Letters to a Young Technologist

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Critical Technical Practice

https://letterstoayoungtechnologist.com

What is Technology?

In ancient times, those who made technology were devalued as laborers

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Image-�rst is an implicit value baked into Instagram.

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Though many technologists see their work as “problem-solving”, problems are in the eye o� the beholder; one �rst has to make decisions about what constitutes a problem before making decisions to solve it in a particular way. That decision-making process is prior to and more fundamental than the problem-solving process.

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technology is deeply entangled in human will and judgment.

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In a sense, science aims to be a minimally instrumental pursuit, as it only aims at the truth. In contrast, technology is highly instrumental; it’s all about pursuing various goals using tools.

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technology ampli�es freedom o� the will.

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Value Beyond Instrumentalization

nothing more than to think what we are doing

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ethical thought and decision- making is believed to only be possible after one achieves �nancial freedom.

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I propose, then, a revision o� Kant’s imperative for technologists: do not work on something i� you yoursel� do not want to live in the world where you are massively successful.

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your physical body and mental health should not be instrumentalized in service o� being useful to a startup mission, or even a life philosophy.

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the technology ecosystem must maintain non-instrumental spaces

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spaces for paratelic play

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It's Time to Govern

We failed to build because o� politics - bureaucracies un�t for a crisis.

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It’s time for technologists to govern.

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World War II and the Cold War historically drove collaboration between technologists and the government.

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broken acquisitions process

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public sector historically funded many o� our riskiest technical experiments

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think about the “revolving door” as an opportunity

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Study the Past, Create the Future

The “natural order o� things”—going to school, using electricity, believing in human rights, having a job, the existence o� hallways, communicating in writing— is a human invention, and human inventions are the product o� highly contingent cultural forces and individual decisions.

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History enables you to recognize that virtually everything about our present-day reality is open for re-imagining.

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In your present-day work, it might take weeks or years to see the implications o� the decisions you and your peers make; in studying the past, you can see how great minds (or even foolish minds) weighed their options and dealt with the consequences.

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psychological stability o� feeling rooted in a discipline, and is also a way o� paying homage to your intellectual ancestors.

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It was common at the start o� the pandemic to hear people talking about “these unprecedented times.” This is a classic example o� historical ignorance. A pandemic is an extremely precedented time.

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To be a Technologist is to be Human

Humanity controls its fate by using tools and materials to survive and to self-realize.

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