Humanizing Technology or Technologizing Humans?
Matt Jones posted a thought provoking entry today, Humanising Technology, or technologising humans?
Got very annoyed at the Design Council the other night. They were pitching their series of talks on ‘Humanising Technology”. Strikes me as a very odd phrase: ‘humanise technology’…
To separate and demonise ‘technology’ seems false. It’s what makes us human. It’s our evolutionary distinctiveness.
What’s the middle ground? Can we make technology, and computers easy to use while maintaining the transparancy, freedom and agency of command-line culture?
In my mind there has to be a middle ground. Not all humans - in fact most humans - don’t want to be technologized. Technologizing humans seems to imply an increase in the knowledge base required to use technology. I assume that most people equate a higher knowledge requirement with a more complex technology, which people then subsequently equate with a technology that’s making their life more difficult. On the other hand, as technology becomes more complex, it becomes increasingly difficult to humanize or make easier to use. But I think it’s what more people want: to do more with less time and less effort. And, at the same time, isn’t that what technologizing ourselves also allows us to do?
A thought provoking entry indeed.
- 26 Jul 02
- ethics, human computer interaction, matt jones, technology
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