It’s extremely laborious to guard a system from somebody—the evil housekeeper from DOGE—who has made their method inside and desires to wreck it. This administration is on the file as eager to outright delete total departments. Accelerationists will not be solely setting coverage however implementing it by working inside 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 an enormous, terrifying drawback, and one I talked by way of earlier in a thread on Bluesky.
Authorities is constructed to be secure. Collectively, we put methods and guidelines in place to make sure that stability. However whether or not they really ship and protect stability in the true world isn’t really in regards to the expertise used; it’s in regards to the folks utilizing it. When it comes right down to it, expertise is a software 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: accumulating cash from folks, or giving cash to states to allow them to give cash to individuals who qualify for meals stamps, or making covid exams out there to folks.
Normally, our expertise of presidency expertise is that it’s old-fashioned or gradual or unreliable. Definitely not as shiny as what we see within the non-public sector. And that expertise adjustments very, very slowly, if it occurs in any respect.
It’s not as if folks don’t notice these methods might do with modernization. In my expertise troubleshooting and modernizing authorities methods 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 methods had been already present process modernization makes an attempt, a lot of which had been and proceed to be late, over price range, or simply plain damaged. However the adjustments which can be wanted to make different methods extra trendy had been steadily seen as too dangerous or too costly. In different phrases, not necessary sufficient.
In fact, some adjustments are deemed necessary sufficient. The covid-19 pandemic and our unemployment insurance coverage methods supply good examples. When covid hit, sure important authorities applied sciences instantly turned seen. These methods, like unemployment insurance coverage portals, additionally turned politically necessary, identical to the launch of the Reasonably priced Care Act web site (which is why it bought a lot consideration when it was botched).
Political consideration can change all the pieces. Through the pandemic, instantly it wasn’t simply attainable to modernize and improve authorities methods, or to make them easier, clearer, and sooner to make use of. It really occurred. Groups had been parachuted in. Overly restrictive guidelines and procedures had been reassessed and relaxed. All of the sudden, authorities employees had been allowed to work remotely and to make use of Slack.
