prosecute them.

But if large chunks of society will not respect that, there is a a value in enabling people to find that information, and discuss with others, anonymously, privately and securely, in parallel with continuing to push for societal changes.

Neil Brown

Technological approaches - offline or online - should not be a first choice, but we are, in some cases, a long way away from the first choice solution.

Jen

@neil if privacy-respecting technology makes any difference, it's because other chunks of society take societal actions to use, share, recommend, and support them. The technology simply existing is not enough, so it is not the technology fixing anything.

Neil Brown

I'm pondering aloud, but I do wonder if "you can't fix societal problems with technological solutions" remains true, but it also unhelpful when it is clear that societal solutions are not forthcoming or, indeed, are getting worse.

Paul

@neil The way I think of it is: 'you can't fix societal problems with technological solutions alone, but they can be part of a wider solution (or help reduce the impact of the problem)'.

Nudeln Al Dente

@JetlagJen @neil Yeah, I definitely agree with this. It's a societal solution or mitigation to a societal problem. The technology is just the medium by which the solution/mitigation is enacted, it doesn't provide a fix in & of itself.
I see a lot of this with process problems in my work. It's never a tech solution to a process problem. It's always a process-based solution, but sometimes that solution is wrapped in a tech layer & people (mainly non-tech management) mistake that for the solution.

Neil Brown

@pwaring Yes, that's a good phrasing for my understanding of the challenge/problem.

GunChleoc

@neil @pwaring Technology can also make things worse (e.g. microtargeting of political ads, engagement-based raking), so not doing those things also makes a societal difference.