The Why of Technology

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 16^th century superpowers rivalled with maps. And in the 21^st 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".