That's definitely too broad a statement. I'd argue encryption, oral contraceptives, and the printing press were all strongly decentralizing.

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mystraline 7 hours ago | parent [-]

The Public won the encryption battle against the USG and ITAR idiocy. Well, until climate destroying shitcoin. Thats a big Lose.

The printing press had sooo much state violence over that everywhere.

Oral contraceptives are a fight the USA is losing to the extremist christian republicans. Right now the line is right on Misoprostol. And shithole states like Texas even criminalize day-after pills and 'suspect' miscarriages.

And horrible tech like "weatherproof camera + AI + battery + solar + cell" (FLOCK) are easy to implement and already have been used in tracking women with miscarriages in Texas and across the country.

It seems for every new tech, theres 1 really cool good thing for the public, a few neutral things, and 1-3 absolutely terrible things.

And those terrible things make money. Lots of money.

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mlinsey 7 hours ago | parent [-]

You're describing efforts by powerful institutions to squash the technology, which they definitely try to do, but that's just a strong signal that the technology itself is inherently opposed to centralized power, not an enabler of it.

Other technologies like surveillance (and, perhaps, AI) are more clearly centralizing and enabling of power.

The difference matters a lot if you're having mixed feelings about working in technology.

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mystraline 5 hours ago | parent [-]

You are anthromorphizing technology. He doesnt like that.

	▲	blast an hour ago \| parent [-]
		mlinsey wasn't anthropomorphizing technology, and your GP comment seems extreme to me.