undefined | Better HN

0 pointsandrewjl8y ago0 comments

Government regulations exist to fix market failure, usually due to information asymmetry. In the old days it was milk in chalk, in the modern day it's closed source code riddled with spyware and engine firmware that cheats emissions tests. Market failure in my book.

We need more, smarter regulations, not less.

EDIT: I don't think it's reasonable to expect everyone to educate themselves on every technical advance. That's not possible with the complexity of technology people encounter in their everyday lives. And that's without even talking about the invisible technology we never see directly, like the software controlling our voting machines, hospital equipment, power plants, etc.

0 comments

2 comments · 2 top-level

hutzlibu8y ago

" in the modern day it's closed source code riddled with spyware and engine firmware that cheats emissions tests."

Yeah well, so the problem to me is not really missing regulations, but missing the will to use open-source.

And that is what I meant, that most people have no idea about technology.

To them it does not matter if something is open-source or not as they do not know the difference - they understand neither, it is all dark magic to them.

And of course, not everybody needs to have studied IT like we did. But I also do not understand the Linux kernel - yet I trust it. Because it is open-source and I can get in touch with the people developing it and see how it is done.

So I trust them.

And ordinary people could at least understand the same: if something is developed in the open, then other people have the chance to check it. If it is closed - much harder. Very simple. And I have no doubt, that this knowledge will get in the heads of the people. It just takes some time (and action of course) - Computers for everyone is a quite new thing ...

Nomentatus8y ago

We've become Mexico, we cheerful pass bushel-baskets of regulations and laws we have no intention of enforcing at all; just for show. So we end up penalizing honest businessmen, should any survive.

Koch market-based ethics (see their books) really means - ignore the law, if the market allows you to cut any corner, cut it hard. That's where you end up, with third-world economic rules, and in time results. (Starting with vicious inequality.)

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse