A great blindness of technologies is how easily they are coopted by systems of values.

The Internet, for example, is this wonderful bundle of connectivity technologies and standards.
But despite early marketing, there is nothing inherently about it that makes it Open. Or Free. Or Good.

These were true. Until they weren't. You can censor the internet. You can use it for evil. You can twist it to the needs of a specific regime.

In the fact the only reason, the internet had those values in the first place was because it grew from a specific academic-leaning environment who held those values.

But by holding the fantasy a technology has inherent values, we ensure they are easily coopted. Surely a structurally Open tech will naturally resist degenerating into closed-off bubbles within a tiny set of hyper-capitalist platforms?

Funny you should think that.

Values happily infect and redirect powerful technologies. All it takes is a small group of influential people who believe in the rightness of a specific world view.

If it takes a 1000 people to invent a new technology, it only takes one messianic leader-type and a handful of savvy tech implementers to hive off their weaponized flavor.

Homework: Try to come up with real world examples! I call this "Being a VC."

Capitalism is a system of values (Shocker: There's nothing inherently capitalist about the universe)
Human rights is a system of values
Religions are systems of values

They are everywhere, honed by centuries of dogma, held up as Truth. They are forces that shape created worlds.

In short: The Why shapes the What of human culture. Technology merely provides the How.

What implicit values are you layering into your technology? Did you know?

And how will others with very different value systems be able to coopt what you've created?

(This was originally in my notes folder labeled "The Coming of the Cyber Cults" )