Humanity on Rails - Daniel Azuma - RailsConf 2013

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Humanity on Rails

Daniel Azuma

• What is 'living'?

• RailsBridge: Org to increase diversity in tech

• Diversity's a big issue

• How do we attract more minorities?

• Yahoo recently canned their remote working program

• What do we make of all of this?

• Daniel got laid off, went back to school to study theology at Regent

• Also researched technology, met w/ pastors and engineers

• Long history of philosophy of technology

  • Tech was tied to art, craftsmanship, and relgious ponderings
  • Over time, it changed
  • Europe secularized, industrial revolution
  • Arts focused on beauty/aesthetics, tech focused on power
  • Jacques Ellul (1912-1994) wrote The Technological Society
    • Technology is all about efficiency
    • Almost Darwinian process of technology self-improving
  • Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) wrote The Question Concerning Technology
    • Tech is a way of perceiving the world
    • What do we see when we see nature?
      • Untamed beauty? Or untapped resources?
      • Reality is no longer defined by what it is, but how we can use it
  • Albert Borgmann (1937-) wrote Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life
    • The Device Paradigm
      • A device is a way of perceiving (more cultural than technological)
      • Example: CD Player
        • What is provided by the device: Commodity (easy, convenient, highly accessible music from CD player)
        • What is the thing actually is: Mechanism (inner workings are more concealed)
        • Commodity is convenient, and mechanism is hidden
      • This is encapsulation!
        • Inteface = commodity (.h), implemntation = mechanism (.c)

• Most of web business is about counting eyeballs

  • We focus on metrics (convenient/available), and the people are ignored (concealed)

• This is a repeating pattern

• Now we ask people: "How are you useful?"

• People become agents of technology

• We are challenged to challenge nature

• Daniel hates Twitter

  • It's a step backwards in communication
    • Ignores details, nuances, depth
  • But still forced to use twitter because the community is on Twitter
  • To promote, be available for support, etc, have to be on Twitter
  • Tech is now dictating what Daniel can and cannot do

• Borgmann: Tech is no longer a choice. Tech is the basis for choices

• Andrew Feenberg (1943-)

• Samuel Florman (1925-)

• Lots of writings!

• Does technology have value?

• Does technology have values?

• Is there a meta-narrative of tech?

• You can critique the usage of tech, but you can't critique the ethics/personality of tech (source code is neutral)

• We critique at the ends of tech, but not the means

• If technology is value-neutral, then the ends justify the means

• Technology itself now makes a moral statement

• Tech is not value-neutral in of itself

• It values convenience, efficiency, power, control

• It devalues engagement, aesthetic, meaning, commmunity

• If tech has personlity, that'll affect the way we relate/use tech

• If tech has culture, that means it might have intrinsic biases, it could priviledge certain groups

• Not saying tech excludes others

• Not saying this is just the way it is

• We want to improve the status quo and diversity

• If tech has a personality, we have to pay attention to it

• If there is a bias inherent in what we do as engineers, then we tend to take it for granted.

• We can't afford to have those biases hidden and unchallenged

• If us engineers can't figure it out, who can?

• The good news

  • Rails is a great tech
  • Rails is opinionated
  • Has social values
  • Transparent
  • Rails invites us to create dialogue and engage
  • Open source turns around the Device Paradigm
    • Implementation is open
    • Engage w/ implemntation
    • Success of OSS is dependent on engagement of contributors

• The Technologist's Calling

  • To seek to understand tech
  • To learn to live wel with tech
  • To teach the worled about tech

• Getting started w/ Humanity on Rails: http://daniel-azuma.com/railsconf2013