If you're going to immerse yourself in a project for three years, why not stake out a chunk of the world that is completely alien to you and go traveling?
Richard PowersRead
What we can do should never by itself determine what we choose to do, yet this is the way technology tends to work.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Technological capabilities shouldn't dictate our choices; rather, we should choose what to do deliberately.
In this quote, Richard Powers highlights the potential pitfalls of allowing technology to dictate our choices and actions. He suggests that, while technology offers various capabilities, our decisions should be guided by our values and intentions rather than by the mere existence of what technology can do. This serves as a reminder to maintain human agency in the face of advancing technological influence.
Themes
TechnologyChoicesHuman AgencyValuesDecisions
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about ethical technology usage at a tech conference.
More from Richard Powers
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The desire to live in our imagination is driven by this suspicion that we're disembodied sensibilities cobbled into our bodies. That idea has infused most of human thought since the very beginning.
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I really like science because it seems to be that place where you get the big picture, everything connects.
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We build our technologies as a way of addressing all our anxieties and desires. They are our passions congealed into these prosthetic extensions of ourselves. And they do it in a way that reflects what we dream ourselves capable of doing.
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I write the way you might arrange flowers. Not every try works, but each one launches another. Every constraint, even dullness, frees up a new design.
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