The Why of Technology has always seemed obvious. Technology was perceived to fulfil a shortage. It fulfilled a need that had been unfulfilled all too long.
This is
changing. On the one hand, the basic needs are being fulfilled and the new needs
are becoming ever more subtle. On the other hand, the complexity and the cost
of new technologies are getting out of control. A focused orientation is
needed. It becomes essential to choose well where scarce resources should be
allocated to. The corona crisis forces us to stay at home and think. It encourages
us to think what society could really need next in terms of technology.
The why of
technology can be written as an ABC: Achievement – Beauty – Commodities. Commodities
are obvious, since Homo Habilis started creating his own tools and weapons
millions of years ago. Commodities are the fruit of our creativity
and our industria
(activity). They are still important. We need trains, we need water, electricity and Internet. We need smartphones and social media. Beauty
may not be the first word we associate with technology, but for the engineer
or designer, it is an important driver. Achievement is a very powerful driver. In
the Middle Ages, it made superpowers invest in cathedrals. In the 16th
century superpowers rivalled with maps. And in
the 21st century, superpowers invest their money in satellite constellations. The eagerness for achievement made America go to the moon. It
will make mankind go to Mars very soon. Technology also needs to fight its own
drawbacks. We need a circular economy to keep the world sustainable.
We need technology to get rid of carbon dioxide emission, to resolve the
traffic tangle, to protect our data, etc.
As the
possibilities of technology are endless, we really need to ask ourselves the
question in what direction we want to go. What do we want to do with Artificial
Intelligence, with gene manipulation, with new materials, with hydrogen fusion?
How much progress could we make when we understand better how the brain works? Should
we try to extend our habitat to space? These questions are not easy to answer.
The mere fact that something is possible, doesn’t justify its development. The
question is both collective and individual. It is both material and spiritual. To
what kind of existence are we called? What is an ideal way of living? It is a scary question in postmodern times. What is our mission and what might be our
destiny? We could come up with individual answers that differ very much. Can we also come up with a collective answer?
I also refer
to “Homo Deus” and to "A Sea of Change".
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