Thoughts

Our technologies have specific ends to which they are ordered. What are they? Are there multiple ends? Those ends for which we use them, but a deeper (or higher?) level, their actual ends, as intended by their creators?

Technology doesn’t exist for its own sake. As there was a creator, there is also a telos.

In the sphere of unlimited, instantaneous global communication and attention, how have our views of ourselves (and by extension, others) been changed for the better or worse? How does the TOB inform this thinking? I’m thinking in particular of authentic, in-person communications and our relationships with enfleshed others.

What if Alison Parrish’s thoughts on a new hacker ethic were to obtain completely? What if they were reinforced by the thoughts in Weapons of Math Destruction, in particular, the growing recognition that humans are not nearly as good at algorithms as we think we are? And that this recognition may not be keeping pace with their widespread implementation? And that this widespread implementation has real, grave impacts? If fully internalized by technicians, how would the technology landscape be different?

If we count the cost, who pays the steepest prices? What does a preferential option for the poor look like in a globally connected world?

As the world prior to the Internet continues to recede, and the second generation to swim completely in it grows up, what new criticism will be levied? As a cohort, where will they stand fast?