Yes, again. As a high-school teacher, I still feel that the conditions under which we train ourselves to make that choice must be non-technology, or technology-free, conditions. Ursula Franklin, trained in chemistry, insists that structure is everything: you can’t shave copper.
So we need to decide what matters in the absence of the technology, and regulate our behavior accordingly.
That ability—the ability to discuss it among ourselves, face to face, and accepting our human structure—is the good one. Absent that, Kelly’s line feels glib.
I like your three categories of interventions to prevent harmful use of technology! Design, Education, Regulation. Sounds exactly right.
It occurs to me that even though all tools can be used for in service of life or of harm, certain tools have a kind of bias one way or another.
To paraphrase Douglas Rushkoff: a pillow and a gun can both be used to kill someone, but when you look at a pillow, you generally think of sleep, not murder. Haha.
It occurred to me for the first time while reading this, though, that meditation is a kind of cognitive or spiritual technology that doesn’t really have a harmful tag-along. It’s a tool that we can use to improve functions like agency, awareness, contentment, emotional regulation… and there are material tools that do similar things, but they all have a flip side of abuse or misuse.
Just an interesting thought. Thanks for this great article!
Yes, again. As a high-school teacher, I still feel that the conditions under which we train ourselves to make that choice must be non-technology, or technology-free, conditions. Ursula Franklin, trained in chemistry, insists that structure is everything: you can’t shave copper.
So we need to decide what matters in the absence of the technology, and regulate our behavior accordingly.
That ability—the ability to discuss it among ourselves, face to face, and accepting our human structure—is the good one. Absent that, Kelly’s line feels glib.
Which wolf wins? The one you feed.
I like your three categories of interventions to prevent harmful use of technology! Design, Education, Regulation. Sounds exactly right.
It occurs to me that even though all tools can be used for in service of life or of harm, certain tools have a kind of bias one way or another.
To paraphrase Douglas Rushkoff: a pillow and a gun can both be used to kill someone, but when you look at a pillow, you generally think of sleep, not murder. Haha.
It occurred to me for the first time while reading this, though, that meditation is a kind of cognitive or spiritual technology that doesn’t really have a harmful tag-along. It’s a tool that we can use to improve functions like agency, awareness, contentment, emotional regulation… and there are material tools that do similar things, but they all have a flip side of abuse or misuse.
Just an interesting thought. Thanks for this great article!