Fundamentalism is the adherence to a set of propositions that cannot and will not be questioned. American society is in the thrall of such a fundamentalism that began with the arrival of the personal computer. Tech fundamentalism, pervasive in American society, holds as foundational that whatever the tech industry develops should immediately be made as broadly accessible as possible; a given that anything emerging from the tech industry is a vast improvement on all the ways we have done things in the past; finally, that anyone who suggests otherwise is a Luddite.
There are, however, absolutely no guard rails on the tech industry beyond what a very few individuals in the industry impose on themselves. The overriding drive is to innovate and get new product out before the rival company does. There is absolutely no consideration given to whether the innovation fills any real need, no consideration given to what negative effects it might have. Tech innovation is to be accepted and instantly adopted, without question, as an inevitable good. And yet the example of tech’s dangers and failed promises are legion.
Despite hundreds of billions of dollars expended in our schools over the past 25 years on hardware, software, licensing, internet connections, teacher training, and (oops, how embarrassing) the ever growing tech staff necessary to keep it functioning, American schools have seen a relentless decline in achievement in all subject areas. Tech has utterly failed its promise to work educational miracles and may, in fact, be fully complicit in that decline.
As a former teacher, I can affirm that there isn’t any tech that has filled what was truly a cogent, unmet need in my classroom. Tech has provided alternative ways to accomplish various tasks but has never actually improved on what was available. Spell check and Chatbots actually short-circuit or make actual mastery completely irrelevant. And yet we now have experts such as Helen Toner, artificial intelligence policy researcher, who in the recent New York Times article, “Where is A.I. Taking Us”, actually wrote, “Education was already due for a significant shake-up, so the need to adapt to new A.I. tools might be a blessing in disguise.” Right. Education, hamstrung by decades of adapting to ever shifting technology will now be blessed by its (note the terminology) “NEED to adapt to new A. I. tools.” Save the sinking ship by adding water.
That’s fundamentalism in its most naked form — ignore evidence and stick to the script. The Times article on AI also quoted historian Yuval Noah Harari who seemed to have a very different perspective on this new technology: “We are about to conduct the biggest psychological experiment in human history, on billions of human guinea pigs, and nobody can predict what the results will be.”
Gives me chills. You? Meanwhile the tech fundamentalists will assure us all is well as we hurtle, full throttle, into the brick wall.
Stephen Hussey lives in Greenfield.