WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.859 We tend to think of our gadgets, you know, our 00:00:02.859 --> 00:00:05.379 software. They're just tools, right? Yeah, like 00:00:05.379 --> 00:00:07.679 a hammer or a spreadsheet. Just there to help 00:00:07.679 --> 00:00:10.380 us do something. Neutral things. Means to an 00:00:10.380 --> 00:00:12.300 end. That's the usual take. That's the common 00:00:12.300 --> 00:00:14.380 assumption, definitely. Just a blank slate for 00:00:14.380 --> 00:00:16.519 whatever we want to do with it. What if the tools 00:00:16.519 --> 00:00:19.960 themselves aren't actually neutral? What if they 00:00:19.960 --> 00:00:23.949 sort of... nudge things, shape outcomes in ways 00:00:23.949 --> 00:00:25.949 we don't always expect. That's what we're really 00:00:25.949 --> 00:00:28.609 digging into today. We've got some fascinating 00:00:28.609 --> 00:00:31.530 stuff from academic work, a book too, that really 00:00:31.530 --> 00:00:33.750 pushes back on this whole technology is neutral 00:00:33.750 --> 00:00:37.189 idea. Hopefully by the end, you'll maybe see 00:00:37.189 --> 00:00:38.789 technology and its effects a bit differently. 00:00:39.009 --> 00:00:40.950 I mean, think about it. Have you ever started 00:00:40.950 --> 00:00:44.469 using some new app or device and then noticed 00:00:44.469 --> 00:00:48.310 weird unexpected changes happening? That's a 00:00:48.310 --> 00:00:49.909 great question to kick things off because for 00:00:49.909 --> 00:00:52.810 a long time there was this dominant view, especially 00:00:52.810 --> 00:00:56.289 from what you might call information theorists. 00:00:56.990 --> 00:00:58.990 Their whole thing was basically technology is 00:00:58.990 --> 00:01:01.070 neutral. It's just a conduit. It carries information 00:01:01.070 --> 00:01:04.189 from point A to point B cleanly, no interference. 00:01:04.510 --> 00:01:06.730 Like a pipe carrying water. The pipe itself doesn't 00:01:06.730 --> 00:01:08.810 change the water. Exactly that kind of idea. 00:01:08.930 --> 00:01:11.109 Think fiber optics. It's the data that matters, 00:01:11.109 --> 00:01:13.090 not the cable, right? That was the thinking. 00:01:13.370 --> 00:01:15.209 Okay, so that's one perspective, the neutral 00:01:15.209 --> 00:01:18.590 carrier. But then You mentioned another group, 00:01:19.390 --> 00:01:22.769 media theorists. How do they see it? Ah, well, 00:01:23.109 --> 00:01:27.209 they have a very different take, much more active. 00:01:27.689 --> 00:01:30.150 They argue technology isn't just a passive pipe. 00:01:30.450 --> 00:01:32.209 It does something. It does something. It actively 00:01:32.209 --> 00:01:35.349 shapes our society, our culture. The very design, 00:01:35.489 --> 00:01:38.629 the nature of a specific technology can influence 00:01:38.629 --> 00:01:40.530 how we think, how we talk to each other, even 00:01:40.530 --> 00:01:43.620 what we value. So the medium itself changes things, 00:01:43.680 --> 00:01:46.079 not just the message it carries. That's the core 00:01:46.079 --> 00:01:48.620 idea, yes. The medium is part of the message, 00:01:48.620 --> 00:01:50.640 in a way. It's not neutral at all. Okay, this 00:01:50.640 --> 00:01:52.079 is where it starts getting really interesting, 00:01:52.079 --> 00:01:54.400 I think. Because it's not just about, you know, 00:01:54.659 --> 00:01:57.340 huge, obvious changes. No, exactly. It's the 00:01:57.340 --> 00:01:59.980 subtle stuff, too. Andrew Fiedberg, who's studied 00:01:59.980 --> 00:02:02.640 technology deeply, he really highlights this. 00:02:02.719 --> 00:02:04.840 What's his angle? He points out that designing 00:02:04.840 --> 00:02:08.180 any technology means making choices. Right from 00:02:08.180 --> 00:02:11.629 the start. Choice is like... how it works, what 00:02:11.629 --> 00:02:13.969 features it has. Precisely. What gets included, 00:02:14.110 --> 00:02:16.990 what gets left out, who gets to decide. And these 00:02:16.990 --> 00:02:19.629 choices, Feenberg says, they're not neutral. 