I love technology.
- It gives us the ability to work from anywhere if we choose to.
- It puts the entire available history of knowledge at our fingertips.
- It makes it possible to do almost everything wirelessly. Wires suck.
- It solved boring, giving me infinite choices in what I consume, from food to film.
- It has made it possible to communicate with hundreds, thousands or millions of people without being a god, celebrity or political leader.
I hate technology.
- It compels us to stare at screens all day, keeping us disengaged from one another and our surroundings.
- It has fragmented our critical thinking skills made us less patient for things that require measured thought.
- It has replaced activities beneficial, even necessary for human well being with feeble and malnourished substitutes.
- It has exacted a high price for its supposed convenience, enslaving its users to complete availability, global competition and a new constant onslaught of tasks and expectations
- It has hurt human exploration and curiosity by presenting an illusion of certainty and completeness.
Not all these things are universal to tech. I get that. We will expand on these ideas. They can each sustain a post, or two or three.
As the narrator, I just want it to be clear I’m also human, and actively wrestle with both sides of the debate.
This blog will focus more on the anti side, since everything about the pro side is being handled just fine by mainstream tech PR. I will try to be balanced, but if you read me long enough you’ll get a sense of my biases.
I believe technology can be both the best thing and the worst thing that ever happened to us. Many are grappling with these implications, but it’s hard to find them in one place.
In this fast moving era we’re conflicted, and uncertain. There’s a sense we’re being pulled down the river, and there may or may not be a huge plunge over the horizon.
And unlike most modern concerns, this boo-boo can’t be fixed addressed by a Google search. On the contrary, certain big tech companies are profiting from this uncertainty.
If you were to map out the future of this blog, it would look alot like a picture of a neuron. Or a really branchy tree of course. It’s complex.
And I like complex things. But I’ll be doing my best to keep this simple. (I’m good at 2 things: Simplifying the complex, and complicating the simple, so you’re in good hands.)
Although this blog lives on a server somewhere, try and see it as a living, organic thing, rather than some kind of fixed work by an expert. I’m not one, and frankly, I’m not sure that one exists.
You might be reading this at a time when very few people are.
I consider you like an investor. I’m grateful to have your attention. In 2018 with a trillion places to put it, you chose me. Your attention is precious.
I believe someday my posts may have hundreds, thousands, or hundreds of thousands of views. And they will never have more value as the first people who shared your vision, believed in you.
No matter how much the world changes, I hope you, early reader, will keep me true to my vision for this site
Here it is:
- To help people make sense of a confusing world, and regain control over the human side of their lives.
- To incite humor, curiosity and celebration in everyday things, and help people to see their surroundings with new eyes.
- To celebrate and promote the tech companies doing good things for humanity.
- To lambaste and demote the tech companies doing bad things to humanity.
Can we accomplish some of that?
I think we can.