Geek heresy : rescuing social change from the cult of technology

323 Pages·2015·1.71 MB·English

by  Toyama

Copyright © 2015 by Kentaro Toyama.
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Book Design by Cynthia Young
Typeset in 11.5 Adobe Garamond Pro Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Toyama,
Kentaro.
Geek heresy : rescuing social change from the cult of technology / Kentaro Toyama.
pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61039-529-8 (ebook) 1. Technological innovations—Economic aspects. 2. Technological
innovations—Social aspects. 3. Social change. I. Title.
HC79.T4T675 2015
303.48’3—dc23
2014048936
First Edition 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my mother,
who nurtured what heart, mind, and will I have.
To my father,
who taught me to follow my aspirations.
To Rohan,
for whom I wish much intrinsic growth.
And to Bill Gates, cofounder of Microsoft
and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,
both of which gave me opportunities to learn
what I write about in this book.
G
ates once wrote, “The first rule of any technology used in a business is that
automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency.
The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify
the inefficiency.” (The Road Ahead, 1995)
CONTENTS
Introduction
Part 1
CHAPTER 1: No Laptop Left Behind
Conflicting Results in Educational Technology CHAPTER
2: The Law of Amplification
A Simple but Powerful Theory of Technology’s Social Impact
CHAPTER 3: Geek Myths Debunked
Dispelling Misguided Beliefs About Technology CHAPTER
4: Shrink-Wrapped Quick Fixes
Technology as an Exemplar of the Packaged Intervention
CHAPTER 5: Technocratic Orthodoxy
The Pervasive Biases of Modern Do-Gooding Part 2
CHAPTER 6: Amplifying People
The Importance of Heart, Mind, and Will CHAPTER 7: A
Different Kind of Upgrade
Human Development Before Technology Development CHAPTER
8: Hierarchy of Aspirations
The Evolution of Intrinsic Motivation CHAPTER 9: “Gross
National Wisdom”
Societal Development and Mass Intrinsic Growth CHAPTER
10: Nurturing Change
Mentorship as a Social-Cause Paradigm Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Appendix: Highlighted Nonprofits
Notes
References
Index
INTRODUCTION
“T
alent is universal; opportunity is not.” That’s how Megan Smith, chief
technology officer of the United States and former vice president of
Google.org, began her opening remarks at the University of California,
Berkeley, in the spring of 2011. She and I were on a panel titled “Digital Divide
1
or Digital Bridge: Can Information Technology Alleviate Poverty?” The event
was held in South Hall, the campus’s oldest building but home to its youngest
school – the School of Information – where scholars study the interaction
between digital technology and human society. The hall was packed. The panel
drew not only students and faculty, but also Bay Area impact investors,
nonprofit leaders, and social entrepreneurs.
Google.org’s motto at the time was “tech-driven philanthropy,” and Smith
2
embraced it. She implicitly agreed that talent was universal. But, she said,
“opportunity is becoming more universal” as well. According to Smith,
opportunity was expanding along with “the network,” by which she meant the
Internet, mobile phone systems, and presumably the Google technologies riding
on them.
That more people are becoming connected is a fact. By the end of 2014,
there were nearly 3 billion people on the Internet. Sometime in 2015 the total
3
number of mobile phone accounts will exceed the world population. Both
figures continue to grow. Smith suggested that these technologies bring people
together, trigger revolutions, and make “all world knowledge . . . available
online for free.” If she is right, everyone everywhere will soon have plenty of
opportunity: Talent is universal, and opportunity is the Internet.
The world’s leading technologists thoroughly agree, and they’re competing
to speed things up. In 2009, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the key