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RobinHanson's avatar

Most costumers know little about the value of most things they buy. I don't see them having much more ignorance about social than tech innovation value.

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Riothamus's avatar

You are correct in your suspicion, though my expertise in technology is driven by my interest in the embedded social changes.

It is the others to which I refer, not the experts. Even if we stipulate equivalent expertise in technical and social fields among experts, I claim that the consumers of innovations (non-experts in either area) have a harder time seeing the value of a social innovation. That there are people who can identify the value of social innovations does not imply that the people who benefit from it will be able to. Indeed we see similar factors at work with technical innovations all the time, despite the higher interest in tech.

A consumer of tech knows what their current tech cost, and can evaluate the cost of new tech because it is clear. A consumer of a social process probably does not know the current cost, and the cost of a new social process is probably unclear. I therefore expect lower interest in social innovation. I would also expect that where non-experts have a better grasp of the cost of their present social process, interest in social innovation in that area would be higher relative to other areas.

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