Technology Is Not Neutral

As Morozov argues, Zuboff's take on surveillance capitalism is one which considers technology as being an external force, part of the environment to which social systems (such as firms) must adapt. Technology, in accordance with such a view, is something evolutionary and inevitable.

This nonsensical belief remains to a large extent unquestioned. Even many ardent critics of technology are quick to internalize the assumption implicit in this view when they agree that we face a choice of whether we put technology (currently AI) to good use or bad use. It’s up to us. Guns don’t kill people. The assumption here is that technology is neutral; an evolutionary external phenomenon to which we must adapt.

Unpacking this fairy tale of neutrality, Heidegger observed that the answer to the question "what is technology?" is obvious:

'Everyone knows the two statements that answer our question. One says: technology is a means to an end. The other says: technology is a human activity. The two definitions of technology belong together. '

Like Heidegger says, these two answers are not separable from one another. Rather, they presuppose one another: to procure means to an end makes no sense if there is no end in mind. An artefact is built with a (human) purpose, or end, in mind. The end to which the artefact is a means to is to some extent already given before the artefact is built. In other words, the artefact is to some extent already constitutive of the end it is supposed to be a means to.

If so, then technology is not neutral, nor is it something to which we must adapt to. Rather, it is a product which answers to the needs and desires of us humans who build it. There is nothing neutral about these needs and desires.

It is up to us how we deal with technology. But if we are to deal with it, we must stop lying to ourselves and others in holding ourselves back at the level of user responsibility. Although user responsibility is real, it is only half the story, and it is not the important half. We need to start questioning the purposes for which technology is developed.