It’s extremely onerous to guard a system from somebody—the evil housekeeper from DOGE—who has made their means inside and desires to wreck it. This administration is on the document as desirous to outright delete complete departments. Accelerationists aren’t solely setting coverage however implementing it by working throughout the administration. In the event 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 a large, terrifying downside, 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 device 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: amassing cash from folks, or giving cash to states to allow them to give cash to individuals who qualify for meals stamps, or making covid assessments out there to folks.
Often, our expertise of presidency expertise is that it’s outdated or sluggish or unreliable. Actually not as shiny as what we see within the personal sector. And that expertise modifications 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, little one welfare, and logistics on the Division of Protection. A few of these methods have been already present process modernization makes an attempt, lots of which have been and proceed to be late, over price range, or simply plain damaged. However the modifications which might be wanted to make different methods extra trendy have been continuously seen as too dangerous or too costly. In different phrases, not necessary sufficient.
After all, some modifications are deemed necessary sufficient. The covid-19 pandemic and our unemployment insurance coverage methods provide good examples. When covid hit, sure important authorities applied sciences abruptly turned seen. These methods, like unemployment insurance coverage portals, additionally turned politically necessary, similar to the launch of the Inexpensive Care Act web site (which is why it bought a lot consideration when it was botched).
Political consideration can change all the things. Through the pandemic, abruptly it wasn’t simply attainable to modernize and improve authorities methods, or to make them less complicated, clearer, and sooner to make use of. It really occurred. Groups have been parachuted in. Overly restrictive guidelines and procedures have been reassessed and relaxed. Instantly, authorities employees have been allowed to work remotely and to make use of Slack.