00:02:20.189 --> 00:02:23.550 They often carry a political weight. They influence 00:02:23.550 --> 00:02:26.650 who benefits, who might be disadvantaged. Wow, 00:02:26.830 --> 00:02:30.110 okay. So the very act of building the tool embeds 00:02:30.110 --> 00:02:33.889 certain... Preferences, biases almost. That's 00:02:33.889 --> 00:02:36.270 a really important insight, yes. And Feenberg 00:02:36.270 --> 00:02:38.469 also talks about ambivalence. Ambivalence, how 00:02:38.469 --> 00:02:40.909 does that fit? Well, he suggests that most technologies 00:02:40.909 --> 00:02:43.289 aren't like destined for one single outcome. 00:02:43.789 --> 00:02:46.310 They're flexible. They allow for a whole range 00:02:46.310 --> 00:02:48.150 of social uses, different effects, depending 00:02:48.150 --> 00:02:50.129 on how people actually adopt them and weave them 00:02:50.129 --> 00:02:52.330 into their lives. So one piece of tech can be 00:02:52.330 --> 00:02:54.449 used in lots of different ways. That's the core 00:02:54.449 --> 00:02:57.560 of ambivalence. Think about a smartphone. Right. 00:02:57.620 --> 00:03:00.280 It can be for work emails, for calling your family, 00:03:00.479 --> 00:03:02.620 for doom -scrolling social media, for learning 00:03:02.620 --> 00:03:04.939 a language. All of the above. The tech itself 00:03:04.939 --> 00:03:07.819 doesn't force one use. But, I guess the design 00:03:07.819 --> 00:03:10.240 might make some uses easier than others? That's 00:03:10.240 --> 00:03:12.979 the critical point. Even with that flexibility, 00:03:13.560 --> 00:03:16.219 the initial design choices can really steer things. 00:03:16.520 --> 00:03:18.719 They can make certain uses feel more natural 00:03:18.719 --> 00:03:22.379 or become more common. Okay, got it. Now, thinking 00:03:22.379 --> 00:03:25.909 about this non -neutrality... Our sources mentioned 00:03:25.909 --> 00:03:28.969 education specifically. How does this play out 00:03:28.969 --> 00:03:32.210 there? Yeah, that's interesting. Furr, Ragsdale, 00:03:32.430 --> 00:03:35.009 and Horton looked at this. They observed that 00:03:35.009 --> 00:03:38.150 educators sometimes, maybe often, fall back into 00:03:38.150 --> 00:03:40.849 that information theorist view. Meaning they 00:03:40.849 --> 00:03:43.389 see tech as just a delivery system. Kind of. 00:03:43.449 --> 00:03:45.349 They might assume that, say, giving students 00:03:45.349 --> 00:03:47.530 material on a tablet is basically the same as 00:03:47.530 --> 00:03:49.599 giving them a printed handout. The container 00:03:49.599 --> 00:03:51.439 changes, but the information's the same, right? 00:03:51.719 --> 00:03:54.300 So neutral delivery. But it's not the same experience, 00:03:54.400 --> 00:03:56.819 is it? Reading on a screen versus a physical 00:03:56.819 --> 00:03:59.379 book feels different. Interacting is different. 00:03:59.699 --> 00:04:02.099 Absolutely. The medium shapes the learning experience 00:04:02.099 --> 00:04:05.539 in subtle ways. And beyond that, educators usually 00:04:05.539 --> 00:04:07.599 have certain expectations about how some new 00:04:07.599 --> 00:04:10.719 classroom tech will improve things or change 00:04:10.719 --> 00:04:13.020 how they teach. Let me guess. Those expectations 00:04:13.020 --> 00:04:16.019 don't always match reality. Pretty often, no. 00:04:16.160 --> 00:04:18.259 History is kind of littered with examples of 00:04:18.259 --> 00:04:21.160 educational tech projects, rich with ICT, that 00:04:21.160 --> 00:04:24.420 just had unforeseen results. Wildly different 00:04:24.420 --> 00:04:26.740 sometimes. So unpredictability is a big part 00:04:26.740 --> 00:04:29.600 of this non -neutrality, then? A huge part. And 00:04:29.600 --> 00:04:32.519 what Fur, Ragsdale, and Horton really stress 00:04:32.519 --> 00:04:35.600 is that we need to actively look for these unplanned 00:04:35.600 --> 00:04:38.079 side effects, the good ones and the bad ones, 00:04:38.259 --> 00:04:40.540 because sometimes those are the most important 00:04:40.540 --> 00:04:42.759 outcomes, more significant than what was originally 00:04:42.759 --> 00:04:45.269 intended. Be aware of the unexpected, that makes 00:04:45.269 --> 00:04:47.769 sense. Which kind of leads perfectly into this 00:04:47.769 --> 00:04:51.430 idea of revenge effects, Edward Tenor's concept. 