We live in a world completely surrounded by technology – from our ubiquitous smartphones to the appliances we use at home to the machines we use at work.
The way we think, live and act is shaped by the technology around us.
We are all already living with cybernetic enhancements – they just happen to physically sit outside of us, and the interfaces are really slow.1I refer to the mouse, keyboards and screens.
Using technology is an advantage. It makes our lives easier, more seamless and more convenient.
But this is only if we use it properly.
Do you use your technology or does it use you?
Why We Use Technology
Traditional economic theory states that technology is an accelerating factor for productivity. It has the power to shift supply and demand curves like nothing else.
Without technology, we would be worse off.
Technology has allowed us to overcome environmental and other challenges and as a result, live better lives.2Just imagine living with no electricity, no phones, no Internet and no buildings.
Technology also represents the largest advancement ever in systems and their capabilities.
And for me, better systems means a better world.
Levels of Technology
Here is a simple model of looking at technology.
In the very centre we have personal technology.
This represents our phones, the apps we use and the conveniences we have in our homes.
Around this is our societal technology.
This is our communications networks, our access to fresh water, our manufacturing infrastructure. The things that our governments and societies worry about.
And around this is our global technology.
This is “future of humanity” stuff like spaceflight, energy production and environmental management. The things we all hope our governments worry about.
Do You Use Your Technology or Does It Use You?
When you use your technology, you can do amazing things at a superhuman level.
You are like an adventurer wandering the digital plains, finding, using, and discarding information and tools as you make your way through a connected world.
You take full advantage of your technology, and extend your reach beyond what you are physically capable of.
With lighting and electricity grids, you can be productive long after the sun has set.
With your smartphone, you can record thoughts, scenes, memories and the next world-changing idea anytime, and anywhere.
With the Internet, you have access to the entire accumulated knowledge of humankind, at your fingertips.
And you can do all this, while remaining who you are as an individual and a human being.
When technology uses you however, you become part of someone else’s system.
You find yourself unable to function without your smartphone, without your technology.
You become just another subroutine in someone else’s code.
You do things because a faceless software engineer somewhere wrote a function that conditions you to act and think in a certain way. This may be clicking on likes. This may be touching up images. This may be the way you input data into a computer at work.
You become a cog in a ruthlessly efficient system that generates value for others – but none for yourself.
You become a digital slave, building someone else’s empire.
How to Use Your Technology, and Not Let It Use You
Superhuman, or digital slave.
The choice is obvious.
So how do we choose the right path?
You simply ask yourself:
Do you operate the machine, or do you simply power it?
Do you write the code of your own life, or are you simply part of the code around us?
Do you use technology to produce value for yourself, or are you simply consuming and producing value for others?
Do you use social networks to reach new people and promote your message to the world… or do you simply consume and take in other people’s messages?
Do you use computer models to analyse data and speed up computations to make better business decisions… or do you simply do the data entry for someone else’s model?
What To Do Next
I don’t have all the answers to using technology, and making sure that we use it rather than it using us.
But I do know that technology is great, and that we should be using it to our advantage, to produce, not to consume.
Do you use your technology or does it use you?
- I refer to the mouse, keyboards and screens.
- Just imagine living with no electricity, no phones, no Internet and no buildings.
Photo by Jezael Melgoza.