Welcome back to the deep dive. We take that pile
of sources you've got and well, we cut right
to the chase giving you the insights you need.
Helping you get properly informed fast. Exactly.
So today we're digging into a concept that might
just change how you look at technology's impact.
It's called structural deepening. The idea is
basically technology isn't just bolted on, you
know, it gets in there and fundamentally reshapes
the whole system. often in ways you didn't expect.
That's a great way to put it. Yeah, structural
deepening, as the source defines it, is when
you take a technology made for, say, purpose
A, and you apply it to system B. OK. And system
B doesn't just absorb it. It actually gets more
complex and deeper structurally. So how did that
happen? What drives it? Well. Could be a few
things. Users trying to make parts of it better.
Maybe new tech gets invented or pulled in from
somewhere else. Or sometimes people just find
totally new ways to use the tech that no one
planned for. Unintended consequences, sort of.
Exactly. And, this is important, it applies to
hard tech. you know, physical stuff, machines,
infrastructure, but also soft tech. Soft tech,
like processes. Yeah, processes, methods, even
how organizations are set up. All of it can get
deepened. Okay, let's make this concrete. Our
sources give a really good example. Putting digital
computers into schools, into the curriculum,
into how teaching happens. Right, and we need
to remember education wasn't like starting from
zero. It already had its own instructional technologies
way before computers showed up. Sure. Blackboards,
textbooks? The whole lecture format, even just
how classrooms are laid out. That's all technology
in a sense. It was a complex system already.
So computers arrived sometime mid -century. Yeah,
and it wasn't just adding another tool to the
teacher's kit. It caused this profound structural
deepening in education. How so? What changed?
Well, for starters, curriculum, it wasn't just,
okay, here's computer class. It was integrating
tech across subjects. You know, CAD in art class,
data analysis in science. Digital tools for writing?
Yeah, exactly. And that meant developing totally
new ways to teach with these tools. That's the
pedagogy changing, right? A classic example of
that. Soft technology getting deeper. Okay, that
makes sense for the teach part. But what I found
really interesting was how it created ripples,
like, beyond the classroom. Oh, absolutely. Suddenly,
schools needed this whole new layer of operations,
didn't they? You got it. Think about it. Network
admins, people who knew the software, actual
computer techs on site. Right. That wasn't just
hiring one IT guy. It fundamentally changed the,
um... the overhead, the support structure needed
just to keep the place running. Totally. It re
-articulated what a school needs to function
and connect that to the teachers. Again, professional
development just exploded. Ah, yeah. Training.
Massive deepening there. Yeah. Teachers didn't
just need to know how to use the computer. They
needed ongoing help learning how to actually
teach effectively with it, how to fix problems,
how to manage a classroom full of devices. It
changed the job description, really, fundamentally.
The required skills just kept shifting. And these
new layers, like IT support and training, they
create their own needs, their own feedback loops.
It forces more and more adaptation, often stuff
nobody saw coming. So boiling this down for everyone
listening, the big takeaway seems to be. Adding
technology isn't just plugging something in.
Nope. Rarely that simple. It's more like a renovation.
It transforms the whole system, creates new kinds
of complexity, demands new roles, new skills.
It forces everything to keep changing. It's a
constant re -architecture like you said earlier.
Right. A perpetual beta almost. Which leads to
a good question to leave you with, maybe. Think
about your own world, work, life, whatever. Where
else do you see technology causing this structural
deepening? What new roles or maybe new complications
are popping up because of it? Something to chew
on.