I first came across the concept of humane technology almost a decade ago, when Tristan Harris quit his product design position at Google and decided to spend his time advocating for, and bringing awareness to this movement. Tristan was one of the first to identify the slippery slope product developers were following by making certain design decisions.
In the last decade, time has flown by, and many things have happened. AI has flourished, giving us amazing things like ChatGPT, I’ve built and sold a start-up called Chessable (which I hope embodied the concepts of Humane Technology well!). We’ve had EVs, rockets, pandemics, wars, chess playing robots, you name it. However, one thing has remained constant, the challenges we face with modern technology. Moreover, due to the advance of AI and tech in general, humane technology is more important today than ever.
Apps can be addictive, destructive, and pointless. This can happen by design or accident. It is inhumane to create these kinds of apps. They waste human potential instead of adding to it. Before making an app, it would be great if entrepreneurs asked themselves and thought about the concept from an alternative angle other than profit. Yet we often still limit ourselves to asking, will this be popular? Will this make money? We also need to ask: will this help the human species flourish? Will it improve our individual and collective well-being?
To me, humane technology is any technology designed with the well-being and flourishing of human beings as one of its key considerations. Ethical questions about what is good for us as humans would trump any issues around revenue considerations and success. Therefore, if I knew my app would succeed but, as a side effect, would create a new generation addicted to pointless technology, I would choose not to make such an app.
Of course, there can be a fine line between apps that enrich our lives and apps that sap our life force. Some apps are a mix of this, but one good way to find out if an app is good or bad, as a user, ask yourself: If you had a way to tally up ALL the time you’ve spent on an app, and it came to months of wakeful time, would you be happy you’ve spent this time? If you knew you had one more year to live, would you still be ok with it? Would you regret it?
Unlike popular video games that have a /played function telling you exactly how much time you’ve spent on them, apps still choose to hide this information from us, limiting us to seeing the last few weeks only. They do this because the reality is that if you knew you’d given months of your life to an app, you could feel quite bad. If this happens, the app is less humane than you thought and, literally, a waste of energy. If you had this information at hand, maybe you would stop using that app.
What should we do if app designers are still choosing to design apps without minding the concept of Humane Technology and platforms like Apple won’t be fully transparent with us? Managing our impulses can be a tricky thing. Going cold turkey can result in relapse. I found what works best for me is these days is an app called One Sec, a highly humane app that truly lets you take back control of your time. Excellent job One Sec team.
Here is a link to the app, in case you want to give it a try:
And a link to the humane technology movement:
