Rethinking Our Relationship With Tech
For all our sake, we need to start asking questions
I think technology should be a force for good.
I think that if I buy a device or install some software on my computer, I should be able to control how it operates. I believe that it should, within its capacity, do anything I want it to do so long as my actions are not evil. Similarly, it shouldn’t do things I don’t want it to do.
A device or piece of software shouldn’t trick me, spy on me, distract me, treat me like an intruder or stop working because a server hundreds of miles away said so. Put plainly, it shouldn’t do things without my — the end user’s — implicit consent.
More than anything else, I believe that any tech product I buy shouldn’t end up being burned over a coal fire by an eight-year-old as the toxic fumes of its components enter the soil, the air, the rivers and the child’s lungs. Furthermore, it seems logical that I should do what I can as an end user of technology to avoid that situation.
I don’t know any sane person, regardless of their tech-savvyness, who would disagree with these statements. I venture that these points are too darn reasonable to be disagreed with.
Yet, today, the actions of many tech companies seem to suggest that they disagree…
