Hi, and welcome back to the podcast edition of Untangled. Want to make my day? Just subscribe to the newsletter on Substack and the podcast on Apple or Spotify. Clicking a couple of links to make someone’s day just a lil’ more joyful sounds like a deal to me 🙃
This month I decided to write about a phrase that has always driven me a bit bonkers: “tech for good.” In the essay, I drew upon Eileen Guo’s investigation into WorldCoin, which illustrates the massive gap between what WorldCoin says it’s doing and why it is doing it, and, ya know, reality. It’s phrases like “tech for good” that help sustain that gap, and it’s excellent reporting (and super smart newsletters! 😉) that help to close it.
I was thrilled to host Eileen on the pod to talk about her investigation. In our conversation, we discussed:
How WorldCoin is modeling the “move fast and break things” ethos of Silicon Valley — and how, surprise surprise, they’re breaking things!
What problem WorldCoin is actually trying to solve. Hint - it has a lot more to do with crypto than it does with UBI or poverty.
How WorldCoin’s approach follows a long lineage of techno-colonialism. It’s not great.
Along the way, we stumbled upon a broader lesson that we’re seemingly forced to re-learn over and over again as a society. Listen to the end to hear what it is.
As always, if you like the podcast, please review it, rate it, and share it.
Until next time,
Charley
Credits:
Track: The Perpetual Ticking of Time — Artificial.Music [Audio Library Release]
Music provided by Audio Library Plus
"Just because we can build it, does that mean we should?"