“I am a former engineer and I was really excited about the possibility of building better technology to serve humanity. A lot of us as engineers have this belief that if you build a tool you somehow can empower humans economically or socially. The idea of building a better technology often means more efficiency.” MeanHumanityBeliefTechnologyPossibilityBuildingExcitedEmpoweringEfficiency Author:Ramesh Srinivasan
“When I was in graduate school at MIT I was trying to think about how to develop software and systems for farmers and villagers in India. In the process of doing that, I realized that my reference point was internal to the laboratory, rather than in the communities that I was wanting to serve. I realized that I could no longer assume what a good technology looks like from inside the laboratory; instead, I had to be in the world with people. Not just designing for them but with them.” PeopleThinkingWorldTryingSchoolCommunityTechnologyDesignAssumingI RealizedFarmersSoftwareGraduatesLaboratoryGraduate School Author:Ramesh Srinivasan
“Technology is nothing but an expression of human values. It's not neutral, it's not about efficiency, it's about people's values and their knowledge.” ValuesTechnologyEfficiencyHuman Values Author:Ramesh Srinivasan
“Marshall McLuhan prediction was some kind of electronic communication technology would emerge to instantaneously connect the world so much so that the whole globe would be like a village.” WorldKindTechnologyCommunication Author:Ramesh Srinivasan
“The point I'm trying to make is if these networks of communication technologies are owned, monetized, surveilled, and classified by those with power - very few people, mainly white men in Silicon Valley - then it is a global village build upon the ideas, visions, words, and protocols of the few. So it's not global - it's like Epcot center. It's like Disneyland: a small worldview of the larger world.” PeopleMenWorldTryingVisionTechnologyCommunicationWorldviewDisneylandSmall World Author:Ramesh Srinivasan
“We are at a moment that some of the Silicon Valley companies are feeling the pressure. These days the founder of Twitter apologized that his company promoted some of the things that elected Donald Trump. You don't see that much of these apologizing from Google. From Mark Zuckerberg you are hearing a little bit more of it, but he is a little more "Oh, well, this is what happens because the internet scaled up and everybody has fake news; oh, we are gonna build a better technology".” MomentsFeelingsTechnologyInternetFakeFoundersGoogleApologizingOh Well Author:Ramesh Srinivasan
“This is what engineers in Silicon Valley typically do. "Ok, well, of course there are some problems of our technology because it is so excellent and is so global so we are just gonna build a better one."” ProblemTechnologyExcellent Author:Ramesh Srinivasan