00:04:51.610 --> 00:04:53.470 Yes, Tenor's revenge effects, it's a great term. 00:04:53.970 --> 00:04:56.709 It describes situations where a technology, maybe 00:04:56.709 --> 00:04:58.769 when it's widely adopted or implemented in a 00:04:58.769 --> 00:05:01.110 certain way, ends up producing outcomes that 00:05:01.110 --> 00:05:04.170 are the opposite of the intended goals. Opposite, 00:05:04.269 --> 00:05:06.689 like making the problem worse. Sometimes, yeah. 00:05:06.860 --> 00:05:09.060 It can actually exacerbate the very problem it 00:05:09.060 --> 00:05:11.759 was supposed to solve. The core insight is our 00:05:11.759 --> 00:05:14.779 clever solutions can backfire, sometimes spectacularly. 00:05:14.839 --> 00:05:16.579 OK, give us the classic example. I think I know 00:05:16.579 --> 00:05:18.339 this one. It has to be the paperless office, 00:05:18.339 --> 00:05:21.120 right? Knew it. Computers were meant to get rid 00:05:21.120 --> 00:05:24.339 of paper. Supposedly. But what actually happened 00:05:24.339 --> 00:05:28.680 in many places, paper consumption went up. Dramatically. 00:05:28.819 --> 00:05:31.699 Why though? That seems so counterintuitive. Well, 00:05:31.699 --> 00:05:34.399 suddenly printing was super easy. Drafting and 00:05:34.399 --> 00:05:36.829 redrafting became effortless. Everyone could 00:05:36.829 --> 00:05:39.870 create and share documents instantly. Result, 00:05:40.170 --> 00:05:43.149 more printing, not less. Ha! Okay, that's a perfect 00:05:43.149 --> 00:05:45.790 revenge effect. The tool meant to reduce something 00:05:45.790 --> 00:05:48.470 actually increased it. And Tinder found other 00:05:48.470 --> 00:05:50.930 examples, too. He pointed out this weird correlation 00:05:50.930 --> 00:05:53.649 sometimes where introducing computers meant to 00:05:53.649 --> 00:05:56.470 boost efficiency actually coincided with a drop 00:05:56.470 --> 00:05:59.319 in overall productivity. Really? How? Well, think 00:05:59.319 --> 00:06:01.420 about the time spent managing the tech itself. 00:06:01.759 --> 00:06:03.980 Software updates, troubleshooting, learning complex 00:06:03.980 --> 00:06:06.720 systems, getting distracted. It adds up. So the 00:06:06.720 --> 00:06:09.639 key point is more tech efficiency doesn't automatically 00:06:09.639 --> 00:06:12.100 mean more human productivity. The tech isn't 00:06:12.100 --> 00:06:15.120 neutral. It can actively bite back. And you mentioned 00:06:15.120 --> 00:06:17.399 this gets even trickier when we mix technology 00:06:17.399 --> 00:06:20.870 with, like, laws and social systems. Exactly. 00:06:21.310 --> 00:06:24.110 When you layer technology onto existing social 00:06:24.110 --> 00:06:27.009 structures, laws, regulations, especially when 00:06:27.009 --> 00:06:29.550 you're trying to achieve specific political goals 00:06:29.550 --> 00:06:33.589 with that tech, the potential for these unintended 00:06:33.589 --> 00:06:36.629 contrary outcomes, these revenge effects, just 00:06:36.629 --> 00:06:40.199 gets amplified. Okay, but... We should probably 00:06:40.199 --> 00:06:42.399 clarify something. Some of the sources also say 00:06:42.399 --> 00:06:45.160 that, in a basic sense, technologies can be seen 00:06:45.160 --> 00:06:47.319 as neutral. How does that square with everything 00:06:47.319 --> 00:06:49.279 else? Yeah, that's a really important nuance. 00:06:49.620 --> 00:06:51.939 It sounds contradictory, but it's not really. 00:06:52.360 --> 00:06:54.959 At its core functional level, a technology often 00:06:54.959 --> 00:06:57.300 doesn't inherently prefer one outcome. What do 00:06:57.300 --> 00:07:00.060 you mean? Like, take an internet protocol, TCPIP. 