Comments on: The Darkside of Technology http://www.greenbelt.org.uk/blog/2009/04/the-darkside-of-technology/ Musings on the world of faith, arts and justice, from Greenbelt HQ Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:21:52 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Paul http://www.greenbelt.org.uk/blog/2009/04/the-darkside-of-technology/comment-page-1/#comment-191 Paul Sat, 04 Apr 2009 00:05:35 +0000 http://www.greenbelt.org.uk/blog/?p=341#comment-191 Maybe the dark-sided techno-wizards who don't want to share their secrets are the grown up versions of those geeky kids the cool kids used to mock? Years of mockery could give you a jaundiced outlook on life, all right. Except that often it doesn't. Sir Tim you know about. But there is a whole movement of wizards and geeks who give away the results of their work, for free, to techies and non-techies alike. That's why there is a free web browser called firefox (and why MS started improving theirs again). It's why there is a free alternative to Word, and Excel, and Powerpoint. It's why there are even several free alternatives to Windows. And free software for education, for business, for fun. Not all wizards have gone to the dark side - even if they are mocked by those who do not care or understand. And I'm not sure that ALL good technology should be easy. Tech for every day use, perhaps - but there are some things that are difficult. You can't demand that technology defy the rest of life, to be always easy. Great technology can help - but the universe can't always be dumbed down. Maybe the dark-sided techno-wizards who don't want to share their secrets are the grown up versions of those geeky kids the cool kids used to mock? Years of mockery could give you a jaundiced outlook on life, all right.

Except that often it doesn't. Sir Tim you know about. But there is a whole movement of wizards and geeks who give away the results of their work, for free, to techies and non-techies alike. That's why there is a free web browser called firefox (and why MS started improving theirs again). It's why there is a free alternative to Word, and Excel, and Powerpoint. It's why there are even several free alternatives to Windows. And free software for education, for business, for fun.

Not all wizards have gone to the dark side – even if they are mocked by those who do not care or understand.

And I'm not sure that ALL good technology should be easy. Tech for every day use, perhaps – but there are some things that are difficult. You can't demand that technology defy the rest of life, to be always easy. Great technology can help – but the universe can't always be dumbed down.

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