Dear Tech,
We’ve been together for quite some time now and it feels like things are getting serious. Over time you have evolved from a tool for mere survival to an instrument for labor intensification.
A steam engine, books, an iPhone, designer babies and a few revolutions later our relationship has slowly but surely grown stronger. I mean, we went to the moon together! And when I gave you a brain, you made mine more powerful than I could ever imagine.
It’s true that not every step in our relationship was that easy, but in the end I came to realise, we wanted the same thing. Something I guess you could call ‘the good life’.
Lately it feels like we are living next to each other, you are taking these giant leaps that I can’t follow. You are not communicating about your thoughts and feelings or considering the consequences of your actions, while in the meantime making fancy new friends that I don’t know and behaving like an arrogant know-it-all…
I feel responsible for the impact you will have on mankind, the earth and societies. Not only to avoid apocalyptic scenarios, but to push towards the world-improving potential of all the new solutions that are being developed. Not bad is not good enough.
I believe that the digital revolution, if done right, has the potential of making us more human than ever before. Technology, applied with wisdom, can lead to a real life utopia. This would not be a wanted side effect, but the legitimation of your existence. The anthropocene is here, and it comes with an immense responsibility.
I write to say it’s not working out and this time it’s not me, it’s you.
We need to talk.
