Chapter 8: Reading Response

Joudi Abou Ayed

So many concepts have caught my attention in this chapter. I feel like every designer needs to read it before they start planning their means and ends of their designs or project or whatever they're building. However, I'm only going to talk about what people think of the future. "Worry, Be Happy" - Ge, page 431. worrying and being happy (or excited and looking forward to better days) are both related to one thing; hope. When we have it we are happy and when we don't we are worried. My perspective on life has changed after reading Mark Manson's The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck and Everything is F*cked. I was always the kind of person who would tell the truth as it is, which is what I realized most people can't handle; the blunt truth. I needed someone to tell me to my face that I sucked in order for me to get my life together (I still don't haha). Anyway back to the topic of hope, in Everything is F*cked, Mark talks about hope and the reality of it. He bluntly explains that, based on facts, humanity is most likely going to end itself due to its lack of fast evolution. As Ge mentioned on page 404, "while technology changes rapidly, human nature does not". Mark goes deep into why. Why do we have Twitter instead of flying cars? Why do we have amazon instead of teleportation?...etc. This also has to do with the purpose of each design. In an ideal world, a designer would follow the basic ethical principles either mentioned by Ge or in general and that would make the world and the future a better and a hopeful place for sure. But that's not the case. Mark talks about how humans keep looking for a constant high. They're always asking for faster, more convenience, more entertainment and most importantly easier methods because they're prone to be lazy. On the other hand, Ge said that we should want more (page 403). My argument is how and why we want more. Does it make the future better to look forward to? And by that I don't mean the current future of wanted my Amazon package to arrive in a an hour rather than a day or less. Faster? Faster medicine. More convenience? For the less capable. More entertainment? Not that we don't have enough of that, but maybe purposeful entertainment where it doesn't just give instant and limited fake high, but actual beneficial improvement in character. However, Ge and Mark have one thing in common that I think (or hope) that most people agree upon, it's that technology is neither good nor bad, it's harmless when its creator's (a human creator) intensions are harmless and it's harmful when intensions are harmful. I don't what the future holds for humanity but I don't see it as bright as it should.