Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ What Does Technology Want?

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

The title of this post is a play on the old Kevin Kelly book, What Technology Wants. The author's one-word answer is "understanding". But what would a machine's answer be? "Perhaps what technology feels, what technology wants, is right in front of us – we just can't relate to it: it already feels & wills but not in a way remotely like us. I find this a terrifying thought: not that technology doesn't feel, but that it feels in a way that is incomprehensible to us." This reminds me of Nagel's What is it Like to Be a Bat? We couldn't really know the answer. Same with a machine, then. What is it like to be a carrot? What is it like to be a calculator?

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
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Last Updated: Apr 19, 2024 6:58 p.m.

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