Technology in Society

This book looks at the changing continuum that links individuals, communities and society. An outline of Aspirational Algorithms (AA) and Valuable Wearables is presented as tools to shift from an AI culture to the cultivation of Augmented Humanity (AH). The human mindset that is behind the design and use of technology determines the outcomes of technology. If the intended outcome is the common good, then the preceding human aspiration must be geared toward that goal. Only technology that is conceived with the aspiration of a society that lifts individuals to fulfill their potential can be a game-changer for good.

The harmful side of even relatively benign technology is plain to see, but is hardly ever discussed. This book is critical of many aspects of technology, but it intends to evaluate each aspect of technology based on a harm/benefit tradeoff, showing that the best technologies are naturelike and are not harmful at all.

In Technology of the Oppressed, David Nemer draws on extensive ethnographic fieldwork to provide a rich account of how favela residents engage with technology in community technology centers and in their everyday lives. Their stories reveal the structural violence of the information age. But they also show how those oppressed by technology don't just reject it, but consciously resist and appropriate it, and how their experiences with digital technologies enable them to navigate both digital and nondigital sources of oppression—and even, at times, to flourish.

The integration and use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in African countries is increasingly observable in various sectors of activity (banking, education, trade, etc.) despite a digital divide still relevant. An overall positive and even utopian momentum is generally heard about the contribution of digital technologies to the development of African states. The adoption or appropriation of digital technologies by Africans is presented in many speeches by politicians or institutions involved in the field of cooperation and international development as an important issue for the development of this continent.

Critically examining the fears that commonly surround young children's play involving digital technologies, this book seeks to address each of the negatives and present the positive possibilities of technology when it comes to early childhood.