We already get the gist here. It has become imperative that we consciously strive to add "humanism" to our practices: human-centric this, human-readable that... Many of us have to be reminded to be nice — and there's a positive trend between circumstantial ethics and hours spent in front of the computer.
Non-technologists fear that technologists have lost their humanity, and thus incur an air of arrogance. That's the point here.
Most of them do not want (1) welfare from the tech hierarchy, and some of them do not want to participate in this arbitrary hierarchy (2) because of their aesthetic views on technology overall or (3) because of their lack of education regarding the subject.
> "Non-technologists fear that technologists have lost their humanity, and thus incur an air of arrogance."
From the general views commonly espoused on this forum and elsewhere, this seems like a legitimate fear. I do not believe it's fair to color these people as luddites or uninformed.
I agree that it's not fair, in principle. However, we must mention that the quality of education in the U.S. implies that a non-negligible population is at least underinformed*.
We should not ignore the historical and political context here: Democracy as implemented by the U.S., given the motivations of market capitalism, has not been working; and this discussion may very well be the result of that failure.
I'm not sure how the quality of education relates. A large portion of the population is underinformed about technology, sure, but I don't think this is what we're talking about?
Your original post mentioned that we must consciously add humanism to what we do, and non-technologists fear that we have lost our humanity.
My point is that this fear is not unjustified, considering how so many of us (evidently, based on discussions that happen around here) look down upon non-technologists and will readily throw them to the wolves.
Regardless of one's fear of technology (whether for good reason or for lack of it), the fear of technologists is IMO rational based on my own observations of people in the industry.
tl;dr: From watching HN discussions, some of us are fucking scary. I fear them.
Hey, while I'm throwing out nostrums that had earned their gray hairs long before any of us was a lustful sparkle in his daddy's eye, how about "Beggars can't be choosers"?
Non-technologists fear that technologists have lost their humanity, and thus incur an air of arrogance. That's the point here.
Most of them do not want (1) welfare from the tech hierarchy, and some of them do not want to participate in this arbitrary hierarchy (2) because of their aesthetic views on technology overall or (3) because of their lack of education regarding the subject.