Structure of the next part of the book: questions to ask about new technologies
We think technology makes our lives better, but what about...?
this chapter--does it really give us more freedom?

What is freedom?

• having more choices
• freedom to be ourselves, to be different
  
• having more free time? how is freedom different from convenience?
  
• freedom to have and express different opinions and have choices based on those opinions
  
• ability to move around, live where you want
• does freedom include anonymity to do something illegal or you wouldn't want known?
• freedom to not be disturbed
• "nobody should tell me what to do"
• freedom to not worry about other people?

Roe vs. Wade--reproductive choice

• principle: freedom extends only to where you harm someone else
• body autonomy is a particularly fundamental freedom
• the government cannot compel someone to donate a kidney, even to save someone else's life
• can the government compel someone with a serious contagious disease to get treatment or quarantine? (tuberculosis is the key example)
  
• who do we worry about in addition to our own freedom

The line of your freedom ends when you will harm someone else turns out not to be clear--often at the center of issues of freedom today
Technology makes the line more complicated

if technology is not deterministic but rather shaped by society:

• Nye argues we have choices about what direction technology will go in--how do we make them?
• How do we (as consumers or as voters or as engineers or managers) choose which technology is better?

  On what basis do we choose?

• which one works better (according to whom?)
• cost
• convenience
• ease of use
  
• reliability
• environmental concerns
• risk and safety
• we shouldn't play God (but that is hard to define)
• we would lose human variation, make people too much the same
• justice--what if one technology would help the poor more and another increase the gap between rich and poor
• does this technology contribute to or reduce human freedom
• the ability to be who we want to be and do what we want
• technology giving us more choices
  
• does it give us more ability to express ourselves
• follow our own interests
• being able to carry access to technology with you easily
• being able to go where you want to go
• having choices, being able to express ourselves as individuals
  

We can choose which technologies we want and therefore which impacts we get

are recent advances in technology liberating or do they reduce our choices?

• technologies enable us to do more things, and that is freedom of a sort
  
• do new technologies allow us to express our individuality more?

is the cell phone a liberating technology or does it take away freedom?

• you can talk whenever you want
  
• much easier to organize things quickly
• can take risks because you can easily call for help
• don't have to stay home to wait for phone calls
  
• phones can be tracked
  
• easier to consult with your parents
• people expect you to be on call when you are not at work
  
• can we have the advantages of the technology and minimize the disadvantages?
• we can choose to use the technology in ways that may have more benefits or do more harm
• I don't believe technology is inherently neutral, many technologies push us in one direction or another
  

computers give us opportunities, but Clemson requires everyone to have one

• since 2003 Clemson has required every undergraduate to have a laptop
• if it was required it could be included in financial aid packages
• some students complained they didn't really need it
• laptops are required but some professors don't allow them in class
• students didn't cooperate with very limited choices

Think more carefully about freedom (critical thinking)

• control of your own life--personal freedom
  
• you can go wherever you want--freedom of movement
• you can buy anything you want--free market but should there be some regulation
• freedom to do what you want so long as you don't hurt others
• freedom to make our own choices about what we want to buy
• choices that allow us to express ourselves
• but to what extent are we willing to pay more for freedom?
  
• thinking/political freedom
  
• freedom of information--information should not be kept secret
• freedom of speech--you express whatever opinions you want
• meaningful choice when you vote
  
• being able to share your creativity--be a creator rather than just a consumer
  
• freedom to be left alone, not watched or monitored
• making our lives easier/safer
  
• freedom from hardship

Nye asks: Technology gives us choices, but are they real choices? 
Is this just that you are given a choice what color your prison cell is painted
He is asking whether recent technologies are liberating. 
Some people would say, of course technology is liberating, it allows us to do lots of new things.  For example, as technology advances we can do more and more things on our cell phones.
But are those choices technology gives us the full range of choices we would want?
Or can we express our individuality only in a narrow box?
People used to think that technology was going to make us all the same:

• the Model T Ford is the extreme example of this--mass production tends to make things more uniform
  
• First we would all have one of a few different kinds of cars and houses, then we would start all thinking the same thoughts.
• You can see this fear of the machine swallowing us up in the Charlie Chaplin movie Modern Times
• Also in the book: 1984 and other dis-utopias
  

If this seems silly, consider:

• regional accents are much diminished due to radio and television
• it is hard to find a restaurant these days that isn't part of a chain (or a hotel...)
  
• Target has had success by selling the same products in all its stores (Walmart adjusts more to different areas)
• developments with rules to keep all the houses the same--in many areas you aren't allowed to paint your house purple. (example, and another)
  

In the 1960s one thing that protesting students said was that they didn't want to be part of the machine

Yet technology might take us in a different direction, sometimes called mass customization:

• each Dell computer is assembled to a particular customer's specifications
• clothing, shoes, and gear like book packs is being offered with custom features at a reasonable cost
• the Mini Cooper automobile offers a build your own option, meaning they will build it to your specifications

Technology gives us some choices:

• how limited are those choices?
• if everyone has the same choices is the total effect to make things more the same?
• 3-D printers make us less dependent on mass production
  

what are the relationships between freedom, having more choices, and expressing individuality

• being able to express individuality is a key part of personal freedom
• that is a different thing from political freedom
• having very few choices seems like a loss of personal freedom
• having very many choices may or may not be more freedom than having a moderate number of choices
  

We see technology serving our individuality

• appealing to customer interest in variety turns out to be a good business strategy
  
• cable TV meant much more choice of television channels
  
• the internet makes it easier to buy obscure things
  
• individual cell phones, ring tones
  
• in the mainframe era computers were a symbol of top down control, now the internet allows more individual expression
• we get advertisements aimed at our particular interests in the mail and on the internet

But some of that is only on the surface.                                                                                                                                                                                small houses

• computers give us opportunities, but Clemson requires everyone to have one
• what if Clemson said you had to have a Dell?  You would have many choices but that would take away a wider range of choices
  
• how disadvantaged are you if you don't have access to the internet?
• simple living--focus on what is important instead of buying so much stuff (voluntary simplicity)
• anti-consumerism
• many people would be interested in working 20% fewer hours for 20% less money and the same career opportunities
• local food movement
• technology gives us more and more things to buy, but that is beginning to seem pointless to some people
  

Consider recent research on prejudice built into technology--technologies may not work as well for everyone:

• this goes way back: photographic film was balanced to give good results for white faces, not black ones
• in 2009 there was a controversy over a Nikon camera that kept giving "Did someone blink?" error messages when photographing Asians
  
• fitness tracker technology is less reliable on dark skin--what if your company gives you benefits for using it? Even automatic sinks are unable to detect darker skin (because they use reflected infrared).
• if data that goes into training a system is biassed, the results will be also
• self-driving cars are 10% more likely to correctly identify white people as pedestrians than people with dark skin
  
• facial recognition is less accurate and more likely to identify dark-skinned people as criminals, both because of the data sets used for training and because of what features programmers have identified as significant. People think technology is neutral but it is not.
  
• neighborhoods are identified as having a high crime rate because police have been concentrated there in the past, catching more crimes in proportion to the number committed https://fair.org/home/black-communities-are-already-living-in-a-tech-dystopia/
• Companies like Grubhub and Uber don't serve some neighborhoods
  
• social media tends to feed people more extremist versions of their opinions
• some people have less freedom because technology is biassed against them