[liberationtech] No such thing as liberationtech [Was: Deep Divers]

[Yosem Companys]

I will just note that historically speaking, Liberationtech was born out of
a human-centered perspective in computer science, political science,
sociology of technology, and STS.

Co-founder Terry Winograd's foundational treatise for the field of HCI is
one of our foundational texts:
https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Computers-Cognition-Foundation-Design/dp/0201112973
.

Co-founder Larry Diamond's seminal book on liberationtech emphasized that
liberationtech is really "liberationtech" because the worthiness and
ethics/morality of technology depend both on values and use such that they
may be used for liberation and/or oppression:
https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/books/liberation-technology/.

Following the sociology of technology and STS, my own research on
liberationtech based on the history of the netroots movement suggests that
the values and use of technology are historically imprinted and socially
constructed: https://is.gd/urBnHn.

Finally, I will note that in terms of values we always tried to abide by
the UN Declaration of Human Rights in terms of both our research and
highlighting of activists around the world doing tech for good. (That said,
sometimes values that are considered good within that framework pose
contradictory demands, so there is no easy answer.)

YC

On Tue, May 5, 2020 at 7:39 AM Aram Sinnreich <aramsinnreich at gmail.com>
wrote:

> What do you make of Langdon Winner's work, arguing that sociotechnical
> artifacts have inherent "politics?"
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> > On May 5, 2020, at 10:33 AM, grarpamp <grarpamp at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Technology is but an agnostic tool.
> > There is no such thing as a liberation tech,
> > only applied tech via paths toward something.
> > One cannot apply a tech toward liberation
> > without first considering what a state of being
> > of actual liberation might variously be about,
> > to know where to go, what to make with the tech.
> > Democracy being nothing more than a
> > decentralized form of the murderous dictators
> > many claim to be liberating themselves or people from,
> > both forms hardly a state of liberation at all,
> > yet worshipped and profferred by all too many,
> > we therefore continue this random series
> > on path choices...
> >
> > How to be a tyrant. Sound Familiar?
> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4LtEciQUF8
> >
> > Deep Divers, let the balloon go!
> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbX-Bvb2u_w
> >
> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U3lEc-IFr8
> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWLntHoTgDA
> >
> > --
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>
> --
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