Vessyl, #whitepeopleproblems, and Silicon Valley’s Insularity
Making the rounds today is this article from Valleywag, highlighting a video from Vessyl1 with “tech’s finest thought leaders” calling the cup “indistinguishable from magic.” Because that’s just how Silicon Valley rolls.
As I posted on Facebook, I basically have two problems with this device:
The fact that some guy in Silicon Valley dedicated 7 years of his life to designing a technologically-enhanced cup is simply a colossal misplacement of time and resources when we have much more pressing issues to be dealing with as a society. It is increasingly becoming apparent to me that SV and the tech industry are focusing their t on #whitepeopleproblems.
While I am very pro-technology generally, I don’t think we think enough about the mental processes that will atrophy as we outsource more of our moral/social thinking to technology like this. Like, if we can’t say no to soda because a machine didn’t tell us not to, we’re screwed in much more significant ways.
In this case, I had more of a visceral reaction to first.2 I’m frustrated that we’ve gotten to the point where our thought leaders in technology think a smart cup is a “revolution.” We have a group of people who are so insulated from the real, lived, day-to-day lives of people in the rest of this country
Don’t get me wrong: The people behind this cup are likely brilliant engineers, but therein lies the rub. The greatest minds of our generation think our biggest problem is not knowing how many calories are in a cup of soda, or coffee, or whatever. He spent seven years working on this thing. You have to be really divorced from the daily struggle if this is where you look when you’re trying to solve problems.
And so this becomes the narrative of tech and Silicon Valley generally. For them, all the “hard problems” are either solved or aren’t worth the time to investigate. Or something. Let’s not worry about hunger, poverty, lack of health care, or any of the myriad issues that we need to deal with.
This is not a revolution, people. This is not the world-changing technology you are looking for. This is a toy, a curiosity for wealthy techies who already have all their basic needs met, a solution to #whitepeopleproblems, not #realworldproblems.
And this is the culture we’re left dealing with. Silicon Valley doesn’t reify solutions to tough problems; it’s all flashy toys for the technorati.
That wouldn’t be a problem if they were to admit that’s all they’re doing, but Silicon Valley is the new Wall Street: a culture that’s primarily doing very mundane things that acts like it’s doing the Lord’s Work.
You’re not. Sorry.