00:07:00.259 --> 00:07:02.199 It just moves data packets. Yeah. Doesn't care 00:07:02.199 --> 00:07:03.980 if those packets are, you know, a scientific 00:07:03.980 --> 00:07:06.620 breakthrough or online hate speech. In that purely 00:07:06.620 --> 00:07:09.850 functional sense, it's just doing its job. Ambivalent, 00:07:10.129 --> 00:07:12.589 neutral operationally. Okay, so the basic mechanics 00:07:12.589 --> 00:07:14.689 might be neutral, but we aren't neutral about 00:07:14.689 --> 00:07:17.290 how it's used. Is that it? That's exactly it. 00:07:17.629 --> 00:07:20.329 We humans bring the preferences. We care about 00:07:20.329 --> 00:07:22.970 the consequences. We might decide, okay, this 00:07:22.970 --> 00:07:24.509 neutral protocol is being used for something 00:07:24.509 --> 00:07:27.149 harmful. We need to intervene. We might censor 00:07:27.149 --> 00:07:29.689 certain things or promote others. We evaluate 00:07:29.689 --> 00:07:32.930 the impact. We make choices. The human element 00:07:32.930 --> 00:07:35.310 is where the non -neutrality really comes in 00:07:35.310 --> 00:07:38.250 strongly regarding outcomes. So the unpredictability 00:07:38.250 --> 00:07:41.170 we talked about, it comes from this mix. The 00:07:41.170 --> 00:07:43.850 tech is flexible, maybe operationally neutral, 00:07:44.209 --> 00:07:47.250 but humans use it in ways we can't always predict, 00:07:47.350 --> 00:07:49.470 leading to outcomes we didn't foresee. That's 00:07:49.470 --> 00:07:52.250 a big part of it, yeah. Our own inability to 00:07:52.250 --> 00:07:55.370 anticipate every possible interaction, every 00:07:55.370 --> 00:07:57.610 clever or unexpected use that people will come 00:07:57.610 --> 00:08:00.110 up with when a technology gets out into the messy 00:08:00.110 --> 00:08:03.410 real world. That, combined with the tech's inherent 00:08:03.410 --> 00:08:05.910 possibilities, that's where the surprises happen. 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:07.879 And this connects to something called emergent 00:08:07.879 --> 00:08:10.160 properties. Sounds a bit technical. It does, 00:08:10.259 --> 00:08:12.579 but the idea is actually pretty straightforward 00:08:12.579 --> 00:08:14.779 and relevant here. These non -neutral effects, 00:08:14.920 --> 00:08:17.279 these surprises, are often examples of emergence 00:08:17.279 --> 00:08:20.100 in complex systems. It just means that the system 00:08:20.100 --> 00:08:23.279 as a whole, technology plus society plus users, 00:08:24.060 --> 00:08:26.680 produces outcomes that you couldn't have predicted 00:08:26.680 --> 00:08:29.800 just by looking at the separate parts. The whole 00:08:29.800 --> 00:08:32.570 is different from the sum of its parts. and sometimes 00:08:32.570 --> 00:08:35.509 surprisingly so. Like baking a cake. You can't 00:08:35.509 --> 00:08:37.529 predict the taste just from the flour and eggs 00:08:37.529 --> 00:08:40.669 alone. That's a perfect analogy. Exactly. The 00:08:40.669 --> 00:08:43.090 final result has properties the ingredients didn't 00:08:43.090 --> 00:08:45.610 have individually. So can you give us a real 00:08:45.610 --> 00:08:49.309 -world tech example of emergence? Oh, the Minitel 00:08:49.309 --> 00:08:51.350 system in France is a classic. Remember that. 00:08:51.610 --> 00:08:53.750 Oh, vaguely. Wasn't it like an early online thing? 00:08:53.750 --> 00:08:55.889 Yeah, it was launched primarily as an electronic 00:08:55.889 --> 00:08:57.789 phone directory. That was the government's plan. 00:08:58.269 --> 00:09:00.370 Look up numbers online instead of a big book. 00:09:00.470 --> 00:09:03.389 OK, straightforward enough. But then they added 00:09:03.389 --> 00:09:06.129 a text -based chat feature, almost as an afterthought, 00:09:06.230 --> 00:09:09.450 some say. And suddenly, usage exploded, but not 00:09:09.450 --> 00:09:11.769 for finding phone numbers. For what, then? For 00:09:11.769 --> 00:09:14.860 chatting, social interaction, Gossip, finding 00:09:14.860 --> 00:09:17.980 dates, the misogyny rose, the pink messages, 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:20.299 