Old white men promise technological utopias that they themselves do not comprehend
First of all, I would like to classify the title of this article. If you clicked on the link because you felt provoked by the headline, relax! This series of strategic utopias is also an experiment in clickbait. It is designed to be read with provocative wording.
I had made the resolution for 2023 to formulate a few thoughts every month in the tension between my perspective on the world and my work. I haven’t kept up with each month, but I’m happy to continue this series with another article. Join me on my journey…
I already wrote this in my last about Purpose: I still want and need to understand a lot of things first. This time it will be more emotional, because I am upset by a phenomenon that I personally have to observe frequently.
The “old white man” phenomenon
When you read “old white man,” do you have an image in your mind? Please let it go right away because this isn’t about that one face. This is about a social phenomenon and not about individual personalities.
Every person is different. We all have strengths and weaknesses and sometimes behave cooperatively, sometimes uncooperatively. However, there is a tendency, which has been scientifically proven, that certain factual connections occur more frequently in people with certain biological characteristics.
Here the focus is specifically on a group of people who can be biologically described as old, white and male. In today’s working environment, old means the generation of baby boomers, i.e. those who were born between around 1955 and 1965 and are therefore now around 60 years old.
At its peak in 1964, there were 1.34 million newborns who will stop working in the next few years. By 2036, around 30% of all currently employed people will be retire. There is also something big coming our way for German entrepreneurs. In more than half of all federal states, at least 15 percent of entrepreneurs are older than 65 years.
Old white men as the center of the world
I would like to make it clear one more time that I am addressing a type here and consciously do not want to make any personal criticism of any individual. Anyone who defines it as criticism is welcome to reflect on it with me.
The essence of the “old white man” type is that everything revolves around him. He is the center of the world. The old white man has great social power, which he not only perceives but also takes for granted.
He can be further defined as part of the least discriminated against group in Western society. His performance is also due to his status, for which he is not responsible. His performance is still his performance, but also to a significant extent his status.
Personally, I always wanted to convince in the professional environment through experience and success and under no circumstances with the fact that I am me, i.e. white and male. But that also means recognising and reducing one’s own privileges.
So let’s summarise that an “old white man” has almost unlimited access to participation in our society.
An example of use: strategy and artificial intelligence
When McKinsey writes that AI tools can help leaders make more unbiased decisions, better extract insights from large amounts of data, and make strategic decisions faster, we must not forget that even the most advanced artificial intelligence is still biased, because the people who programmed it and the data on which it is based are.
The AI cannot reflect on itself, it has no consciousness and does not understand the meaning of life itself. Without these requirements, AI will never be objective and biased. By the way, neither are we humans. So we can’t rely on it to help us overcome our prejudices. Rather, we need to critically reflect on the results that AI generates and train our abilities to understand these complex interrelationships.
What does “old white men” have to do with it?
Now there are people who promise that technologies like AI can make our lives easier and solve complicated problems faster. This is true to a certain extent.
However, it is often the same people who forget that the technology is based on data that discriminates against the non-male and non-white parts of the population.
Until the 1970s, there was no term in the English language for workplace rape. How should language models like ChatGPT have handled this? Who tells us that today we don’t still lack terms that describe situations in which boundaries are violated and people are hurt?
This is just one example of artificial intelligence and how uninclusive and integrative it is, completely neglecting the aspect of sustainability when we take into account that ChatGPT’s success in click work depends predominantly on women in the global south and tons of resources for that operation of servers eats up.
“Old white men” and the digital city
If we want to have an inclusive, integrated and sustainable city, we must not believe these false technological utopias. “Old white men” cannot build an inclusive, integrated and sustainable city because they do not share these values.
Most of them do not even understand these values, do not deal with them and therefore their privileges and therefore cannot find adequate answers. “Old white men” currently still dominate the majority of decision-making positions.
To solve the problem without a revolution, all we really have to do is be patient. Fortunately, the “old white man” phenomenon is increasingly in danger of extinction. It will be a matter of time before these decision-making positions are filled by a younger, more diverse generation.
Personally, I would prefer if we took this opportunity to change the system and move from centralised to decentralised decisions. This allows us to make the best decisions in cities, districts and communities about which level and color of smart city is good for the corresponding group.
So what should happen next?
I always like to remind those close to me that empathy does not mean putting one’s self in one’s opposite situation, but rather understanding one’s opposite in one’s situation. This is a deeply dialogic process. At this point, dialogue specifically does not mean stringing together monologues, but rather engaging with one another in discourse. We all need to keep practicing this.
For me, an emphatic dialogue is the only way to find viable solutions together, even with old white men.
And since we are talking about dialogue, I would like to encourage you to comment on this post or write to me via DM on LinkedIn in a bilateral discourse. I would also be happy to accept suggestions for future topics, but first of all I would like to thank you for reading this provocative article.
