Questions we should be asking about tech
"Part of me feels viscerally an envy with regard to Jobs that marks the degree to which I’ve vicariously participated in the myth that has been built around him, in the entrepreneur worship, the fantasy of power—of being able to alter others’ lives and still be regarded as benevolent. Technology is a perfect vector for that sort of power, masking the agency of those who develop it and program it and representing that as irresistible progress. (…) Jobs worship perpetuates the idea that proprietary technology is developed for us, for our improvement and our needs, rather than for profit or for the egos of venture capitalists and self-proclaimed visionaries."
I don’t agree with him 100% here (or in the rest of his essay, which as always is thoughtful and worth reading in full) as I believe there are very tangible social benefits to the technologies and products Jobs oversaw development of at Apple. I largely view the company as genuinely innovative rather than insidious, but Jobs did famously institute a culture there that is in opposition to open source technology.
Apple and Jobs notwithstanding, Horning’s essay mostly serves to remind me—particularly as someone who works in tech and has entrepreneurial ambitions—that not enough people consider the most important questions regarding technological advancements. Such as: Who will benefit and who will control? And what is the impact of previous technologies?