Moving Fast and Breaking Everything

The job of a developer is creating software, not changing the world. But to even the most focused developer, it’s now obvious that to create software is to change the world. Information technology is changing everything in personal lives and public life: social relations, the nature of work, what an enterprise is, and perhaps even the basis of trade itself. As developers, should we care about this, or is it someone else’s problem? This session explores conflicting ideas about info-capitalism and its future and attempts to draw out implications for ourselves.

Video of an earlier version of this talk is at https://t.ly/gL359

Transcript

1. Moving Fast and Breaking Things Everything Oracle CodeOne 2019 #mfbe @mauricenaftalin
2. #mfbe @mauricenaftalin Maurice Naftalin Java 5 Java 8 2013 2014 20152017
3. #mfbe @mauricenaftalin What It’s Like Being Old… You remember weird things…
4. #mfbe @mauricenaftalin … things that didn’t 
 seem very significant 
 at the time … What It’s Like Being Old…
5. #mfbe @mauricenaftalin … but most of all you remember all those missed investment opportunities What It’s Like Being Old…
6. #mfbe @mauricenaftalin Information – a Scarce Resource
7. #mfbe @mauricenaftalin Tech is Changing Everything
8. #mfbe @mauricenaftalin Humans Create Technology and then…
9. #mfbe @mauricenaftalin Technology Changes Humans
10. #mfbe @mauricenaftalin Fire Cooked Food More energy Smaller jaws
11. #mfbe @mauricenaftalin Writing Economics Politics
12. #mfbe @mauricenaftalin Railways Economics Politics Culture
13. #mfbe @mauricenaftalin Information Technology Economics Politics Culture ?
14. #mfbe @mauricenaftalin Cultural Change: Attentional Smartphone as experiment: “Impulsivity Training Device”
 (Williams, Stand Out of Our Light) Attentional devices: – intermittent variable rewards – use of colour – infinite feeds and autoplay
15. #mfbe @mauricenaftalin Your Attention is Valuable! “The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads.” “At Netflix, we are competing for our customers’ time, so our competitors include Snapchat, YouTube, sleep, etc.” “… about 450 million social media comments a year. The Chinese regime avoids arguing with skeptics or discussing controversial issues. The goal of the operation is instead to distract the public and change the subject.”
16. #mfbe @mauricenaftalin This Morning, in the Guardian…
17. #mfbe @mauricenaftalin Economic Adaptation New business models: • advertising • lean platforms Transformation of existing models: • product transformation • supply-chain integration
18. #mfbe @mauricenaftalin Political Impact Well-known impacts: • Twitter as communication – and distraction • Facebook as a news medium • Proliferating scrutiny • Technological unemployment but also… • Code as power • Algorithmic (in)justice • Codifying values
19. #mfbe @mauricenaftalin Where Are We Going?
20. #mfbe @mauricenaftalin What Can Engineers Do? Some options: • Reclaim your attention! • #wewontbuildit #techwontbuildit • Innovation within the tech sector • Collaborate outside the tech sector • Be open-minded!
21. #mfbe @mauricenaftalin Further Reading • Jamie Susskind: Future Politics • Adam Greenfield: Radical Technologies • Nick Srnicek: Platform Capitalism • James Williams: Stand Out of Our Light • Dave Eggers: The Circle • Philip K. Dick: everything he ever wrote… A very small sample: