Power In Tech: 40 years apart

While technology possesses power in different ways over time in the ever changing digital era, the concept itself is not new. In fact, the parallels of the concerns over the power technology holds are striking when reading Winner’s Politics of Artifacts, an evaluation of technology’s political power published in 1980, and watching the recent 2020 social documentary The Social Dilemma. Despite having 40 years in between both pieces of work, the concerns Winner describes regarding newfound technology and its power are nearly the same to those described in The Social Dilemma, yet, spoken with one critical difference.

Both Winner and The Social Dilemma evaluate the concerns surrounding the power of the tech, yet they take two completely separate tones when describing said power. Winner optimistically asks the reader to evaluate technology in a holistic manner, providing a set of guidelines on distinguishing the effects from the technology itself. The Social Dilemma primarily focuses on the consequences of current technology becoming powerful, assessing technology’s influence in a more negative manner. What exactly has changed so that the tone towards technology has become sour, even though the tech we see today came from a place of good intent likewise to the tech Winner describes?

To answer this, it’s important to note that Winner’s description of technology is completely different to the tech we experience today, where Winner evaluates physical hardware while The Social Dilemma assesses software and online presence. With hardware, the scope of the tech’s power is somewhat visible, for example the effect automation had on job loss. Software and online presence, on the other hand, gains its power through the manipulation of human psychology as stated by The Social Dilemma, such as the influence of the notification feature on keeping users on the app.

Both are influential, however, the power software holds is much more discreet than the power of physical hardware. Given this, the contrast between both the stance taken on technology as well as the urgency can be explained by The Social Dilemma’s motive to bring a highly glossed over issue to light, while Winner is purely evaluating issues that already have some form of decent recognition. With this in mind, it becomes clear which evaluation of tech we should more so concern ourselves with, as the manner in which tech influences our lives has taken on a completely different form.