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skeptical_lurker comments on [POLITICS] Jihadism and a new kind of existential threat - Less Wrong Discussion

-5 Post author: MrMind 25 March 2015 09:37AM

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Comment author: skeptical_lurker 25 March 2015 07:13:05PM 0 points [-]

To me it's not clear that significant advances in computer science can be made in a climate of strict authority.

When dealing with fundamentalist Islam or Christianity, I think biotech would suffer far worse.

There are a lot of Indian programmers but few globally successful Indian software companies.

Do you think India is strictly authoritarian? Perhaps because of the caste system? But then, why don't the high-caste people who are not under the heel of authority start companies?

Comment author: ChristianKl 25 March 2015 07:45:04PM 0 points [-]

But then, why don't the high-caste people who are not under the heel of authority start companies?

It doesn't work if the programmers that get hired simply try to do what's ordered of them. which is true for a lot of Indians. You need programmers that actually care about the program they are addressing and who want to write beautiful code.

Indian culture doesn't easily allow bringing programmers in contact with interesting programming challenges and then getting out of the way while making certain that there nothing to distract the programmers from doing their work like having nothing to eat.

Comment author: skeptical_lurker 25 March 2015 09:07:33PM 0 points [-]

Ok, well I'm not great expert on Indian culture but I see your point.