Move Slow and Mend Things
Mark Zuckerberg’s tech motto “move fast and break things” laid the background to the rush of technological advancements of the early 2000s. This mindset often mirrored that of the early settlers of the United States. In both cases, a desire for power, discovery, and wealth created a frenzy of innovation and growth that left destruction in its wake. Today’s rapidly evolving technology has created threats to privacy, echo chambers of radicalization and the exploitation of workers. Early explorers and conquerors massacred the native population of an estimated 60 to 70 million to a measly 5 to 6 million (Newson). Their ruthless acts killed millions of people, traditions and cultural knowledge. These same settlers who murdered millions of people have been written into our history books as heroes. Their actions seem blatantly wrong now, but to those involved it was their chance at a new life. They were ensuring that their families would have a better future and they would do anything to make that happen. This positive framing is often how people convince themselves that their own wrongdoing is okay. The internet reinforces the idea that people will truly believe anything if it is framed in the right way as seen with the flat earth movement, deep fakes and other conspiracies and disinformation. While we are taught to distrust the internet and websites like Wikipedia, there is a common sentiment that we can trust books. Yet, so often history books leave out crucial angles and perspectives, diminishing the importance of millions of lives and stories. White male European voices are highlighted while all others are muted or erased. Only now, centuries later, do we see a wider network of people speaking up and advocating for the native people whose homes, knowledge and livelihoods were destroyed by colonists. At the same time we see more calls for equitable infrastructure, working conditions and increased awareness of many other previously ignored problems.
It is time we start building things slowly, actually listening to the voices of those affected and creating a culture that focuses on intentionality instead of efficiency. Knowledge isn’t something we find in code books and budget sheets. It is passed down from generation to generation, shared through deep conservation and connection, and ingrained into our cultural identities. This communal knowledge has often been disrupted by fast, careless innovation, when data and guidelines are weighed as more important than personal stories and human values. A prime example we have seen in class, is the construction of highways through marginalized communities. Family homes and livelihoods were destroyed by “hulking highways [that] cut through neighborhoods, darkened and disrupted the pedestrian landscape, worsened air quality and torpedoed property values,” cultivating further urban segregation and a loss of cultural identity and knowledge. This description given in a History.com article, sounds like a terrible idea, yet, at the time, the opportunity for reduced traffic and faster commute times for those in power was enough to green-light the project. There is an overall lack of intentionality and care in the way we build infrastructure. Once you take a step back and look at the negative impact on communities, I think it becomes quite clear what the priority should be. Arriving to work a little faster is never going to be more important than a family’s livelihood, home and history. It is not a coincidence that the same people whose lives are disrupted for the creation of highway systems are the ones who are written out of history. These issues are intertwined. There is a systematic erasure of whole cultures that is built into the fabric of our country and the cities we live in. To change this we have to set it as a priority, slow down, look at the impacts of what we are creating, what they are worth and whether they are more important than what they may disrupt.
In an article I recently read I found an example of how generational cultural knowledge was used to create an infrastructure system that addressed the problems it created. In 1989 the Montana Department of Transportation proposed the expansion of highway 93 to make it safer. The proposed plan would cover the length of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes’ territories. This raised concerns within the tribes for the safety of their wildlife and children. It is part of the tribes’ generational duty to take care of the wildlife that roams in their homeland and the highway created a threat to this ancestral role. Using the power they hold as a sovereign nation, the tribes formed a partnership with an architectural firm to redesign the highway to protect their wildlife and children. They designed 42 wildlife crossings that see more than 22,000 animal crossings annually. The tribes’ devotions to their morals and their intentionality of design saved thousands of animals lives and provides an example of how infrastructure can be improved to actively support the animals and people who live around it. The campaign director of the National Parks Conservation Association Michael Jamison states that ‘“With a bit of compromise, a bit of creativity and a bit of extra elbow grease … you can actually solve much bigger problems that have to do with culture, meaning and values.”’ This connection between the tribal knowledge and traditional engineering and construction companies created a new healthy system that can be mirrored in new places.
There is good that can come from creating new connections and slowing down, looking at what is being affected, and fixing it. Now this stretch of highway contains one of the largest networks of wildlife crossings in the United States. One small group of engineers cannot possibly account for every angle and possible solution to a problem. It takes an acknowledgement of all affected voices and of the history that surrounds these being problems in the first place to find creative and multidisciplinary solutions. In a world faced with complex interconnected problems it is time we slow down and focus on intentionality and mending the ties that connect us as humans. It will take every voice to address the wicked problems we face today.
Sources:
https://www.history.com/news/interstate-highway-system-infrastructure-construction-segregation
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