You Have 10 Seconds to Come Read

What technology would you be better off without, why?

I’m currently working on something I’m calling my Digital Tech Memoir, the story of how I began—and still use—computer technology in teaching and performance. My time with tech has long been experimental, and I played with some of the newest software toys when they first came out. (Like CUSEE-ME.)

For decades, people have been clamoring for flying cars. “Why don’t we have flying cars yet?” they demand. And I have always pooh-poohed the idea. “Two cars will crash in the air, and then they’ll fall to the ground and crash again!” I say. The results will be totally worse than a mini-fender-bender. (Pun intended in that sentence.)

On the other hand, I I did always think self-driving cars would be a good idea. Commuters could sit back and read and relax on that long drive to and from work. I enjoy this sensation when I take the train to Philadelphia or New York: leave the driving to them. However, it does seem the technology is not quite there yet to entrust a human life (or many of them) to an autonomously-driven vehicle.

As for AI, it’s getting a lot of bad press lately. At the moment, its capability amuses me. It has its uses in content creation, and as long as no one believes the propaganda pieces or the deepfake graphics, we’re okay. But now I’ve read accounts that the military would like to use AI to operate drones. Have they not seen RoboCop or Terminator? Shouldn’t these two films (at the very least; add a pinch of Colossus: The Forbin Project to taste) serve as cautionary tales to stop going ahead on this?

Colonel in charge of drone site: Sergeant, what happened?

Sergeant: Sir, the code was written as “Destroy enemy, go home.” Someone hacked in and reversed those two lines.

To answer the prompt, “What technology would you be better off without, why?” I’m going to alter a quotation by Hamlet: “There is nothing either good nor bad with technology but uses make it so.” I’ve always been pro-technology. I think it can save us from the human-made messes we find ourselves in, such as global climate change. Social media could bring us together, but renders us more divisive. It’s the misuse of technology that concerns me more than the technology itself.

Tech doesn’t kill people. People kill people when they allow people to operate technology unchecked.