Drewch – ManifestoReading

2. The Critical Engineer raises awareness that with each technological advance our techno-political literacy is challenged.

This tenet of the manifesto is interesting to me because I have seen its effects in action. The stereotype of the computer-illiterate parent/grandparent is based on this. The huge, sweeping adoption and evolution of computers left generations of individuals, born and raised during technologically simpler times, in the dust. Then came phones and social media, and warnings of becoming slaves to the instruments. This trend isn’t just limited to electronic inventions, however. The first time the printing press was adopted, it was violently opposed because of how it would “create forgetfulness in the learners’ souls, because they will not use their memories,” or something like that. Even further back, writing was treated the same way. Whatever the next step may be, be it AR or AI, I’m ready to hear all about the moral and social outcries.