Consider the following two events that transpired during UF’s Homecoming week. First, the UF Board of Trustees selected Dr. Kent Fuchs to be the university’s next president. Second, I attended a UF-based talk which, among other things, alluded to the “innovative” research that could possibly be going on in the area of creating apps to remind people to brush their teeth. Let’s now juxtapose these two aforementioned events that happened on the UF campus last week with three history-making events that happened in the broader U.S. society in the same time frame. First, the deadly Ebola virus made its way to the U.S. Second, gas prices fell to levels not seen since 2010. Third, our stock market dropped by as much as 460 points. What a week!
While I wholeheartedly endorse the selection of Dr. Fuchs as UF’s next president, as a member of Innovation Gainesville’s local technology community and America’s broader technology industry, I would like to ask everyone to unretire the great humanities. Let’s bring them back to the workforce — in technology companies, in particular, as well as all other businesses. Why? We need them. According to the UF Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere, it is the work of the humanities to help us critically think through life and labor.
Technological innovation is a good thing. But is society better off with just technology alone? No. Society is better served when both the humanities and technology are at the forefront of innovation. It’s fine to be excited over the fact that we can create something. However, it’s also important to consider whether we should create something. And if we believe we should, then we should also critically think through all of the intended consequences that could possibly arise from our creations before we make them.
As I shared at the talk I attended last week, although I am an engineer, “I refuse to use my humanities-dominant brain power to help companies create technology that remind people to brush their teeth.” You, the technology consumer, deserve better than that. If you agree that the humanities should be unretired and given the same attention as technological innovation, then please write to Dr. Fuchs, the new UF president — I already have. Let him know, that is enough! — everyone is now onboard to unretire the great humanities!
Suzanne Andrews is a member of the Innovation Gainesville community, and the founder of “That is Enough!”
[A version of this story ran on page 7 on 10/21/2014]