they called it. That became its dominant use. 00:09:20.419 --> 00:09:22.759 Totally emergent, completely unforeseen by the 00:09:22.759 --> 00:09:26.039 designers. Wow. So the intended information tool 00:09:26.039 --> 00:09:28.720 became a social network, basically. Pretty much. 00:09:29.279 --> 00:09:31.539 The key insight is how technologies can just 00:09:31.539 --> 00:09:34.080 take off in directions nobody planned, driven 00:09:34.080 --> 00:09:36.740 by how people actually want to use them. That's 00:09:36.740 --> 00:09:38.860 fascinating. And there was another example, something 00:09:38.860 --> 00:09:42.029 about... Barbed wire. Yeah, sounds unlikely, 00:09:42.090 --> 00:09:44.649 right? But James Gleick writes about this. Barbed 00:09:44.649 --> 00:09:48.009 wire. Designed for one thing. Keep cattle fenced 00:09:48.009 --> 00:09:51.549 in. Purely agricultural tech. Right. Obvious 00:09:51.549 --> 00:09:53.710 purpose. But out in the rural American West, 00:09:53.909 --> 00:09:56.590 where farms were miles apart, people got inventive. 00:09:56.889 --> 00:09:59.470 They realized they could string extra wires along 00:09:59.470 --> 00:10:02.809 these existing barbed wire fences. No way. Yes. 00:10:03.149 --> 00:10:05.330 And use them to create makeshift telephone networks. 00:10:05.549 --> 00:10:08.070 connecting neighbors miles apart using fence 00:10:08.070 --> 00:10:10.669 posts and wire meant for cows. That's incredible. 00:10:10.710 --> 00:10:13.090 Another completely unexpected social use emerging 00:10:13.090 --> 00:10:15.710 from a totally unrelated technology. Exactly. 00:10:15.789 --> 00:10:17.909 It just highlights how resourceful people are, 00:10:18.070 --> 00:10:20.230 adapting tools for communication, for social 00:10:20.230 --> 00:10:22.570 connection, even when that wasn't the plan at 00:10:22.570 --> 00:10:25.850 all. So looking at Minitel and the barbed wire 00:10:25.850 --> 00:10:29.350 phones, what's the common link? Both seem to 00:10:29.350 --> 00:10:33.110 be about tech intended for information or utility 00:10:33.110 --> 00:10:35.679 getting grabbed for social stuff. That's a really 00:10:35.679 --> 00:10:38.720 sharp observation, yes. It seems like there's 00:10:38.720 --> 00:10:41.600 this powerful underlying human need for connection 00:10:41.600 --> 00:10:44.700 that often finds ways to express itself through 00:10:44.700 --> 00:10:47.059 whatever new technology becomes available, sometimes 00:10:47.059 --> 00:10:49.159 completely overshadowing the original official 00:10:49.159 --> 00:10:52.340 purpose. The social needs can really drive tech 00:10:52.340 --> 00:10:55.100 adoption and evolution in surprising ways. Absolutely, 00:10:55.220 --> 00:10:57.519 which brings us back to that point about technology 00:10:57.519 --> 00:10:59.940 and culture being intertwined. It's not a one 00:10:59.940 --> 00:11:02.220 -way street, as the media theorists emphasize. 00:11:02.480 --> 00:11:05.000 Right. Tech influences culture, but culture also 00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:07.299 influences tech. Precisely. They're locked in 00:11:07.299 --> 00:11:09.980 this constant dance, this reciprocal relationship, 00:11:10.460 --> 00:11:13.299 our cultural values, social habits. They shape 00:11:13.299 --> 00:11:15.860 the technologies we even think of creating and 00:11:15.860 --> 00:11:18.100 how we decide to use them. And then in turn, 00:11:18.259 --> 00:11:20.519 those technologies loop back and reshape our 00:11:20.519 --> 00:11:22.940 culture, our habits, even how our brains work. 00:11:23.080 --> 00:11:25.279 It must be really hard to even see that influence, 00:11:25.440 --> 00:11:27.259 especially with technologies that have been around 00:11:27.259 --> 00:11:30.740 forever, like print. Oh, definitely. Millenbecker 00:11:30.740 --> 00:11:32.659 makes this point really well. If you live in 00:11:32.659 --> 00:11:35.259 a society that's been deeply shaped by print 00:11:35.259 --> 00:11:39.940 for centuries, like ours, it's almost impossible 00:11:39.940 --> 00:11:44.639 to objectively perceive just how profoundly that 00:11:44.639 --> 00:11:47.840 specific information technology has molded our 00:11:47.840 --> 00:11:50.539 thinking, our education, our entire culture. 