technology and ecology

“The world is a complex, interconnected, finite, ecological–social–psychological–economic system . We treat it as if it were not, as if it were divisible, separable, simple, and infinite. Our persistent, intractable global problems arise directly from this mismatch.”

~ Donella Meadows

Herein lies a fundamental truth we need to understand about technology:
New technologies do not simply add or subtract, rather they change everything. Technological change is ecological in nature. The environment technology is introduced into is fundamentally altered from the substrata to the heavens.

When stone tools were invented, we didn’t just have neanderthals plus stone tools. We had an entirely reinvented man because of stone tools. When Virtual Reality was invented, we didn’t just have American culture plus VR- we now have a reinvented Meta-minded man because of VR (one not distant from dystopian Ready Player One author and screenwriter Ernst Cline imagined).

The advances made by these innovations are well and good, but they are distractions; candy sprinkled by Hansel and Gretel’s witch to distract from manufactured harm.

What we must consider when bringing new technologies to the market is not what this tech can do for us, but what this tech can do to us? What are the changes following this technologies introduction? What parts of life are adjusted or completely disrupted because of this technology?

The invention of lanterns altered our relationship to work and sleep. The printing press altered society’s educational development. The smartphone has changed the way we socialize, do work, consume information, date, travel, play, and generally live.

Why is this so important?

If we are to adopt new, inventive “tools” into our ecosystem, we must do so “with our eyes wide open” (as Neil Postman was fond of saying) while a technology plays out its hand and does what its design dictates. We can’t know consequences from a technology before its release, yes, and we must allow technology to evolve in the environment it enters, also yes, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be more aware of the things under threat from new entrants.

Proceeding with eyes wide open requires asking more questions. It requires an inquisitively thorough and cautious perspective that is currently underrepresented in creative technology circles. Let’s keep being curious…