On humanity and technology
There’s this myth that technology can become the salvation of humanity… but let us not forget, technology is only, and has only ever been a tool. Just as fire was invented/discovered as a way to help us survive by keeping us warm, it is also a “tool” that can burn us all alive. Same can be said about any type of technology, be it AI, machine learning or autonomous vehicle. When kept in check, and used towards an ethical end, it will perhaps help us transcend our species, but if it isn’t kept in check, like fire, technology can easily eradicate humanity.
And perhaps, this eradication has already begun within our social lives. We see human beings favouring digitally facilitate connections, over hard-earned friendships. We see people chasing after the “feeling” experienced from a push notification, over the gratification felt after helping another person. Although these examples are awfully dystopian, these are things that are happening around us, today. What’s even more heartbreaking is that these things happen subconsciously and thoughtlessly. We have lost the instinct to be thoughtful, but instead chose to chase after a feeling caused by an excretion of dopamine in our brains. This “feeling”, I believe, was never meant to be artificially induced. It was a mechanism that we gained over centuries through evolution, where we determine what is worthwhile and what isn’t valuable.
With the way technology is heading right now, and with our understanding of how human beings work, it is perhaps unethical, to intentionally trigger events that make us “feel” good, but does nothing in building up our character. Perhaps it is time for us to truly consider what it means for human beings to live meaningfully, and with intention for each other.
At the end of the day, what truly fulfills us, is a longing to be valued, have purposed and be loved. When we have created a way to “feel” those things independent from each other, we have failed to move our specifies forward, but instead, trapped us in our very own creation.
As designers, technologists, strategist or however you all want to call yourselves, I believe we can play a part in setting things straight. Just as the economists and scholars of the old gave form to our societal orders, technologists now shape how we live our lives. It is absolutely imperative, that those who influence the creation of digital products and services, must not only think with brilliance, but also feel with deep empathy for those that they will affect.
The motto that has governed the technology industry over the last decade, has been something along the lines of:
“Move fast, break things.”
“Ask for forgiveness, not permission.”
While these phrases apply to code, they do not, and must not be applied to humanity. I believe that now is the time, we reconsider what kind of ethos we believe in. Looking at the world in its current state, where there are facts, and there are “alternative facts” (lies), we must, establish a new system of principals that we can anchor ourselves in, in shaping the future of our species.
Instead of moving fast, or slow, perhaps we should be moving to a destination with a purpose. Rather than breaking things, perhaps we should learn to build upon the good that we have inherited. Last, and perhaps the most important one, is we should be uniting people with a deeply intrinsic purpose, so that forgiveness or permissions are parts, in moving spaceship earth forward, together.
