# Colonialism in Tech
The tech industry is full of colonialist thinking and practices, some more subtle than others.

To begin with, much of the tech industry is centralized geographically, specifically in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, California. The leaders and decisions in how tech operates come out of this one wealthy location in a wealthy nation.

% TODO: Find citation, I thought there was a Yuri Takhteyev citation for this (separate from coding places), but I can't find it now. Coding places page 101 

% Headquarters of software companies*: • • San Francisco Bay Area: > 37% Seattle: 23% Other: < 40%  * Market value of publicly traded “software development” and “computer services” companies on the US markets in 2008. http://www.infoq.com/news/2014/01/IDCsoftwaredevelopers book [Coding Places: Software Practice in a South American City](https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/coding-places) {cite:p}`CodingPlaces` by Dr. Yuri Takhteyev. Page 101. ://codingplaces.net /

% solving the problem of being young and single in a big city
% https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/05/27/change-the-world {cite:p}`packerChangeWorld2013`
%  "It suddenly occurred to me that the hottest tech start-ups are solving all the problems of being twenty years old, with cash on hand, because that’s who thinks them up."

Then, much of tech is dependent on exploiting cheap labor, often in dangerous conditions, in other countries (thus extracting the resource of cheap labor, from places with "inferior" governments and economies). This labor might be physical labor, or dealing with dangerous chemicals, or the content moderators who deal with viewing horrific online content.

Tech industry leaders in Silicon Valley then take what they made with exploited labor, and sell it around the world, feeling good about themselves, believing they are benefitting the world with their "superior" products.

## Example: One Laptop Per Child
An example of how this can play out is the failed [One Laptop Per Child](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Laptop_per_Child) {cite:p}`OneLaptopChild2023` (OLPC) project.

> In late 2005, tech visionary and MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte [introduced a] $100 laptop would have all the features of an ordinary computer but require so little electricity that a child could power it with a hand crank
>
> - [OLPC’s $100 laptop was going to change the world — then it all went wrong](https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/16/17233946/olpcs-100-laptop-education-where-is-it-now) {cite:p}`robertsonOLPC100Laptop2018`

OLPC wanted to give every child in the world a laptop, so they could learn computers, believing he would benefit the world. But this project failed for a number of reasons, such as:
- The physical device didn't work well. The hand-powered generator was unreliable, the screen too small to read. OLPC was not actually providing a "superior" product to the rest of the world.
- When they did hand out some, it didn't come with good instructions. Kids were just supposed to figure it out on their own. If this failed, it must be the fault of the poor people around the world.
- It wasn't designed for what kids around the world would actually want. They didn't take input from actual kids around the world. OLPC thought they had superior knowledge and just assumed they knew what people would want.

In the end, this project fell apart, and most of tech moved on to whatever next big idea to save the world.


% TODO: Add amplification theory (Kentaro)
% Perhaps restate part in colonialism
% [It may be the age of machines, but it's up to humans to save the world](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/11/age-of-machines-humans-save-the-world) {cite:p}`toyamaItMayBe2015` 
% [Amplifying Inequality](https://medium.com/not-evenly-distributed/amplifying-inequality-64479f9aee85) {cite:p}`sydneyAmplifyingInequality2016`
% [1] [Agre, Philip E. 1998. Yesterday’s tomorrow. Times Literary Supplement. July 3, 1998, pp. 3-4.](https://pages.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/agre/tls.html) {cite:p}`agreYesterdayTomorrow1998`
% [2] [Agre, Philip E. 2002. “Real-Time Politics: The Internet and the Political Process.” The Information Society 18:311-331.](https://pages.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/agre/real-time.html) {cite:p}`agreRealTimePoliticsInternet2002`
% - "The Internet changes nothing on its own, but it can amplify existing forces, and those amplified forces might change something."