00:11:50.559 --> 00:11:53.779 It's just the wallpaper. It's invisible because 00:11:53.779 --> 00:11:55.820 it's everywhere. Like trying to describe water 00:11:55.820 --> 00:11:58.320 to a fish. That's a great way to put it. And 00:11:58.320 --> 00:12:00.580 because it's so deeply embedded, researchers 00:12:00.580 --> 00:12:04.120 often tend to sort of pull technology out as 00:12:04.120 --> 00:12:06.429 a separate thing to study. treat it like an isolated 00:12:06.429 --> 00:12:08.129 variable. Instead of seeing it as part of the 00:12:08.129 --> 00:12:10.970 whole system. Exactly. Whereas the media theorists 00:12:10.970 --> 00:12:12.690 really argue for looking at it all together. 00:12:13.129 --> 00:12:16.169 The tech, the culture, the cognition as an integrated 00:12:16.169 --> 00:12:18.450 whole. And it sounds like people in fields like 00:12:18.450 --> 00:12:20.830 education are starting to realize how important 00:12:20.830 --> 00:12:23.149 these media theory ideas are again. It seems 00:12:23.149 --> 00:12:25.990 so. There's a growing recognition maybe that 00:12:25.990 --> 00:12:28.250 understanding this non -neutrality, understanding 00:12:28.250 --> 00:12:31.149 how media shape experience is crucial in our 00:12:31.149 --> 00:12:33.730 current tech saturated world, especially for 00:12:33.730 --> 00:12:36.350 learning. Yeah, being aware of these non -neutral 00:12:36.350 --> 00:12:39.110 effects lets you be more deliberate, more thoughtful 00:12:39.110 --> 00:12:41.769 about how you use tech, right? That's the hope. 00:12:42.230 --> 00:12:44.669 It allows for a more critical and maybe more 00:12:44.669 --> 00:12:47.009 effective approach. Okay, so let's try to wrap 00:12:47.009 --> 00:12:50.750 this up. The big takeaway seems clear. Technology 00:12:50.750 --> 00:12:54.330 is not just a neutral toolkit. Definitely not. 00:12:54.809 --> 00:12:58.039 It actively shapes our choices. It often behaves 00:12:58.039 --> 00:13:00.879 unpredictably, and it can lead to these unintended 00:13:00.879 --> 00:13:03.240 consequences, these revenge effects, sometimes 00:13:03.240 --> 00:13:06.500 the exact opposite of what we wanted. And understanding 00:13:06.500 --> 00:13:09.340 this, recognizing this non -neutrality is actually 00:13:09.340 --> 00:13:11.980 really valuable for us. Incredibly valuable, 00:13:11.980 --> 00:13:14.240 I think. It helps you engage with technology 00:13:14.240 --> 00:13:16.820 more thoughtfully, more critically, whether that's 00:13:16.820 --> 00:13:18.840 the apps on your phone, the systems you use at 00:13:18.840 --> 00:13:21.620 work, or the big societal debates about technology's 00:13:21.620 --> 00:13:23.980 role. Being aware of the potential surprises, 00:13:24.200 --> 00:13:26.889 the embedded choices. It lets you be maybe a 00:13:26.889 --> 00:13:29.330 bit more proactive. Yes, proactive rather than 00:13:29.330 --> 00:13:31.090 just reactive. You can ask better questions. 00:13:31.090 --> 00:13:33.269 You can look for those subtle influences. The 00:13:33.269 --> 00:13:35.149 key thing is just approaching tech with that 00:13:35.149 --> 00:13:37.090 critical awareness, questioning its effects. 00:13:37.309 --> 00:13:39.610 So here's something for you, the listener, to 00:13:39.610 --> 00:13:42.250 think about. Consider a technology you use every 00:13:42.250 --> 00:13:44.669 single day. Your phone, your car, social media, 00:13:44.769 --> 00:13:47.830 whatever. What unintended side effects or maybe 00:13:47.830 --> 00:13:50.789 unexpected uses have you noticed? What does that 00:13:50.789 --> 00:13:52.690 tell you about how that technology is really 00:13:52.690 --> 00:13:54.950 operating in your life and maybe in society more 00:13:54.950 --> 00:13:56.789 broadly? Definitely some food for thought there.