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Background on Technology


Technology and Infrastructure Issues in the 2024 election cycle:

AI (Artificial Intelligence)

Artificial Intelligence is the next step of the Information Age -- and the federal government is struggling to keep up. Republicans focus on avoiding regulation; Democrats focus on defining appropriate rules (which means NOT avoiding regulation).

Both parties are choosing on which industries to focus during the transition to AI. In past decades, that might be rejected as "industrial policy", or derisively called "picking winners and losers." But with fast-developing AI, both parties seem to have accepted that some "industrial guidance" is acceptable.

Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency means electronic money, like dollars or Yen, but without physical bills or coins (a virtual currency), and without government backing. Popular cryptocurrency includes Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin. People invest in crypto like they invest in stocks or bonds.

The lack of government backing is the source of crypto's appeal, and the source of its risks. Dollars are backed by the U.S. government; Yen are backed by the Japanese government; cryptocurrencies are independent of any government. Republicans generally support crypto for its independence from government.

Crypto is untraceable, so many early users associated crypto with illicit activities (like criminals use untraceable cash, instead of checks or credit cards). Democrats generally want to make crypto less risky for people, as it enters the mainstream of investing.

THe incoming Trump/Vance administration appointed Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head a new agency called "Department of Government Efficiency." Its acronym, DOGE, refres to the cryptocurrency dogecoin.

Digital Privacy or A Series of Tubes?

Politicians in the 2024 election cycle got involved with digitial privacy issues, regarding how technology companies gather and interpret data about their users. Some politicans are concerned with tech companies' censorship or selective political screening. Other politicians are concerned with social media's implications for "national security." To many technology users, politicians seem clueless ....

When pundits are concerned that a politican is clueless about a new technology, they might describe the situation as "a series of tubes." The phrase originated with Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK), who was explaining Net Neutrality in a Senate Committee meeting. Stevens said in 2006, "The Internet is not something that you just dump something on; it's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes." The phrase caught on as a meme to ridicule a lack of understanding of technology.

TikTok is a social media app with ties to the Chinese government. Some politicians fear that the CCP can track people's activities via TikTok, and therefore TikTok should be restricted or banned. TikTok fans, who typically use TikTok to post short videos of personal activities in which the Chinese Communist Party has minimal interest, might respond to those poltiicans by saying, "TikTok is a series of tubes."

Crumbling Infrastructure

In the past, this OnTheIssues category used to be focused on infrastructure, with technology issues as just one aspect of infrastructure, like building broadband access, or converting from 4G to 5G. In the 2024 election cycle, technology issues have come to dominate the discussion.

In contrast to developments in digital infrastructure, the discussion on physical infrastructure is all about how to avoid its deterioration. Spending on crumbling infrastructure isn't glamorous, but it's necessary, or bridges collapse.

In general, the Democrats push for more spending on infrastructure, while Republicans focus on poor spending choices by Democrats on infrastructure. Early in the 2024 campaign, Biden mocked Trump for having had "Infrastructure Week" and hence came up with "Infrastructure Decade" -- but this never rose to a debate-level topic.

Technology and Infrastructure Issues in the 2020 election cycle and earlier:

Electric Vehicles

Autonomous Vehicles

Humans to Mars?

Cybersecurity

Space Force

Social Media in politics

Technology Issues in 2016 election

Computer and Internet Usage

Other candidates on Technology: Background on other issues:
2024 Presidential Nominees:
Pres.Joe Biden (Democratic incumbent)
V.P.Kamala Harris (Democratic nominee)
Chase Oliver (Libertarian Party)
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (Independent)
Dr.Jill Stein (Green Party)
Pres.Donald Trump (Republican nominee)
Sen.JD Vance (Republican V.P. nominee)
Gov.Tim Walz (Democratic V.P. nominee)
Dr.Cornel West (People's Party)

2024 Presidential primary contenders:
Gov.Doug Burgum (R-ND)
Gov.Chris Christie (R-NJ)
Gov.Ron DeSantis (R-FL)
Larry Elder (R-CA)
Rep.Will Hurd (R-FL)
Gov.Nikki Haley (R-SC)
Gov.Asa Hutchinson (R-AR)
Perry Johnson (R-IL)
Mayor Steve Laffey (R-RI)
V.P.Mike Pence (R-IN)
Rep.Dean Phillips (D-MN)
Vivek Ramaswamy (R-)
Sen.Tim Scott (R-SC)
Secy.Corey Stapleton (R-MT)
Mayor Francis Suarez (R-FL)
Marianne Williamson (D-CA)

2024 Presidential primary also-ran's or never-ran's:
Ryan Binkley (R-TX)
Howie Hawkins (Green Party)
Joe Maldonado (Libertarian Party)
Sen.Bernie Sanders (D-VT)
Kanye West (Birthday Party)
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