In what appears to have become a series of talking head videos of me talking about stuff, here is some stuff I was talking about at the CaT conference.
I have, of late, been giving a talk about the nature of what we mean by technology, that some of this riffs off. I should probably post it.
In the meantime, the above seems to still make some sense in the very warm light of day, despite the unfortunate midframe grab.
We do have a liberal arts bias, which means we tend to think of technology as something 'other'.
The word technology is grown from the Greek tecknologia, which can be broken down into teckno - which means craft, or art - and logia, which means system, but stems itself from the same root as logos, which means word, speech act.
So it's the system of craft, but it comes from saying things through craft.
The way we currently use it was only coined in about 1830, which is crucial to know when understanding what it culturally means. It was only when technology began to move much faster than culture that it became an 'other' - something we didn't understand as everyday.
This is why we don't tend to think of writing as a technology - but of course it is.
It's the MOST important technology - the only one we use INSIDE OUR OWN MINDS, to help us think.
[At least until we get some decent wetware interfaces.]
I think it's important that we remember that technology expands the palette beyond words and pictures.
And that technology isn't just about utility.
It can be about emotion - especially awe.
As I allude to above, the NYTimes has done a study of the most shared articles on their website and they all trigger awe - which makes sense because
AWE IS SOMETHING YOU WANT TO SHARE
Which is why it incumbent upon us to always be looking for the awesome.
Ahem.
