That the poor are invisible is one of the most important things about them. They are not simply neglected and forgotten as in the old rhetoric of reform; what is much worse, they are not seen.
Michael HarringtonRead
If there is technological advance without social advance, there is, almost automatically, an increase in human misery.
Interpretation
Technological progress must be accompanied by social progress, or it can lead to increased suffering.
This quote by Michael Harrington emphasizes the importance of balancing technological advancements with social improvements. It suggests that if technology progresses without addressing social issues, such as inequality and poverty, it can exacerbate human suffering rather than alleviate it, leading to a society where only a few benefit from advancements while others are left behind.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of ethics in technology, you could quote Harrington to highlight the need for social considerations.
That the poor are invisible is one of the most important things about them. They are not simply neglected and forgotten as in the old rhetoric of reform; what is much worse, they are not seen.
Technology and comfort - having those, people speak of culture, but do not have it.
Ultimately, our ideas about robots are not about robots. The robot is a canvas onto which we project our hopes and our dreams and our fears... they become embodiments of those hopes and dreams and fears.
A design is intuitive when people just know what to do and they don’t have to go through any training to get there When a design is not intuitive, our attention moves away from what we’re trying to accomplish to how we can get the interface to accomplish what we want.
Skill in the digital age is confused with mastery of digital tools, masking the importance of understanding materials and mastering the elements of form.
Engineers and entrepreneurs are fundamentally dissatisfied with the way the world is and want to make it better. There are so many things you could do with technology if you can match it up with real problems.
Today, if you have an Internet connection, you have at your fingertips an amount of information previously available only to those with access to the world's greatest libraries - indeed, in most respects what is available through the Internet dwarfs those libraries, and it is incomparably easier to find what you need.
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