Read Geek Heresy Online

Authors: Kentaro Toyama

Geek Heresy

BOOK: Geek Heresy
8.92Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Copyright © 2015 by Kentaro Toyama.

Published in the United States by PublicAffairs™, a Member of the Perseus Books Group

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address PublicAffairs, 250 West 57th Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10107.

PublicAffairs books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the U.S. by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, call (800) 810-4145, ext. 5000, or email
[email protected]
.

Book Design by Cynthia Young

Typeset in 11.5 Adobe Garamond Pro

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Toyama, Kentaro.

Geek heresy : rescuing social change from the cult of technology / Kentaro Toyama.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-61039-529-8 (ebook)

1. Technological innovations—Economic aspects.
    
2. Technological innovations—Social aspects.
    
3. Social change.
    
I. Title.

HC79.T4T675 2015

303.48’3—dc23

2014048936

First Edition

10
  
9
  
8
  
7
  
6
  
5
  
4
  
3
  
2
  
1

To my mother,

who nurtured what heart, mind, and will I have.

To my father,

who taught me to follow my aspirations.

To Rohan,

for whom I wish much intrinsic growth.

And to Bill Gates, cofounder of Microsoft

and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,

both of which gave me opportunities to learn

what I write about in this book.

G
ates once wrote, “The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.” (
The Road Ahead
, 1995)

CONTENTS

Introduction

Part 1

CHAPTER
1:
    
No Laptop Left Behind

                        
Conflicting Results in Educational Technology

CHAPTER
2:
    
The Law of Amplification

                        
A Simple but Powerful Theory of Technology’s Social Impact

CHAPTER
3:
    
Geek Myths Debunked

                        
Dispelling Misguided Beliefs About Technology

CHAPTER
4:
    
Shrink-Wrapped Quick Fixes

                        
Technology as an Exemplar of the Packaged Intervention

CHAPTER
5:
    
Technocratic Orthodoxy

                        
The Pervasive Biases of Modern Do-Gooding

Part 2

CHAPTER
6:
    
Amplifying People

                        
The Importance of Heart, Mind, and Will

CHAPTER
7:
    
A Different Kind of Upgrade

                        
Human Development Before Technology Development

CHAPTER
8:
    
Hierarchy of Aspirations

                        
The Evolution of Intrinsic Motivation

CHAPTER
9:
    
“Gross National Wisdom”

                        
Societal Development and Mass Intrinsic Growth

CHAPTER
10:
  
Nurturing Change

                        
Mentorship as a Social-Cause Paradigm

                        
Conclusion

Acknowledgments

Appendix: Highlighted Nonprofits

Notes

References

Index

INTRODUCTION

“T
alent is universal; opportunity is not.” That’s how Megan Smith, chief technology officer of the United States and former vice president of
Google.org
, began her opening remarks at the University of California, Berkeley, in the spring of 2011. She and I were on a panel titled “Digital Divide or Digital Bridge: Can Information Technology Alleviate Poverty?”
1
The event was held in South Hall, the campus’s oldest building but home to its youngest school – the School of Information – where scholars study the interaction between digital technology and human society. The hall was packed. The panel drew not only students and faculty, but also Bay Area impact investors, nonprofit leaders, and social entrepreneurs.

Google.org’s
motto at the time was “tech-driven philanthropy,” and Smith embraced it.
2
She implicitly agreed that talent was universal. But, she said, “opportunity is becoming more universal” as well. According to Smith, opportunity was expanding along with “the network,” by which she meant the Internet, mobile phone systems, and presumably the Google technologies riding on them.

That more people are becoming connected is a fact. By the end of 2014, there were nearly 3 billion people on the Internet. Sometime in 2015 the total number of mobile phone accounts will exceed the world population.
3
Both figures continue to grow. Smith suggested that these technologies bring people together, trigger revolutions, and make “all world knowledge . . . available online for free.” If she is
right, everyone everywhere will soon have plenty of opportunity: Talent is universal, and opportunity is the Internet.

The world’s leading technologists thoroughly agree, and they’re competing to speed things up. In 2009, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the key protocols that drive the Internet, founded the World Wide Web Foundation to spread the Web as “a global public good and a basic right.” Its tagline: “Connecting People. Empowering Humanity.”
4
A couple years later, Smith’s colleagues at Google began working to deliver WiFi through solar-powered balloons. CEO Larry Page says, “Two out of three people in the world don’t have good Internet access now. We actually think [balloon-delivered Internet] can really help people.”
5
Not to be outdone, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced
Internet.org
in 2013. “We’ve been working on ways to beam internet to people from the sky,” he posted.
6
He wants to reach remote places with infrared lasers and high-altitude drones.

BOOK: Geek Heresy
8.92Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

The Lamplighters by Frazer Lee
Until Spring by Pamela Browning
The Baker Street Jurors by Michael Robertson
Afraid by Jo Gibson
Stranger in Town by Brett Halliday
The Poison Morality by Stacey Kathleen
Death Benefits by Robin Morgan
Killing Me Softly by Kathryn R. Biel