Humane Technology

https://boris-marinov.github.io/humane-tech/

by boris_m • 4 years ago

5 2 4 years ago

boris-marinov.github.io

rektide• 4 years ago

Lovely work, thank you. "Humane" seems like a reasonable descriptor & dimension to assess on. Quick personal run through of the current definitions:

Humane technologies solve problems in ways that don’t create other problems.

Not sure that this is possible or reasonable an expectation, personally, but there's a good solid intent here. Whether humanity is capable for the foresight or understanding to live up to this seems more murky.

Humane technologies leave the user in control.

I feel this one very strongly.

Humane technologies are timeless.

Again hard to say ahead of time. I'd be interested in more examples of this. I like the idea of planning for survival, of expecting that the tech is going to last a long time, & not using short-term thinking.

Humane technologies are fulfilling to use.

Another one that feels really great to me. Only possible with authentic tools,

Are you familiar with Ursala Franklin's Work/Control-related Technologies, or her Holistic & Prescriptive Technologies dichotomoies[1]? These have been incredibly important ways to learn to view technology to me, deeply personally impactful, and there's a lot of intersection with your/my interests in humanizing technology. And trying to rebuff some of the other technosocial conflicts Ursala also identified very early.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_Franklin#Holistic_and_p...

boris_m• 4 years ago

Haha, thanks for the feedback, I actually didn't spend so much time polishing these, most of the content is draft.

Otherwise, with solving and creating problems, I was thinking about tech that is overdesigned and crammed with features to the point where it's useless. And also about a particular xkcd comic...

Timeless is probably a bit strong as a word, but actually why not - books, tables and chairs, bottles and plates, have all have been there since the dawn of civilization.

But pretty great to see other people thinking about the same ideas. Do share if you have more feedback.

Humane Technology

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