Society/Culture e-Estonia: would we ever be this technologically advanced?

[swingdog]

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/12/18/estonia-the-digital-republic

Taavi Kotka, who spent four years as Estonia’s chief information officer, is one of the leading public faces of a project known as e-Estonia: a coördinated governmental effort to transform the country from a state into a digital society.

E-Estonia is the most ambitious project in technological statecraft today, for it includes all members of the government, and alters citizens’ daily lives. The normal services that government is involved with—legislation, voting, education, justice, health care, banking, taxes, policing, and so on—have been digitally linked across one platform, wiring up the nation. A lawn outside Kotka’s large house was being trimmed by a small robot, wheeling itself forward and nibbling the grass.

Is this a good vision of society?

 

[Helfarch]

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/12/18/estonia-the-digital-republic

Is this a good vision of society?

What a terrifying prospect a security breach will be when it happens or more likely when it comes to light that the Russians already have all the keys.

Apart from that awesome idea.

Their attitudes toward research will be just as beneficial.

It's not something coming to most nations though, they are tiny which makes it relatively easy to do.

 

[swingdog]

What a terrifying prospect a security breach will be when it happens or more likely when it comes to light that the Russians already have all the keys.

Apart from that awesome idea.

Their attitudes toward research will be just as beneficial.

It's not something coming to most nations though, they are tiny which makes it relatively easy to do.

Is it just a size thing? I would have thought once you have the architecture it's pretty easy to ramp up. In Australia, myGov has been moving in this direction although only with those things under the control of the Federal Government.

I thought it was interesting noting the different paths taken by the US and Estonia. Culturally, the Americans seem far happier with private companies knowing everything about them, just as long as it's not the government.

 

[Footypie32]

Interesting for sure. I imagine the Estonians are not easily intimidated living on Russia's doorstep. A cyber attack probably appears like a common cold compared to the plague that is a military assault by Russia. They're probably quite used to picking themselves up.

Many European countries are rife with bureaucratic corruption, which probably effects their lives more than any cyberattack. This probably seems like a favourable alternative.

Could it be scaled up? I don't know. Could you imagine how long it would take to roll out the appropriate architecture in the US for example. Add that to the current climate of government distrust and I'm not sure how you could convince the population to accept it.

The other issue is how many government jobs would be lost due to simplified bureaucracy? Good for the person using the system, not so great for the millions of public servants now looking for work.

Very interesting.

 

[King Brown]

Being a relatively 'new' country, at least in terms of it political institutions, probably helps.

 

[Helfarch]

Is it just a size thing? I would have thought once you have the architecture it's pretty easy to ramp up. In Australia, myGov has been moving in this direction although only with those things under the control of the Federal Government.

I thought it was interesting noting the different paths taken by the US and Estonia. Culturally, the Americans seem far happier with private companies knowing everything about them, just as long as it's not the government.

It's a decentralized system in Estonia, the number of organizations with a suitable connection and systems to support all their clients having access to their data at any time in Australia would be minuscule.

I can hear the collective sobbing of medical clinic admin staff as Medical Director, Zedmed etc crash over and over.

Then there is how technologically inept every level of our govt. is.

 

[The Passenger]

Interestingly Estonia has always been a technologically advanced country. In the early 2000's they declared internet access a human right and I believe were the first country to do so at the time.

 

[theyellowsash]

We are incredibly backwards in this country when it comes to technology and development, we prefer to try and protect old outdated industries and technology (and the companies that monopolise them). Why else would we keep using a failing copper network (technology over 100 years old) when we get a generational chance to upgrade, have governments fighting to keep open unsustainable (economically and environmentally) coal power stations while banning sustainable alternatives like wind, and pump taxpayer money into car companies so they can keep building V8 cars that nobody wants when that money could have gone to developing or building hybrid and electric cars that were just starting to become mainstream and desirable.

By the time any African country is developed enough to be considered 'first world' they will be lighyears ahead of us technologically. They will probably be driving fully electric cars with batteries that take minutes to charge from nuclear fusion power stations, and we will still be using copper internet powered by coal while doing burnouts in Commodores.

Hell, they'll probably be writing highly racist stories about Australian youth gangs stopping then from going to restaurants and why they should be deported back here.

 

[Bradesmaen]

Interestingly Estonia has always been a technologically advanced country. In the early 2000's they declared internet access a human right and I believe were the first country to do so at the time.

Their tram system definitely isn't. Thought I was back in he 60s

 

[Helfarch]

We are incredibly backwards in this country when it comes to technology and development, we prefer to try and protect old outdated industries and technology (and the companies that monopolise them). Why else would we keep using a failing copper network (technology over 100 years old) when we get a generational chance to upgrade, have governments fighting to keep open unsustainable (economically and environmentally) coal power stations while banning sustainable alternatives like wind, and pump taxpayer money into car companies so they can keep building V8 cars that nobody wants when that money could have gone to developing or building hybrid and electric cars that were just starting to become mainstream and desirable.

By the time any African country is developed enough to be considered 'first world' they will be lighyears ahead of us technologically. They will probably be driving fully electric cars with batteries that take minutes to charge from nuclear fusion power stations, and we will still be using copper internet powered by coal while doing burnouts in Commodores.

Hell, they'll probably be writing highly racist stories about Australian youth gangs stopping then from going to restaurants and why they should be deported back here.

While the state of technology in Australia is poor it's not irreversibly ruined. You've been able to transmit data over fibre for ~70 years. It just wasn't economical to install it over copper lines.

We are already seeing private companies and state/local govt. start to look to build their own competing networks which is where it should have been 10 years ago. We might get something useful yet.

 

[theyellowsash]

While the state of technology in Australia is poor it's not irreversibly ruined. You've been able to transmit data over fibre for ~70 years. It just wasn't economical to install it over copper lines.

We are already seeing private companies and state/local govt. start to look to build their own competing networks which is where it should have been 10 years ago. We might get something useful yet.

Actually private companies are not allowed to build a competing fibre network because Telstra/nbn co have a legal monopoly. Tpg found this out already in the courts.

And installing copper instead of fibre is like installing a manual water pump instead of a powered one. Sure it's cheaper but also significantly more inefficient and short term.