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What Are We Building Here? Software Ethics in a Time of Surveillance – Andrew C. Stone, stone.com pdf | 9 | ||||
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On our devices, we're constantly put into a seeking mode, looking for new texts, new tweets, new emails, new “shinys”. Think how you feel when you get a message versus when you don't. You might feel elated and worthwhile. That's the effect of dopamine on the brain. In Skinnerian psychology, this seeking loop is called variable-ratio schedule, a response is reinforced after an unpredictable number of responses. It's the same mechanism which causes gambling and lottery addictions, only we have an entire society being susceptible to the addiction. Ever forgotten your phone, and went back to get it no matter how late you were going to be? There's actually a name for this medical condition: Nomophobia - the no mobile phone phobia, or the anxiety we feel when we don't have a phone. That's a long way for society to come in just 7 years. 
It represents an odd plot twist on the story, which was going quite well: the Exile into the desert of NeXT to find the true believers who carry the Prodigal Son back to Apple to bring science, music, art, culture and enlightenment to everyone.Instead we've built the ultimate surveillance state and filled it full of mindless candy-crushing zombies. So now what do we do? We have been part of creating this, and now we must take part in redirecting it. I want to share a vision I had on my birthday this year, and to do that, let's get into the right mental attitude. Last year, during my #altCONF talk DMT, the NeXT and the Soul of the Human/Machine, I demonstrated a power breathing exercise - let's do it again. | |||||