It’s extremely onerous to guard a system from somebody—the evil housekeeper from DOGE—who has made their method inside and needs to wreck it. This administration is on the file as desirous to outright delete total departments. Accelerationists will not be solely setting coverage however implementing it by working throughout the administration. When you can’t delete a division, then why not simply break it till it doesn’t work?
That’s why what DOGE is doing is a large, terrifying drawback, and one I talked by earlier in a thread on Bluesky.
Authorities is constructed to be secure. Collectively, we put techniques and guidelines in place to make sure that stability. However whether or not they truly ship and protect stability in the true world isn’t truly concerning the know-how used; it’s concerning the individuals utilizing it. When it comes all the way down to it, know-how is a instrument for use by people for human ends. The software program used to run our democratically elected authorities is deployed to perform targets tied to insurance policies: gathering cash from individuals, or giving cash to states to allow them to give cash to individuals who qualify for meals stamps, or making covid checks obtainable to individuals.
Normally, our expertise of presidency know-how is that it’s old-fashioned or sluggish or unreliable. Definitely not as shiny as what we see within the personal sector. And that know-how adjustments very, very slowly, if it occurs in any respect.
It’s not as if individuals don’t understand these techniques might do with modernization. In my expertise troubleshooting and modernizing authorities techniques in California and the federal authorities, I labored with Head Begin, Medicaid, youngster welfare, and logistics on the Division of Protection. A few of these techniques have been already present process modernization makes an attempt, lots of which have been and proceed to be late, over finances, or simply plain damaged. However the adjustments which are wanted to make different techniques extra trendy have been regularly seen as too dangerous or too costly. In different phrases, not vital sufficient.
In fact, some adjustments are deemed vital sufficient. The covid-19 pandemic and our unemployment insurance coverage techniques provide good examples. When covid hit, sure essential authorities applied sciences instantly turned seen. These techniques, like unemployment insurance coverage portals, additionally turned politically vital, identical to the launch of the Inexpensive Care Act web site (which is why it obtained a lot consideration when it was botched).
Political consideration can change every thing. Through the pandemic, instantly it wasn’t simply attainable to modernize and improve authorities techniques, or to make them less complicated, clearer, and sooner to make use of. It truly occurred. Groups have been parachuted in. Overly restrictive guidelines and procedures have been reassessed and relaxed. All of a sudden, authorities staff have been allowed to work remotely and to make use of Slack.
It’s extremely onerous to guard a system from somebody—the evil housekeeper from DOGE—who has made their method inside and needs to wreck it. This administration is on the file as desirous to outright delete total departments. Accelerationists will not be solely setting coverage however implementing it by working throughout the administration. When you can’t delete a division, then why not simply break it till it doesn’t work?
That’s why what DOGE is doing is a large, terrifying drawback, and one I talked by earlier in a thread on Bluesky.
Authorities is constructed to be secure. Collectively, we put techniques and guidelines in place to make sure that stability. However whether or not they truly ship and protect stability in the true world isn’t truly concerning the know-how used; it’s concerning the individuals utilizing it. When it comes all the way down to it, know-how is a instrument for use by people for human ends. The software program used to run our democratically elected authorities is deployed to perform targets tied to insurance policies: gathering cash from individuals, or giving cash to states to allow them to give cash to individuals who qualify for meals stamps, or making covid checks obtainable to individuals.
Normally, our expertise of presidency know-how is that it’s old-fashioned or sluggish or unreliable. Definitely not as shiny as what we see within the personal sector. And that know-how adjustments very, very slowly, if it occurs in any respect.
It’s not as if individuals don’t understand these techniques might do with modernization. In my expertise troubleshooting and modernizing authorities techniques in California and the federal authorities, I labored with Head Begin, Medicaid, youngster welfare, and logistics on the Division of Protection. A few of these techniques have been already present process modernization makes an attempt, lots of which have been and proceed to be late, over finances, or simply plain damaged. However the adjustments which are wanted to make different techniques extra trendy have been regularly seen as too dangerous or too costly. In different phrases, not vital sufficient.
In fact, some adjustments are deemed vital sufficient. The covid-19 pandemic and our unemployment insurance coverage techniques provide good examples. When covid hit, sure essential authorities applied sciences instantly turned seen. These techniques, like unemployment insurance coverage portals, additionally turned politically vital, identical to the launch of the Inexpensive Care Act web site (which is why it obtained a lot consideration when it was botched).
Political consideration can change every thing. Through the pandemic, instantly it wasn’t simply attainable to modernize and improve authorities techniques, or to make them less complicated, clearer, and sooner to make use of. It truly occurred. Groups have been parachuted in. Overly restrictive guidelines and procedures have been reassessed and relaxed. All of a sudden, authorities staff have been allowed to work remotely and to make use of Slack.
