Program or Be Programmed

Reprogramming Digital Distraction by Joshua Kaufman, explores how in an age run by computers and programs, we must learn to program less we become programmed. This article is especially interesting to me as I just finished drafting one up on a similar subject for The Knot Collective, where I describe how learning to program has helped my everyday, and work life. I'll put the post up here as soon as it's up.

Here's a taster of Joshua's article:

In the final chapter of his book, Rushkoff says that because digital technology is programmed, it’s biased towards those with the ability to program: “in the digital age, we must learn how to make the software, or risk becoming the software.” With this, he describes the final and most important principle: program or be programmed.

He goes on to describe the consequences for those who don’t have a basic understanding of how digital technology works:

The less involved and aware we are of the way our technologies are programmed and program themselves, the more narrow our choices will become; the less we will be able to envision alternatives to the pathways described by our programs; and the more our lives and experiences will be dictated by their biases.