Mar 31, 2022

Shifting Paradigms

Understanding and addressing the side effects and consequences of technology early can prevent them from becoming the foundation on which a product or an entire industry rests.

Instead of hiding or ignoring these negative side effects, we can use them as design criteria. Any technology that mediates human attention can and should increase our capacity to focus, learn, and collaborate, rather than undermine that capacity. Tools that interact with ecological systems should preserve or restore them rather than unsustainably extract from them.

By designing at a higher level of complexity and highlighting the harms your product is accounting for, technologists could actually compete with extractive technologists and pave the way for a technology ecosystem that values humans over profit.

This process involves spotting negative consequences so that they can become design criteria. Identifying the negative externalities of current technologies allows technologists to design tools more thoughtfully, allowing them to deliver long-term value and build warranted trust with their users.

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These posts are meant to be conversational. Let me know what you think on Twitter https://twitter.com/joshpitzalis/status/1509382110444158980

Learned about this in a foundational course over at the Center for Humane Technology.

Shoutout to Timothy Dykes for the thumbnail 🙏

Josh

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