What does the phrase normally mean? Risto_Saarelma had one go in reply to me at restricting it to the relevant domain but that didn’t work. Could you describe what the phrase does normally mean? I’m not asking for a perfect, precise definition, but just a pointer to a cluster of correlations that it identifies.
I think it’s a misidentification of the reason why a certain class of proposed solutions to social problems do not work. The class consists of solutions which fail to take into account that people will change their behaviour as necessary to achieve whatever their purposes are, and will simply step around any easily-avoided obstacles that may be placed in their way.
The famous picture that Bruce Schneier once posted as an allegory of useless security measures, of car tracks in the snow going around barriers across the road, is an excellent example. “The Internet routes around censorship” is another.
“I know when I see it”, but I’d say that e-mail and trains enable people to do what they want to do (namely, communicate and travel), whereas the prototypical “technical solutions for social problems” try to discourage people from doing what they want to do (e.g. the Prohibitionism).
ADBOC. Email and trains might be “technical solutions for social problems” in the literal sense, but that’s not what that phrase normally means.
What does the phrase normally mean? Risto_Saarelma had one go in reply to me at restricting it to the relevant domain but that didn’t work. Could you describe what the phrase does normally mean? I’m not asking for a perfect, precise definition, but just a pointer to a cluster of correlations that it identifies.
I think it’s a misidentification of the reason why a certain class of proposed solutions to social problems do not work. The class consists of solutions which fail to take into account that people will change their behaviour as necessary to achieve whatever their purposes are, and will simply step around any easily-avoided obstacles that may be placed in their way.
The famous picture that Bruce Schneier once posted as an allegory of useless security measures, of car tracks in the snow going around barriers across the road, is an excellent example. “The Internet routes around censorship” is another.
(from The Weakest Link)
That seems like a plausible story! And was also the message I was pointing at here.
“I know when I see it”, but I’d say that e-mail and trains enable people to do what they want to do (namely, communicate and travel), whereas the prototypical “technical solutions for social problems” try to discourage people from doing what they want to do (e.g. the Prohibitionism).