Geek Heresy
Authors: Kentaro Toyama
Copyright © 2015 by Kentaro Toyama.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Toyama, Kentaro.
Geek heresy : rescuing social change from the cult of technology / Kentaro Toyama.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61039-529-8 (ebook)
1. Technological innovations—Economic aspects.
2. Technological innovations—Social aspects.
3. Social change.
I. Title.
HC79.T4T675 2015
303.48’3—dc23
2014048936
First Edition
10
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1
To my mother,
who nurtured what heart, mind, and will I have.
To my father,
who taught me to follow my aspirations.
To Rohan,
for whom I wish much intrinsic growth.
And to Bill Gates, cofounder of Microsoft
and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,
both of which gave me opportunities to learn
what I write about in this book.
G
ates once wrote, “The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.” (
The Road Ahead
, 1995)
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
1:
No Laptop Left Behind
Conflicting Results in Educational Technology
CHAPTER
2:
The Law of Amplification
A Simple but Powerful Theory of Technology’s Social Impact
Dispelling Misguided Beliefs About Technology
CHAPTER
4:
Shrink-Wrapped Quick Fixes
Technology as an Exemplar of the Packaged Intervention
CHAPTER
5:
Technocratic Orthodoxy
The Pervasive Biases of Modern Do-Gooding
The Importance of Heart, Mind, and Will
CHAPTER
7:
A Different Kind of Upgrade
Human Development Before Technology Development
CHAPTER
8:
Hierarchy of Aspirations
The Evolution of Intrinsic Motivation
CHAPTER
9:
“Gross National Wisdom”
Societal Development and Mass Intrinsic Growth
Mentorship as a Social-Cause Paradigm
Appendix: Highlighted Nonprofits
“T
alent is universal; opportunity is not.” That’s how Megan Smith, chief technology officer of the United States and former vice president of
Google.org
, began her opening remarks at the University of California, Berkeley, in the spring of 2011. She and I were on a panel titled “Digital Divide or Digital Bridge: Can Information Technology Alleviate Poverty?”
1
The event was held in South Hall, the campus’s oldest building but home to its youngest school – the School of Information – where scholars study the interaction between digital technology and human society. The hall was packed. The panel drew not only students and faculty, but also Bay Area impact investors, nonprofit leaders, and social entrepreneurs.
Google.org’s
motto at the time was “tech-driven philanthropy,” and Smith embraced it.
2
She implicitly agreed that talent was universal. But, she said, “opportunity is becoming more universal” as well. According to Smith, opportunity was expanding along with “the network,” by which she meant the Internet, mobile phone systems, and presumably the Google technologies riding on them.
That more people are becoming connected is a fact. By the end of 2014, there were nearly 3 billion people on the Internet. Sometime in 2015 the total number of mobile phone accounts will exceed the world population.
3
Both figures continue to grow. Smith suggested that these technologies bring people together, trigger revolutions, and make “all world knowledge . . . available online for free.” If she is
right, everyone everywhere will soon have plenty of opportunity: Talent is universal, and opportunity is the Internet.
The world’s leading technologists thoroughly agree, and they’re competing to speed things up. In 2009, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the key protocols that drive the Internet, founded the World Wide Web Foundation to spread the Web as “a global public good and a basic right.” Its tagline: “Connecting People. Empowering Humanity.”
4
A couple years later, Smith’s colleagues at Google began working to deliver WiFi through solar-powered balloons. CEO Larry Page says, “Two out of three people in the world don’t have good Internet access now. We actually think [balloon-delivered Internet] can really help people.”
5
Not to be outdone, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced
Internet.org
in 2013. “We’ve been working on ways to beam internet to people from the sky,” he posted.
6
He wants to reach remote places with infrared lasers and high-altitude drones.
