Noam Chomsky is famously quoted as saying that technology is neither good nor bad, but a neutral tool: like a hammer, which can be used by carpenters and torturers alike. The neutrality of tech is an idea that appeals to many technologists, but it’s a perspective that’s misaligned with today’s reality of surveillance capitalism, AI bias, algorithmic manipulation, and rising techno-fascism.
We Just Build Hammers tells the stories of the unsung heroes of the responsible tech movement, and the surprising ways that science fiction inspired them. Its stories span a century of major technological upheavals, including:
This book challenges technologists to consider for themselves whether they’re really just “building hammers”—neutral technologies whose potential for good balances their potential for harm—or if they are unwittingly contributing to systems that exacerbate inequality, inequity, and injustice.