I went to the talk by Dr. Yvonne Forester on May 3 titled “Beyond the Anthropcene: Techonology, Innovation, and the (Post-) Human Condition” and one of the points which made me think the most was how all of the issues especially in this class around the ethics of computing are partially arising because technological innovation up until this point has been motivated mostly by economic gain.  This idea sort of set off an image in my mind of what technological innovation might look like if the driving force was truly to expand the human experience rather than about making money.  Though I do think there is a lot of talk about expanding the human experience in the idea of innovation today I also see that the pressures of monetary gain constrain what actually ends up being attempted.

Another thing I thought was really interesting was this striving by the tech industry to create a frictionless experience which is formed by using large amounts of data on us to create and ideal, individualized online environment.  In this environment created exactly from us there is apparently the illusion of simple solutions.  Dr. Forester described it as a dystopian idea which was a bit strange to me, bit then it sort of called me back to reading Brave New World awhile back.  It makes me wonder if by taking paths of ease we are actively destroying our own sense of purpose.  The talk touched on these images in the media where robots eventually leave humans behind and humans themselves finally become the obsolete technology.  It’s honestly a bit disheartening to imagine such a world.

I imagine all of this goes back to the first point about technological innovations being driven by capitalistic gains.  On the other hand, increased tech should open up the door to new opportunities, but I suppose an expanded human experience is only going to come about if we actively make it a goal.