Planet of the Apps

11/3/2015 1 Planet of the Apps: The Myth of Innovation By Langdon Winner Thomas Phelan Chair of Humanities and Social Sciences Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute [email protected] Blog: http://technopolis.blogspot.com Twitter: @langdonw God terms: words that have an “inherent potency” -Richard M. Weaver 11/3/2015 2 Revolution Frontier 11/3/2015 3 New Frontier Today’s “god term” identifies an object of worship in: Universities Think tanks Corporations Wall Street Dreams of social elites 11/3/2015 4 Today’s “god term” is widely associated with: Creativity Ingenuity Success Wealth Fame Personal virtue National prosperity Cultural vitality and all good things INNOVATION! From the Latin: “innovare,” to renew 11/3/2015 5 Picture of Tech Park Search for the right ingredients Tech Park, Bangalore Scholarly discussions tend to emphasize the search of the kinds of ingredients that can help innovation happen. What blends of science, technology, entrepreneurship, government funding, education, architecture, etc., are successful? Many young people in universities today are involved in Veneration of The Gadget: the search for the next great iPod, iPhone, iPad, etc. … or the next fabulous App! 11/3/2015 6 The Audi self-parking car Cuptime: The plastic cup connects wirelessly to a cellphone, allowing consumers to monitor their water intake. “The Internet of Caring Things” 11/3/2015 7 It is impressive to see such ingenuity and devotion lavished upon such products and apps. Yet one has to wonder . . . It is impressive to see such ingenuity and devotion lavished upon such products and apps. Yet one has to wonder . . . Is this becoming the Planet of the Apps? 11/3/2015 8 Benign innovation -- graceful, largely beneficial changes within traditions of practice Miles Davis Creator of several New genres of jazz In contrast, today’s favored style of innovation upholds “Creative Destruction.” Joseph Schumpeter 1883 - 1950 11/3/2015 9 “The fundamental impulse that sets and keeps the capitalist engine in motion comes from the new consumers’ goods, the new methods of production or transportation, the new markets, the new forms of industrial organization that capitalist enterprise creates.” [the] “process of industrial mutation—if I may use that biological term—that incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one.” “This process of Creative Destruction is the essential fact about capitalism.” - Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (1942) Latest version: “Disruptive innovation” A “theory” and strategy promoted in many business schools . . . phenomenon by which an innovation transforms an existing market or sector by introducing simplicity, convenience, accessibility , and affordability where complication and high cost are the status quo. Initially, a disruptive innovation is formed in a niche market that may appear unattractive or inconsequential to industry incumbents, but eventually the new product or idea completely redefines the industry. -- Clayton Christensen 11/3/2015 16 Will we innovate in ways that remove the rapidly moving threat global climate crash poses to modern civilization and countless biological species including our own? It’s a serious puzzle 11/3/2015 17 Example: Bill Gates vision in his TED Talk on global warming, “Innovating to Zero” (Feb. 2010) “We need solutions -- either one or several -- that have unbelievable scale and unbelievable reliability….” “These breakthroughs, we need to move those at full speed, and we can measure that in terms of companies, pilot projects, regulatory things that have been changed.” Gates argues that if the expected technological miracles all happened as expected, then the world will reach ZERO carbon emissions in a few decades. Gates holding a bottle of fire flies for TED audience Reports of the climate emergency are published each week! U.N. I.P.C.C. Report 2014 Profound effects of global warming are already felt around the globe Rate of greenhouse gas emissions is rising twice as fast as in late 20th century U.N. target of no more than 2 degrees Celsius increase already in serious jeopardy 40%-70% reduction in greenhouse gases is urgently needed by midcentury Only 15 years left to bend the emissions curve downward, otherwise the costs become prohibitive 11/3/2015 18 Question: Are we engaged in “innovation” or “evasion”? Design, Innovation and Society or: Design, Evasion and Society? Global Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation 0r Global Center for Entrepreneurship and Evasion # # # # # # # # # # Today innovation is often the brand name for a strategy premised upon evasion and delay. Talk of “innovation” is often an excuse – a self-centered, self-interested excuse to justify evading and delaying practical steps that might be taken immediately: For example, steps relevant to global warming: instituting stiff carbon taxes worldwide; taking well-known measures to reduce energy use, e.g., lowering highway speed limits right now! An emphasis that insists up upon finding new blends of science, technology and social cleverness – “innovation” – delays offering more immediate, perhaps simple solutions that may be close at hand. 11/3/2015 19 “Reform” in the schools of the U.S.A. typically involves one or more of the following “innovations: More rigorous forms of “high stakes testing” (with tough discipline for teachers and schools whose test scores do not rise) Nationwide “Common Core” curriculum Privatization of public schools (“Charter Schools industry) Infusions of the latest generation of computers along with ideas of “student-centered learning” [Christensen’s proposal] Most of the intensive, “innovative” reforms: devalue the knowledge, skill and personal creativity of teachers; deemphasize students’ love of learning show little if any improvement in students achievement 11/3/2015 20 Today’s education headlines: “U.S. Student Performance Slips on National Test” [test scores in math & reading fall, not rise after “reforms”] “Declining Student Resilience: A Serious Problem for Colleges” [students educated with incessant standardized testing and with no love of learning are in a panic!] Thinking outside the Box . . . IS … the new Box