I have to acknowledge and accept the fact that I use tools built by awful people to create beautiful things.
As the author of this article, Ankur Sethi, ponders, why is it that as people interested in technology we often don’t hold the rest of our consumption and use to the same standards as the digital world? Do we change where we buy our clothes and choose which car we drive based on similar ethical standards to those we use when we select our operating systems and digital platforms?
It’s a reminder, I guess, that there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism. But I, for one, can still try.
We’ve structured our society so that the best products and services are made by the worst people in the world. Of course you can deliver packages earlier than everyone else if you overwork your employees. Of course you can sell the fastest computers at the cheapest prices if you keep moving your manufacturing operations to countries with the worst labor and environmental laws. Of course you can build the smartest AI models if you slurp up everybody else’s intellectual property without asking for consent first.
It makes little difference to how tech businesses operate when a smattering of concerned individuals opt out of using their products and services. Things will only change when democratically elected governments across the world step in with regulation, drag Big Tech through the courts, and fine them billions of dollars.
Things will only change when being an asshole stops being a competitive advantage.
Until that day arrives, I have to learn to live in a state of tension with my tools. I have to acknowledge and accept the fact that I use tools built by awful people to create beautiful things.
Source: Ankur Sethi
Image: Sigmund