
Ask HN: Are their any politicians that know anything about technology? - jppope
I&#x27;ve been reading a lot of articles recently that plain scare me... Figured I would ask if anyone knows of any politicians or candidates with even the slightest understanding of technology?
======
twunde
If you're interested in the systematic reasons why congress as a whole is not
tech savvy, you should probably skim through the Congressional Research
Service's profile of Congress:
[https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R44762.pdf](https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R44762.pdf)

Among the tidbits: \- the average age of Reps in 2018 was 57.8 years and
senators was 61.8 years \- 167 Members of the House (37.8% of the House) and
55 Senators (55% of the Senate) hold law degrees \- There are 6 software
company executives in the House and 2 in the Senate

In direct response to the original question Ron Wyden of Oregon pops up a fair
amount in tech and tech-related questions.

------
elamje
I believe there’s a congressman in Kentucky that is an MIT grad and tech
entrepreneur.

Edit:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Massie](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Massie)

~~~
overcode
A libertarian republican from Kentucky... while your answer might be
technically correct, I really don't think that this is the rare gem of a
politician that OP is looking for.

~~~
jppope
I'm actually okay with just knowing who is competent enough to make decisions.
I'm super worried (I think correctly that our leadership isn't capable of
understanding some of the complex issues that our society is about to face)

Like this guy as a judge:
[https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/19/16503076/oracle-vs-
googl...](https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/19/16503076/oracle-vs-google-judge-
william-alsup-interview-waymo-uber)

~~~
overcode
Someone's education or knowledge of technology is a bad indicator of how
competent they would be in decision making.

~~~
jppope
I'm not using that as a proxy for ALL decision making. I'm representing that
making decisions that concern technology would be better performed by people
that understand technology.

Implicitly our political class might not be good with tech because they are
not digital natives, from which one could infer that decisions on topics such
as artificial intelligence, or biotechnology might be difficult. I was hoping
for counter examples.

Article [https://www.vox.com/the-big-
idea/2017/8/7/16105120/politicia...](https://www.vox.com/the-big-
idea/2017/8/7/16105120/politicians-elderly-death-disability-mccain-supreme-
court)

~~~
overcode
I understand where you coming from but I don't think that a politician's
apparent knowledge about a subject is a good indicator of how good their
decisions regarding this subject will be.

------
chatmasta
Beto O'Rourke, a Democratic candidate for the 2020 US Presidential election,
was a member of "America's oldest hacking group."

[0] [https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-
poli...](https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-politics-
beto-orourke/)

~~~
jppope
If I remember correctly Beto's involvement with the Cult of the Dead Cow was
mainly from an essayist standpoint. Less from the technical perspective. I
could be wrong

------
neuroticfish
Andrew Yang understands the fact that we're heading towards ubiquitous
automation.

~~~
jppope
Fair enough, but many people believe that without understanding the underlying
drivers...

------
jppope
The Current list: \- Ron Wyden \- Thomas Massie \- Beto O'Rourke

