Two tech heavyweights in the past days came out questioning the moral issues of new technology. First we have Matt Mullenweg, the creator of WordPress.
I’ve been preoccupied with this question:
Is silicon valley destroying the world? Is what we do morally destitute?
We create these things that are incredibly engaging. And yes they connect people, and yes they democratize publishing, and yes they do some amazing things.
But they also disract us–constantly. We have the notifications. WordPress is about to launch notifications, and I have this moral dilemma. It’s such a good feature; you can moderate your comments from it, it’s really slick. But at the same time, we’re now going to be pinging people when they should be having conversation with a loved one, or they should be thinking about something.
And that’s why showers and the opera work, because they force you to have a little space. And space is where those special thoughts — real ideas, things you are going to spend the rest of your life doing — are going to come from.
They’re not going to come when your’e in that loop: Gmail, Facebook, Techmeme, Twitter, etc. You can do that all day.
At this point the interviewer abruptly shifted the conversation to he likes living in New York. A pity.
Of course WordPress will release the notifications feature. I wonder how many other tech people have harbored such doubts, and if any have actually held back out of concern for the public good. Of course, we will never know about these, since you only hear about what is created — not what is held back!
I wonder if addictive technology — games, notifications, tweets, whatever — may one day acquire the social stigma of older addictions like gambling, drugs, and alcohol?
Here is the video, skipped to the relevant portion of his interview: