am I a tech advocate

Tech users aren’t necessarily the same people as tech builders and tech builders frequently forget this, but also, tech builders aren’t necessarily the same people as tech advocates. Given the many times I’ve been expected to defend it, I don’t know that tech users (or just non-tech-workers) know this. ‘Tech’ is broad and covers both life-saving and life-destroying innovations - anyone who advocates or avoids it too far is ignoring some huge impacts.

“Technology is neither a devil nor an angel. But neither is it simply a “tool,” a neutral extension of some rock- solid human nature.” - TechGnosis

Links

• accessibility
• usability
• [ethical tech and tech for ethics](ethical tech and tech for ethics)
• [origins of modern luddism](origins of modern luddism)
• [low tech](low tech)
• useful data

Notes

• I’ve personally been expected to support a more technical approach or defend tech against its failings in non-professional settings due to having worked in the field
  • in reality I see tech tools like any other tools, can be very useful but can (and will) be used harmfully by harmful people
  • I’m disabled, we need tech innovations for survival and quality of life
  • I’ve supported myself through understanding tech and there’s certainly intellectual and artistic benefit to exploring the space
  • Major efficiency gains in further automated or technical processes
  • But I’m not inherently a hardcore technocrat just because of some experience and understanding of it
  • I’m not sure why it’s assumed I am
• In being close to it I can see directly who is building what, which biases are at play and where tech oversteps
• Highly critical and particular about ethics, usability and accessibility in tech
• Perhaps it’s a case of can’t put it out from inside the house
• In this case it is likely the fact of which people and what work I am explicitly distancing myself from that allows me to criticise it fully
• But it may also be a ‘leave it, we’ll rebuild the house’, ‘you can stay at my house’, ‘I live next door and have a fire extinguisher’ or any (better) metaphors for [value-driven indie tech groups](alternative systems|alternative systems]], [[Initiatives for Web Freedom) and external ethical pressures, all vital to both incremental, cultural and revolutionary change
• There are also some people working in mainstream tech who do manage to make a difference either vocally and culturally, or by showing up as themselves in an otherwise homogenous workplace, or by embedding good [UX]] and [a11y practices as a technical priority. And for that I say BIG thanks, that’s hard
• TechGnosis