We Have Root

Introduction

Why I Write about Tech for Popular Audiences

I write essays because I enjoy it. It’s fun, and I’m good at it. I like the exposure. Having an essay published in a popular and influential newspaper or magazine is a good way to get new readers. And having to explain something to a general audience in 1,200 words is a good way for me to crystallize my own thinking.

That’s not all: I also write because it’s important.

I consider myself a technologist. Technology is complicated. It requires expertise to understand. Technological systems are full of nonlinear effects, emergent properties, and wicked problems. In the broader context of how we use technology, they are complex socio-technical systems. These socio-technical systems are also full of even-more-complex nonlinear effects, emergent properties, and wicked problems. Understanding all this is hard: it requires understanding both the underlying technology and the broader social context. Explaining any of this to a popular audience is even harder. But it’s something that technologists need to do.

We need to do it because understanding it matters.

What really matters is not the technology part, but the socio-technical whole. Addressing Congress in a 2011 essay, journalist Joshua Kopstein wrote: “It’s no longer OK not to understand how the Internet works.” He’s right, but he’s also wrong. The Internet is pervasive and powerful precisely because you do not need to understand how it works. You can just use it, just as ...