No one’s coming. It’s up to us. – Dan Hon
Making the case for humane technology. The photos of old Usborne futuristic books brought back a lot of memories. I particularly liked the phrase “inadvertent algorithmic cruelty”.
Don’t Be Evil – Fred Turner on Utopias, Frontiers, and Brogrammers – Logic
An interview with a Stanford professor about techno-utopianism (and there was I thinking I coined that phrase) and the ethical frameworks used by software engineers. Full of deep wisdom and throwaway wisdom.
The tech industry needs a moral compass – Rachel Coldicutt – Medium
Another new phrase (to me): Tech Humanism. While I’m not sure I 100% agree with all of the proposed solutions in this article, I’m absolutely in agreement that we need to start the conversation. It’s becoming increasingly clear to me that as technologists we are gaining increasing power, and we’re long overdue a conversation about the responsibility side of that equation.
Advice to the newish programmer – Tom MacWright
A wise article that also offers a pretty good explanation of programming for non-programmers (spoiler alert: everything is pretty much broken).
Has Anyone Seen the President? – Michael Lewis – Bloomberg
Michael Lewis has a really lovely writing style, and this article, ostensibly about President Trump but really about Steve Bannon and the politics of anger, offers some insight into how US politics arrived at its current state.
