july

We've forgotten how to carry forward our respect for the power of what technology actually does. It's a tool, and a tool has always been, what? A weapon made for a human hand.

Bronze Age: Hand holds axe, splits skull
Industrial Age: Hand pulls trigger → bullet splits skull 
Information Age: Hand clicks mouse → algorithm → drone → missile → skull

If you think about it -- I mean really think about it -- all the technological 'tools' that reside in the British Museum, or The National Museum of Ireland -- are, you guessed it, weapons. We've never really stopped making weapons - we've just gotten better at hiding the violence behind intermediary systems. As technology has developed, we've just increased more and more intermediaries that abstracted away the violence further and further. 

We used to look the deer in the eye, and give our respect to the gods to the deer, feel the weight of taking its life. We choose violence, but we also must respect the consequences of our actions should we choose to do so. Look at the fucking deer in the eye. Look. And respect it. Then do it.

We’ve always built tools to kill, that’s what most ancient tech was. Spears, arrows, blades. The difference now is that the violence is abstracted. One click launches a drone. One algorithm decides who lives. We still choose violence, we’re just more removed from it.