Creating Technology as a Tool

I believe that the creators of each new technology, be it hardware, software, or a front-end app, must take responsibility for what they are producing. Engineers, designers, and developers must consider the potential impact of what they create. This needs to be a discussion from the very beginning of the production stage. Those producing tech must consider the potential societal ramifications of their actions and must stop and ask: how can this both used and misused? How can the design or use case be adjusted to increase the probability of a positive sociological affect?

The responsibility of technological management, however, is not limited to the technology producer or distributor: it is also on the user. Those consistently using technology must take responsibility for their own exposure. Learning media literacy and technological manipulation techniques is a good place to start, to understand the motivations behind every notification.

Whether or not technological innovation has historically had a positive or negative affect has always been a hot topic. With every major innovation, there are positives, negatives, and passionate people behind each argument. There are communities which benefit from each technological development, and communities which suffer consequences. These ground-breaking discoveries include the industrial revolution spurred by the combustion engine, or the amount of lives saved from the discovery of insulin.

These are not inherently good or evil technologies, but instead subjectively beneficial or destructive applications. With every major jump forward, technological developments lead to potential positive and negative applications. Nuclear atom manipulations led to both fantastic energy production methods as well as extremely dangerous weaponry. The question therefore is not ‘should we keep going?’ but ‘how do we ensure this has a beneficial destination?’

New technologies should be thoughtfully designed for positive large-scale impact, shifting the likely applications towards the betterment of society instead of a potential Orwellian downfall.

Here, I talk not just of technology to be made or currently in progress. We must extend this idea to the technology we are currently using as well. I am genuinely concerned of us entering a Brave New World, with technology supplying the utopic sedative which lulls us into inaction and distraction. Are the technologies and social medias I regularly interact with improving my mood and relationships, or are they distracting me from new experiences and more genuine conversations? How can I change my habits and dependencies to use technology as a tool to better myself? How can I take advantage of all the wonderful potential technologies currently out there to improve my life? What can I do to ensure that I am not simply a data production tool technology companies use for economic gain?

These are questions and discussions we must consistently have at IDUN Technologies. We are developing technology to quantify and predict emotional states. The potential advantageous emotional recognition, communication, and management applications are uncountable. Unfortunately, the same could be said for the way this kind of technology could potentially be manipulated for “the greater good.” By constantly considering the questions I have asked here and considering product growth and scalability assuming ourselves to be both designers and users, we hope to steer the emergence of this technology in the right direction. We actively work to avoid becoming the senior social media developers interviewed in The Social Dilemma, who express distress around the harm their contributions have made to society. Most importantly, we consider how problematic technology impacts society, discuss which decisions led the impressive technology to this specific application, and try to identify other potential paths to success.