[Infrastructure-readinggroup] Personal technology paradox?

[David Palma]

Hi Troy,
Hi everyone,

I didn’t reply earlier but it would be great if we discuss this point in the coming session.
I do believe there was a tipping point where the personal [computer] technology stopped being aimed at serving a person, and persons (people) started serving the global technology [powers].

>From the readings for today, I extracted the need for “…a grander story from which to rationalize new technological investment…” and “…the turn from personal computing to ubiquitous computing” which had “…to be manufactured as self-­evident and inevitable.”

Maybe it was never personal computing once it left the hobbyist world, since “…the intractable role financial speculation and the construction of markets played in people’s
desire to even imagine what shape innovation might take.”

In the end it’s not about you and me, it’s about “…increased growth and shareholder value.”
That’s why today we have “…computer devices we never turn off, of networks and signals ever humming (…) [ensuring companies] are ever ready to capture more “value” in the form of our time and attention, our hardware upgrades, our service contracts, our content subscriptions.”

There seems to be little room for agency or consciousness in this tale and it seems “…that the dominant role computing plays in our everyday life might have more to do with conquest, control, and, especially, capital than freedom, creativity, or anything resembling progress.”

See you in a few minutes,
--
David

From: Infrastructure-readinggroup <infrastructure-readinggroup-bounces at criticalinfralab.net> on behalf of Troy Etulain <troy at edgecase.com>
Date: Tuesday, 18 February 2025 at 17:18
To: infrastructure-readinggroup at criticalinfralab.net <infrastructure-readinggroup at criticalinfralab.net>
Subject: [Infrastructure-readinggroup] Personal technology paradox?
Hi, Everyone--

To follow up on today's discussion, a question:

Does there exist a paradox wherein once a personal technology enters the body or otherwise becomes invisilble it is no longer personal? It seems this relates to agency and consciousness.

Maybe something to discuss in a fortnight?

Troy
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