Maybe Technology Doesn’t Need to Change — Maybe WE Do…
Technology amplifies. It increases the scale at which we can operate.
Technology is built in our image, to fulfill our wants and needs.
This can be both good and bad.
Because it amplifies, technology will amplify both the good and the bad.
If we are unhealthy as a society, technology will amplify this unwellness.
Those who have healed or are in the process of healing themselves can build and use technology for good.
The onus is on both the developer and the consumer.
The developer can develop a piece of technology that is entirely good, but it can be misused and abused by an unwell consumer. Everything must be consumed in moderation; with temperament and intentionality.
If a developer builds “good” technology that is abused by consumers with addictive habits, it will end up being “bad”.
We are discovering this first-hand — unrestricted capitalism combined with unrestricted technological advancement has forced technology down a path of maximum dopamine extraction and addiction. When likes/views are dollars, it is only a natural self-survival mechanism for technology to evolve towards things that can extract the most likes/views.
A cause of this — for technology to have taken this path — is our addiction to cheap dopamine. Our addiction to “feeling good” at the expense of “acting good”. Our lack of intentionality and discipline. If everyone were only consuming healthy things, technology would instead be trending in a healthy direction while naturally pursuing maximal profit.
People view “money” and “profit” as bad. The opposite is true. They are signals of productive value. However, because society is unwell, “productivity” to us is misguided. “Productivity” is cheap dopamine, big yachts, big houses, consuming MORE, etc.
What if society instead valued other things? Then, money/profit would only be found in pursuing those other things.
We cannot expect natural selection to just “go away”. We cannot expect regulation to forever be our supplemental remedy for the dissonance between the natural order of the universe and the path of society.
We should accept the natural state of things for what it is, and try to build systems that succeed in harmony. We try too hard to resist — resistance in the form of coercion, force, bullying, etc.
We must flow with the natural order of the universe.
We are unwell.
And our systems are unwell.
And so our technology is unwell.
We are to blame. We must do the work to heal, so that the things we build can be beautiful instead of destructive.
