The Power, Peril and Truth about Technology

I met Laura Forlano a couple of times when she was a professor at the Institute of Design. In 2018, I saw her lecture as part of the “Bauhaus 100” celebration. That was the year she became, as she puts it, “a disabled cyborg.” hooked up to an automated insulin monitoring and delivery system. Seven years earlier she had been diagnosed the Type 1 diabetes. You never would have guessed she was dealing with an existential condition on a daily basis. Or more accurately, an hour-to-hour or minute-to-minute basis.

“Living Intimately with Machines,” is Forlano’s just-published, riveting account of four years of her life entangled in a fragile web of biology, chemistry, tubing, electronics, software and algorithms. It is a must-read, especially for those working in AI.

Forlano is living the Singularity, that tech-mystical moment of a human-machine merge with the machines calling the shots. Technology has always Exhibit A of can-do homo sapiens’ cleverness. But for every tech there’s a glitch: Parts break. Circuits short. Wheels go flat. And algorithms can be weaponized.

The impacts, however, are rarely as immediate and existential as tubing that won’t stay put due to humidity. Or a broken battery battery cap that means a critical pump can’t pump. Or a system that requires human recalibration throughout the night.

“ With this “smart” system, frequent sleep interruption was such a common occurrence that I was convinced I was sleeping like a sensor (in shorter patterns that mimic the system). In short, with long-term sleep deprivation leading to anxiety, irritability, and depression, I believed that the AI system keeping me alive was also ruining my life.”

While Forlano focuses on the fallibility of both humans and tech, her experience made me think of August de los Reyes, a remarkably talented designer and shining soul who, due to an accident, was confined to a wheelchair. He turned his experience into inspiration for what came to be known as the Theory of Inclusive Design. In a nutshell, “Designing for people typically cast as outliers creates better outcomes for everyone.”

“Disability is designed,” he said.

Viewed from another angle, technology — all technology, from cave paintings to iPhones — expands our limited capabilities as humans.

But Forlano’s story teaches us that technology is not an easy answer, but an imperfect process:

“…(F)ailures, breakdowns, errors, and biases are not a “problem” to be solved but rather the reality of living and working with technology.”