Midnight Pub

trickle-down tech

~tetris

Technology as a Commodity

Whenever someone uses the term "trickle-down" in a performative (usually economic) sense it invokes a feeling of warm apathy, like a high profile politician promising the passive benefits of his high nutrient diet as he smiles and pisses against your leg.

That being said, there is one instance of trickle-down theory where I do believe that the benefits are actually passed on from the top to the bottom - and that's: technology.

I don't see technology as something that can really be hoarded or deprived from others¹.

For example, if someone invents an expensive way to desalinate water, then yes, only the rich will be able to afford it. But progress waits for no one - whether it be from the R&D division of a Tech Firm, or fresh out of Academia², or just some rando working in his back yard - someone will find a cheap way to desalinate water, and bring the fire to the people so to speak.

Maintaining Tech Dominance

We live in an age now where Big Tech™ are trying to take control over our lives by weaving adverts and dark tracking patterns into every facet of our digital experience. And though it seems like they are succeeding, there are enough of us who will seek alternatives and write new communication protocols that break free from this trend.

Some of these protocols (and the communities around them) will thrive, and others will fail, but they will ultimately provide an alternative to the status quo that will slowly gather strength as more and more people begin to see the benefits of the alternative. The transition won't be as quick as we want it to be, but it will happen.

It's my belief that not one single entity can have a hegemony over tech for very long, and given the rapid pace at which tech is developed/released, those periods of dominance get ever smaller and smaller. Big Brother only wins if no one ever innovates, and that is in my opinion virtually impossible to guarantee.

To paraphrase a quote from Nancy Kress's *Beggars In Spain* trilogy:

> "It's not about who should control technology. It's about who can."

Footnotes

1: at least not for long, although the means for producing the tech (e.g. a killer robot) can be.

2: where arguably private industry get a lot of their most highly vetted ideas and their freely trained labor from.

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Replies

~rex wrote (thread):

One of the best examples of trickle down tech is GPS which was created by the US military. No doubt this has been a huge boon for most people, it has quite literally transformed the world in countless ways. It even spawned a new hobby - Geocaching. Imagine if we still had to use mapquest...that would be terrible.

~ns wrote (thread):

I've used the phrase trickle-down tech in a comment here last month. I completely agree with your points. In the face of political uncertainty and democratic subversion of which I am individually incapable of affecting for the better, I feel like the next best thing I can do is to help the world develop technologically in such a way that there's no alternative but to raise the floor for standards of living.

~inquiry wrote (thread):

Not exactly on topic, but someday I hope to remember tech that didn't seem like more work/frustration than it was worth.

Said another way, my leg's gotten nasty wet on tech promises more than once on this trip....