Theories need bullies. Bullies need theories. 2
One of those little conjunctions.... I was reading the ravings of techie fanboys about Google's new totally self-driving car. And I was listening to BBC's brief coverage of the 'Inclusive capitalism' conference. In the latter, someone was talking about "market fundamentalism" as an enemy of real capitalism.

"Market fundamentalism" is the notion that The Market is a spontaneous self-driving machine which will create All Good Things if we just remove human decisions and Let The Markets Clear. The ultimate Good Thing, of course, is high-speed trading, where computers constantly buy and sell securities based on algorithms detecting tiny changes in price.

Google's car is a spontaneous self-driving machine which will create All Good Things if we just take all human decisions out of the process.

Both of these tyrannical delusions are commonly held by people who consider themselves to be Libertarians, which is exactly how these tyrannies have been inserted into daily life. If these robotic forms of commerce and transportation had been introduced by people wearing jackboots and helmets, the insertion would have taken a few minutes longer.

Automatic systems force out human systems, destroying the poor and powerless.

This is obvious with the market. When banks can bring in infinite profit by sucking on Yellen's wrinkly counterfeit-money tits, they don't need to pay interest to savers and they don't need to make (carefully judged) loans to small businesses. Capitalism no longer offers any benefits to working people.

Not quite so obvious with Googlecar. As a non-car-owning pedestrian, I can see it clearly. Every day I cross a half-dozen major streets, always involving a human negotiation. I try to predict what drivers will do, and drivers try to predict what I'll do. Often a driver will see me on the sidewalk, will realize that the density of traffic keeps me from crossing, and will nicely stop and motion me across.

Would Googlecar do this? Would it even stop when a kid unthinkingly walks into the street? No.

Theories don't have empathy, and theory-loving people don't have empathy.

When all cars are Googlecar, pedestrians and cats and dogs will die like flies.

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Afterthought for clarity: I'm not quite making an old-fashioned Luddite argument. The word Automatic is the key. Mechanical tools, used within appropriate limits, make life better and more profitable for working people. Cars made it easier to reach your job. Adding machines and computers made it easier for human bankers to serve ordinary people, requiring less labor and time for arithmetic. The current problem comes from machines and theories making decisions. It comes from humans surrendering the last and most important aspect of humanity to their machines and theories.
  ¶ 4:13 AM