But when I look at the decisions today's politicians do wrt. IT, I would argue that many 30year old ex-IT students have _far_ more experience wrt. IT topics than our current politicans.
The problem is that the tech landscape moved to fast and all the wisdom and experience often just doesn't apply anymore but, to make it worse, sometimes it seems that you can bend technology to make it apply but that a very dangerous fallacy. One I have seen politicans step into frequently.
I'm also not sure that having IT-savvy politicians will change policy. The government has certain safety goals (eg trafficking) that it will still have to deal with. These might be a driver regardless of tech savvy-ness. There's an assumption that if only they knew enough -- but perhaps it's not them who don't know enough.
I've been watching Louis Rossman advocating for right to repair recently.[0] Louis tells a story about how opposition lobbyists have made outrageous claims and politicians bought it, because nobody actually showed up to disagree with the claims. While it's possible that politicians would vote the same way regardless, I think they they likely do miss out on a lot of information.
It's not just IT. How many legislators have experience with any particular thing that they write legislation on? Not very many.
I will admit that IT legislation often seems insanely out of touch. But I wonder if that's just because I know IT better than I know, say, the merchant marine.
But when I look at the decisions today's politicians do wrt. IT, I would argue that many 30year old ex-IT students have _far_ more experience wrt. IT topics than our current politicans.
While I don't disagree that many 30-year-old IT people know more about IT than politicians, politicians have to see what is good for the whole of society, not just what affects people in an IT bubble.
We've seen countless times that technologists cannot be trusted alone. They have to be tempered by people from other disciplines.
> While I don't disagree that many 30-year-old IT people know more about IT than politicians, politicians have to see what is good for the whole of society, not just what affects people in an IT bubble.
Let's not delude ourselves, most lawmakers are not pinnacles of wisdom. They're not looking out for the best outcomes for society in the long term. They're partisans controlled by whomever pays them the most.
> We've seen countless times that technologists cannot be trusted alone. They have to be tempered by people from other disciplines.
It cuts both ways. Legislatures are dominated by former lawyers. It wasn't always so. I studied law, I know it lends many relevant skills for politics. But it's no longer sufficient to have nothing but lawyers legislating, given the face of the breadth and depth of modern society. Sometimes you need a specialist inside the tent. Or, better yet, a wide variety of specialists.
The problem is that the tech landscape moved to fast and all the wisdom and experience often just doesn't apply anymore but, to make it worse, sometimes it seems that you can bend technology to make it apply but that a very dangerous fallacy. One I have seen politicans step into frequently.