Late-stage technocrats

This will require a collective will to prioritize humanity over efficiency, and depth over speed. It means questioning the motives behind AI deployment—who benefits, who loses, and who decides. It means writing legislation, regulations, and industry policies that protect meaningful work for all and exploring new forms of social and economic support... See more

The Homo technologicus it produced mirrors the Homo economicus of modern economics, valuing rationality and consistency, discouraging flexibility, fluidity and chance. Today’s personalised tech systems, once the tools of mavericks, are more likely to narrow our opportunities for creativity than expand them.

But as more tech folks jump aboard the progress train, I’d suggest that they go one click deeper in illustrating what kind of society we’re hurtling toward. Which technologies they’d like to see in abundance, and which they’d prefer stay scarce. And put away the cyberpunk for a second: What about our relationships to each other? The kind of “good l... See more

Postman believed that technological change tended to shape every aspect of the world around us, and that its danger was that it would set the boundaries for our thinking. The major risk Postman identified is that we might begin to accept technology as a part of nature, as though it were the inescapable way of things. We have to remember that these ... See more