Today’s digital era finds itself at a crossroads between being a helpful tool that connects us and a distraction from reality and forgotten sense of purpose. I believe our current technologies have the ability to affect change if we rethink the social construct with which we use them. Maybe certain emerging tech can help humanize the machines that we have so openly embraced and possibly teach us about ourselves in ways that were not possible before. In today’s world of insurmountable problems and injustices, I’d like to discuss 4 ways in which emerging technologies can shape a more empathetic world.
#1 Potential to provide unbiased informed data about your context
Current technologies are capable of understanding context and all we need is a more intuitive way of accessing information about that context. The brilliant inventor of SixthSense Technology, Pranav Mistry, discusses similar ideas to this in his TED Talk, The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology, noting, “Unlike me, humans are not actually interested in computing. We are interested in information. We want to know about things. We want to know about dynamic things going around.” “I think that integrating information to everyday objects will not only help us to get rid of the digital divide, the gap between these two worlds, but will also help us, in some way, to stay human, to be more connected to our physical world. And it will actually help us not end up being machines sitting in front of other machines.”
#2 Redirects your focus to what really matters
Today our tech tends to alienate others and mostly feed our own interests. It’s been designed this way to keep you interested and keep you scrolling. Humans have become so connected to the digital world that we have become disconnected from reality and real issues in the world. Emerging technologies have the potential to redirect your attention back onto the physical world and reconnect you with reality. In a way this forces you to empathize more actively because you’re becoming educated on what’s around you. You could argue that this may lead to further prejudice but prejudice occurs due to lack of knowledge and only through understanding more about the world outside our own, can we begin to turn prejudice and fear into conversation and a sense of community.
#3 provides framework for more unbiased and inclusive communication
The beginning of this idea comes from my desire to connect people in unbiased and well-informed ways. Imagine being able to communicate and interact with someone who has no hearing and they are also able to communicate and interact with you. Or even having the ability to have a conversation with someone that doesn’t speak your language. Inclusiveness is where these ideas take off for me. It’s about creating a world where people have a more equal ability and comfort to interact with society and the world around them.
Sarah Jeong discusses how technology could ‘disrupt’ racism and sexism, noting, “Uber is an example – albeit an imperfect one – of a technology that has had unintentional effects on entrenched and sometimes personalized discrimination: the inability of many African-Americans to flag down a taxi in cities.”
#4 Gives people the ability to communicate with others outside their community
Virtual reality allows people to enter worlds that are unlike our own and judgement occurs through your actions in the virtual world instead of your appearance. This is kind of a half step towards empathizing with individuals unlike yourself. VR does allow you to enter worlds or become characters that are unfamiliar to you but only if you choose to explore in that way. AR allows you to take action and make choices based on data about what’s around you and gives you information based on your context. This may allude to empathizing with others and understanding more about your surroundings in an objective way. This differs from today’s digital world because today most of the data you’re receiving is related to a context you currently aren’t occupying. So there’s a disconnect and it’s easy to make assumptions without understanding the context. The goal is for cultures to mix and become more open to different faces embracing other cultures.
Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic talks about how technology can help organizations reduce racism, noting, “algorithms can be trained to map the social networks in a team or organization, identifying individuals who are excluded from social interactions. Overlaying that data to demographic information on diversity (race or otherwise), could help organizations “model” inclusion digitally, using passive and non-invasive measures.” “The point is that technology could be more accurate – and less biased – than humans, or at least that it could help humans be less biased.”
A more informed and educated people leads to a well-informed and educated understanding of the world and each other. This is the main reason why I believe emerging technologies have the ability to form a more socially responsible world.
To bring things full circle, This is what Pranav Mistry is up to now.
-Derek
