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next Technology as a Relationship: trust as inherited behavior

Technology as Relationship

This is a third way to talk about technology.

As fluent behavior is a relationship with the world that feels like a conversation, fluency with technology is a relationship with humanity that feels like trust, at least, at its best. That is, trust is the bedrock that frees me for failure. But that freedom is quite rare. And yet, as a position in the world, the trust that enables risk is crucial. Without it I can’t even see the default, much less work against it.

In this Volkswagon commercial we recognize the strength of a trusting relationship, even though we laugh at the ineptitude and lack of fluency. In fact, we’re witnessing a common event: the transference of bad behavior, or at least, bad baseball-throwing behavior.

This way of talking about technology is important. In this example, the earnest persistence and generosity is disarming, and the son’s grit and determination to learn is admirable, but we misunderstand the scene entirely if we complain that they’re throwing the ball wrong. Of course, this kid is never to going to be fluent in the game of catch, at least, not with this teacher — but perhaps that isn't the point.

The connection with technology is this: if we don't acknowledge the way technology, as a gesture, alters experience — by revealing and concealing certain aspects of experience — then we risk missing the dialogic and relational characteristics at the core of the idea of technology, and we give up the hope of connecting with the world or with each other.

In the end, I'd argue, it's the relationship with experience that is most important. And being open to an arrangement of space and time that increases the chance of that relationship appearing should be the paramount goal of technology education.   

What I mean is, as an artist and as a teacher, closing myself off from failure is too large a risk — in that position all I’ll ever do is replay the defaults and biases that I inherit. In my own work and with my students, the first project is to open a relationship of trust.

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