There is some hope to found two thirds into the reading of Douglas Rushkoff’s “Program or be Programmed“. At first I was turned off by all the negative backlash when talking about the realities of the internet. Even though I know a lot of these things are true, it makes me uncomfortable and sad to think about them being the reality. However, there is hope here, although I’m not sure how soon change will come in terms of people learning how to write programs and take control of what they learn. Even something written as passionately and clear as the foreword of this book is not any good if no one is even introduced to the book. Everything in this reading felt very important to read, but how many people are actually going to be introduced to this idea.
I’m not sure I’m “ready to give up my agency to a machine”. When put this way it sound terrifying. It is interesting to think about how we are adopting ourselves, as humans, to machines and not the other way around. Considering how fast technology is made and changed, it seems ridiculous to not slow down and really consider how best to use it and mold it to our lives.Another thing to consider is the idea that by having no boundaries, by putting everything online for everyone, we are in danger of losing meaningful conversation. This does resonate with me quite a bit.
Once Rushkoff starts talking about US air force generals not having anyone to program their latest technology, I begin to see where this could be about art education or just non-traditional education being something brought into curriculum in all public schools. Not just learning how to use programs, but learning how to write these programs will be the difference between someone destined to a cubicle job and someone who can seriously change how humans live with technology. The comparison of a selected few who learn programs vs the selected few who know how to work on cars was a good one. I have never thought about the “biases” of machines and how important that can be for the future health of everybody.
There are also important things to consider when Rushkoff talks about security, computer systems, and their interfaces. The deception about having an open system being open to everyone and the closed operation being more safe is a fallacy I wasn’t aware of.
I agree with Rushkoff that if there was any time for learning how to write programs and learn the biases of our technology, the time is now. They have been around long enough for us to really understand that if we don’t start, many of our actions involving technology will be meaningless, and the more time we spend using it the more meaningless our lives can end up being. There is no evolution in that. It is clear the technology is going to be part of our evolution and we need to make sure to imbue it with meaning, for the machines won’t do it for us.
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