Digital Degrowth

Martin: Let’s talk about Digital Degrowth.¹ What does digital degrowth mean to you? Do you think we need digital degrowth and if so, why and how to make it happen? 

Tim: This is a great question. I know you are referring to a book which I unfortunately have not read yet, nevertheless, the term is very common to me. You know… First of all I want to say that I find the term Degrowth beautiful but I am also a bit hesitant to use it, because it feels a bit problematic for my personal communication.

I think that “Degrowth” is a complex term with a deep meaning and it could potentially be misunderstood, especially by those, who did not really do research on it. I have been working with the term “downgrade”, which has a similar “taste” I’d say, but I have learned that in the world of Design, it seems to trigger negative associations. It’s a dilemma. I sometimes feel like I am self-censoring myself. But I guess that’s part of my job as diplomatic  bridge builder between radical perspectives on technology and the “mainstream” design scene. That’s why I probably would not step on a stage and say: “Dear Community, what we need is Digital Degrowth!”.  But my honest opinion is: Yes, I believe we need something like that, as soon as possible. 

The real problem of humanity is the following: We have paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions and god-like technology.

E. O. Wilson

In the last 40 years, my lifetime, we have been confronted with a thunderstorm of technological innovations, from personal computers, to the internet, over social media to Artificial intelligence. We had no time to learn to use these technologies wisely. And what we see today is a polarized world, still shocked and helpless by the impact of monopolized and extractive social media, now hit by the rise of another potentially more dangerous technology: Machine Learning, the so-called “Artificial Intelligence”. As we know, none of these technologies can be looked at in an isolated way. Everything is connected. And looking at the crises, nature and humanity is confronted with, if we are all honest, we absolutely cannot afford it. Let me tell you why. 

First of all I believe that, to keep control over the hardware and software we create, we need to understand how they work. Makes sense right? But one problem is that we are making everything more and more complicated. The surfaces may look super simple, easy to use, beyond the surfaces we allowed companies to create incomprehensible black boxes over the last years.

We are using a plane to fly to the next supermarket. That’s insane. 

Let’s take the Google search. It’s a simple text field and a sweet, colorful logo, looking, even smiling at you. But when you start to type anything into this field, it’s triggering a transcontinental process where AI calculates what you could potentially search for. Think of the undersea cables, the massive server farms heating up, just because you want to search for a recipe. In other words: We are using a plane to fly to the bakery and buy a bread roll. That’s insane. 

We need to become aware of the real structures of technology and force the companies to be honest. Our perspective on “technological progress” is wrong, since we never decided collectively where we want to head as a community. We need forums, open discussions and intelligent, respectful conversations about technology supporting a healthy environment, social equality, cultural diversity, democracy, fair economies. We need Digital Literacy. Because the situation is getting so bad, we have to act now. 

While many people think these discussions seem utopian, I agree, but I don’t think they are unrealistic. It’s already happening. Digital Degrowth is one notion, one research field that already offers so many valuable ideas, just like other wonderful cultures of Low technology (lowtechmagazine.com),² Permacomputing (permacomputing.net)³ or Digital Minimalism.⁴ 

They are based on the idea that earlier technologies were already better than the ones we use today.

All of these cultures have something in common: They are based on the idea that earlier technologies were already better than the ones we use today. For shopping at the bakery, the bicycle is better than the airplane. For real, valuable and deep conversations, the cafe is much better than the Twitter thread⁵ (I still refuse to call it X, so sorry). To answer your question, I believe Digital Degrowth can offer us a lot and send us on an exciting journey to take back control.

There cannot be unlimited growth on a finite planet with limited resources.⁶

Martin: Right. What is worth adding is that the term “degrowth” refers to the embedded growth obligation of our economies and the realization that there cannot be unlimited growth on a finite planet with limited resources. The only logical consequence, especially after having seen what striving for growth has done, is degrowth for the ones who grew too much. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Yet, growth is so deeply rooted in our culture that it is hard to “sell” degrowth. I don’t like the term either, because I think we will actually grow with degrowth. Not in a material sense, but in happiness. 

Footnotes

1. Digital Degrowth, Technology in the Age of Survival by Michael Kwet 
   https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745349879/digital-degrowth/ ↩︎
2. lowtechmagazine.com
   https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com ↩︎
3. Permacomputing
   https://permacomputing.net/ ↩︎
4. Cal Newport – Digital Minimalism
   https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/575667/digital-minimalism-by-cal-newport/ ↩︎
5. Roman Krznaric – History for Tomorrow
   https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/450872/history-for-tomorrow-by-krznaric-roman/9780753559628 ↩︎
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth ↩︎