Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

I am mostly a techno-optimist, and it might be because I'm old enough to actually remember what things were like before the internet and such. In this article, Jonny Thomson writes that we need three things to be techno-optimists: a belief that good prevails over bad, especially in human nature; affirmations of improvement over some period of time; and a way to measure those improvements. I find that I really only need the second. I don't blindly believe in the good, because I can see ugly for what it is and know that we have to push back. And I equate measurement with dysfunction. We measure for the good only if we're not able to recognize the good. Being a techno-optimist is, to me, most of all, about agency. But nobody gives us agency; we have to take it.

Today: 1060 Total: 1067 [Direct link] [Share]


Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

Copyright 2024
Last Updated: Mar 30, 2024 12:55 a.m.

Canadian Flag Creative Commons License.

Force:yes