the Future Doesn't Need Us
Tech 63100: Global Perspectives on Emerging Technologies
Spring 2024
What Tech Calls Thinking
Question: What are the different types of software platforms?
Content
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Marshal McLuhan is famous for claiming that the way radios, TVs, or phones address us is more important than the content. Silicon Valley took hold of this claim acting on the presumption that shaping media is better than shaping content as those who make the platform are the ones that become billionaires. This approach to building platforms over content allows tech companies to limit their responsibility on the content itself. Unlike a publisher who is editorially responsible for the content they publish, tech companies are able to withdraw their responsibility by claiming that it is their users who publish the content on their platforms. And while users are the ones providing labor to create content that attracts and retains the userbase, they are not monetarily rewarded as a content creator of traditional media like a writer at a newspaper or broadcaster of a newscast. They are simply reward through gamified means like hearts, likes, and stars (Daub, 2020).​​
Today, platform has come to mean different things in the software world outside of publishing content. However, the commonality remains that they provide an environment for users to create whether it be content or capability with the same ultimate goal of monetizing without taking accountability for what is created on the platform itself. Tawde (2023) summarizes the various software platforms as follows:
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Utility Platforms attract subscribers with a beneficial, typically free service with the intent to increase the user base. Once the user base is created, then the data collected from the user base (preferences, online behavior, contact information, etc.) is exposed to a secondary channel that pays for access to those users and their data such as advertisers, insurance companies, travel services, etc.
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Technology Platforms provide components or services used in a wide range of products such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, Twilio, etc. In this model, the developer owns the user, leveraging the technology platform for increased capability.
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Computing Platforms allows interaction between platform users and 3rd party developers. In this model, the computing platform owns the users allowing developers to expose their capabilities to a larger user base via the computing platform.
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Data Harvesting Platform establish user agreements to allow the platform to harvest user data for access to the service the platform provides to the user.
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Content Distribution Platform connects consumer touchpoint owners to content owners. Content owners want more touchpoints and touchpoint owners want more appealing content to attract end users.
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On-demand Service Platform provides end-to-end services delivered by a network of independent service providers
Technology and Society
Question: Will robots take over the world?
Why the Future Doesn't Need Us
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George Dyson warns that "in the game of life and evolution there are three players at the table: human beings, nature, and machines." Joy (2000) then posits that in a completely free market place, industries would compete vigorously among themselves for matter, energy, and space incidentally driving the prices for these good beyond human reach. Unable to afford life's necessities, biological humans would be squeezed out of existence and superior robots would remain. And robots can dangerously self-replicate with the potential to download human consciousness or, worse, clones humans.
Not all fear a robot uprising. While there have certainly been advances in robotics and artificial intelligence, robots are still limited in their ability to sense their environment and will never able able to identify visual objects or speech with the reliability and flexibility of humans. This human fear has more to do with the human fear of each other - and inability to make moral decisions - than anything inherently technical with machines (University of Cambridge, 2024).
References
​Daub, A. (2020). What Tech Calls Thinking. New York: FSG Originals.
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Joy, B. (2000). Why the Future Doesn't Need Us. In D.G. Johnson, & J. M. Wetmore, Technology and Society: Building our Sociotechnical Future (pp. 55 - 66). Cambridge: The MIT Press.
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Tawde, S. (2023, Jun 6). Software Platforms. Retrieved January 2024 from EDUCBA BLOG: https://www.educba.com/software-platforms/.
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University of Cambridge (2024). We ask the experts: will robots take over the world? Retrieved Jan 2024 from University of Cambridge Research: https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/discussion/we-ask-the-experts-will-robots-take-over-the-world.