The Top 5: Talking technology & its ever-present power
Also, catch-up on Wear We Are
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The Top 5 articles for your week:
“What's long-term about "longtermism"?” (Slow Boring - Substack)
Because over the last 3 weeks, there’s been a lot written in response to William MacAskill’s op-ed in the NYT on his new book, “What We Owe the Future,” i.e. an op-ed and book on the importance of “longtermism.” Longtermism is “the idea that positively influencing the long-term future is a key moral priority of our time” and much of the time, longtermism focuses on the rising threat of artificial intelligence. Matt Yglesias’ Slow Boring essay goes through the semantics of longtermism and another term - effective altruism - and the debates surrounding MacAskill’s ideas. You should also read this compelling profile of MacAskill in The New Yorker.
“I Didn’t Want It to Be True, but the Medium Really Is the Message” (NYT)
Because Michael and I bookmarked this op-ed to share with you while we were on our hiatus, as Ezra Klein asks “how do we want to be shaped?” when it comes to the role of technology in our lives.
“The Joy of ‘Calm Technology’” (Galaxy Brain - The Atlantic)
Because you can chase Klein’s op-ed with this essay by Charlie Warzel. “What I stumbled on instead was an old idea, but one new to me: the theory of “calm technology,” a phrase coined in a 1996 essay by the computer scientists Mark Weiser and John Seely Brown. Weiser and Brown, who both worked at Xerox PARC, predicted that the growth of the internet and microprocessors would help usher in an era of “ubiquitous computing” sometime between 2005 and 2020. This era, they suggested, would be dominated by the rise of “imbedded [sic] computers” in all kinds of formerly analog devices: “in walls, chairs, clothing, light switches, cars—in everything.” The pair also anticipated that the ubiquitous-computing era would erode our sense of calm. As computers were initially intended for limited daily interaction, Weiser and Brown argued that they were designed to excite by delivering information quickly, perhaps even in overwhelming ways. Naturally, they worried about what might happen to our senses when computers were everywhere and in everything. It’s safe to say that they were onto something.”
“Care Tactics” (The Baffler)
Because in a way, this article on the “hacks” or ingenious little inventions disabled people have had to invent to live their lives more comfortably is another story about the looming power of technology. “Disabled people’s hacks wouldn’t be so necessary if more attention were paid to the actual needs of disabled people in the design process—of homes, objects, infrastructure. It would, for instance, be relatively inexpensive to establish a national program to retrofit homes with simple modifications to make them more accessible, but the political will simply isn’t there, leaving the onus on the individual. Our cultural obsession with technosolutionist thinking suppresses our ability to imagine alternatives to this individualist vision.”
“Code Snitching: Nashvillians Are Weaponizing Metro Codes Against ‘Undesirable’ Neighbors’” (Nashville Scene)
Because I, Melissa, read this article while on our hiatus about a Nashville government department - the Metro Codes Department - and how it is being used by citizens to drive “undesirable” neighbors out of affluent, often white, zip codes.
I was on an affordable housing call with our local faith-based community organizers (NOAH) and was so encouraged they brought up the code snitching and are brainstorming ways to put pressure on the mayor’s office to address the problems with the codes department, particularly how it impacts elderly homeowners. Radley did such a good job shining a light on this and I think it’s going to lead to some positive changes.