Enlightenment to Entanglement: How to Think About Technological Complexity

In this salon, writer and scientist Samuel Arbesman leads a discussion around how to think about and live with the complex technologies around us.

From machine-learning systems and desktop computers, to our automobiles and the infrastructure of the Internet, we are in an era of complex technologies, ones that are increasingly incomprehensible. And this is true not just for everyday users who might be confounded by the nature of smartphones and their computer’s software, but even for the experts who work with massive complex systems on a regular basis, or even built them. Regardless of our relationship with technology—users or builders—we require new ways of approaching these systems.

In this wide-ranging discussion, we’ll talk about everything from legacy code and AI to how our children should engage with technology to whether we have truly left the Enlightenment for the Entanglement.

Suggested Readings:

• Everything Is Overcomplicated: An internet outage exposes the gap between how we think technology might work and how it actually does.
• It’s complicated: Human ingenuity has created a world that the mind cannot master. Have we finally reached our limits?
• Get under the hood: Our laptops are sleek and polished. Our operating systems are fluid and intuitive. Computing is easy and that’s a problem
• The Enlightenment is Dead, Long Live the Entanglement
• Overcomplicated: Technology at the Limits of Comprehension

Image credit: Wikimedia / Robert Scoble

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