Jim Barcelona's Philosophy and Food Blog

The Matrix presents a futuristic dystopia where the machines that used to serve us are now the masters. The idea that our own creations will destroy us looms large in Battle Star Galactica.

Whom does information technology serve?

Whenever I've worked on tech projects what struck me wasn't the technical aspects, regardless of how difficult the problem was or great in scope. Instead, what struck me were the expectations and desires of the people in power. I felt like I was serving them, and that the computers were supposed to serve me and them in such a way that they got their expectations and desires met.

Here's the problem: If no bounds were set on their desires, then only the limitations of technology could re-adjust their expectations. But, their view of technology is altered by the sorts of promises (realistic or not) that their tech people make. Insofar as these promises are not realistic, technology is being made to serve someone else. How are we to understand technology as a function of both desire and expection?

Richard Coyne's Technoromanticism seems to answer this question. There are certain narratives where desire doesn't get met, and these narratives are a great critique of the promise of technology to meet our desires.

"From our point of view here, this pragmatic language narrative deprivileges notions of information and the proposition and counters narratives in which information provides privileged access to the world through an ability to represent things operationally, consistently, and autonomously." (Technoromanticism, p. 113)

This is best illustrated by looking at on-line dating. The computer filters the mass of humanity seeking some sort of companionship, through user-guided clicks and queries. The computer is our helpmate in this search for companionship, yet physically, we are outside the realm which is way more information rich than the Internet, the very realm in which our possible companion will exist. We are served immense possibility by our technology in the form of information, yet something about how we're wired towards possibility can lead us astray. Kate Zernike has talked to lots of people who are now saying 'No' to on-line dating. I've expressed similar sentiments myself in h2so4, a local 'zine.