#67 How to think about a new technology?

I came across this fabulous talk by Neil Postman on technology. In this talk he answers the question - How to remain sane in a furious and speeded up technological society?

He gives us a set of six questions that provides insights into how a technology intrudes a culture. These questions also help us to understand the impact of of any new technology. 

First Question

What is the problem to which this particular technology is the solution? Is it a burning problem impacting a large number of people or small isolated segments? Technology should ideally increase your options, not decrease your options. Example, advent of digital thermometers have made it more difficult to purchase analog thermometers.

Second Question

Whose problem is it? Who will benefit from a technology and who will pay for it?  The advantages and disadvantages of new technologies are never distributed evenly among the population. This means that every new technology benefits some and harms others. For example, industrial automation may help improve safety and efficiency of operations (thus benefiting the owners) but it may result in job losses for some employees. The winners always try to persuade the losers that they are really winners

Third Question

What new problems does it create?  For every advantage a new technology offers, there is always a corresponding disadvantage. Technology trades off one set of problems for another set of problems. Culture always pays a price for technology. He stresses on the need to be aware of the social and psychic effects of technology. While the smartphone has tremendously boosted convenience and access to services, it has impacted face to face human interaction negatively.

Fourth Question

Which people and what institutions might be most seriously harmed by technological solution? The consequences of technological change are always vast, often unpredictable and largely irreversible. Capitalists are by definition not only personal risk takers but, more to the point, cultural risk takers. Standardized testing such as IQ tests, the SATs and the GREs has irreversibly changed the nature of education.

Fifth Question

What changes in language are being enforced by the new technology and what is being gained or lost by such changes? He provides example of how the meaning of the words conversation and community has changed. Today communities are formed by people who are united by an idea, interest, belief. However, in the past community meant a group of people with different interests, ideas, and beliefs.

Sixth Question

What sort of people and institutions acquire special economic and political power because of technological change? Embedded in every technology there is a powerful idea, sometimes two or three powerful ideas. Every technology has a philosophy which is given expression in how the technology makes people use their minds, in what it makes us do with our bodies, in how it codifies the world, in which of our senses it amplifies, in which of our emotional and intellectual tendencies it disregards. Bitcoin is a great example.

He warns against the common tendency to think of our technological creations as if they were God-given, as if they were a part of the natural order of things. Because it is then accepted as it is, and is therefore not easily susceptible to modification or control. The best way to view technology is as a strange intruder, to remember that technology is not part of God’s plan but a product of human creativity and hubris, and that its capacity for good or evil rests entirely on human awareness of what it does for us and to us

This post is a summary of Neil's talk. If you found this post interesting, check out my book summary on Human as Media that explains how the internet is changing society and individuals.