I owe a lot to the study of computation and practice of software engineering. I am especially grateful to them because they provide a modeling space for working with algorithms, based on which we can get better at understanding even the parts of the world and life that are normally considered outside the scope of these fields.

The Rush

The first time it occurred to me that we were in a gold rush was during my 2nd sabbatical, sometime in 2021.

The sheer speed at which new technology was emerging and going through the stages of growth and evolution was staggering. I had already been reflecting on the occupational hazards of knowledge work, and no longer saw different “slices” of a wider system as being independent and “separate”, so I immediately started to ponder about the connection between the human layer and the machine layer and how a many-fold acceleration of the motion of one was going to impact the other. By default, intuition suggested, not well.

It is customary for us to cover something like 4 km, and often more, in a space of something like 3 minutes (assuming 80km/h to be average highway speed) — but it took several millennia and uncountable permutations of transportation modes happening in tandem with advances in human knowledge and perspective before we got there. Now, I’m not e/acc but I am in a sense a proponent of technological acceleration because:

1. There are real problems which it solves, some time sensitive
2. It’s a measure of our evolution as a species that we gain competence in these areas

Having said this, I think that it is possible to go too fast^[1]:

• Some areas are interdependent and naturally go at different speeds (e.g. imagine crossing a road while holding a child’s hand and going at your speed, because you can). In areas of life where there are two or more things which are absolutely unavoidably interdependent in a certain context, the overall process goes at the speed of the slowest element^[2]

• It is often necessary to really narrow the space of possibilities to achieve a big acceleration someplace. If we take the example of a plane, an acceleration secure enough to transport lives at great speeds is due to the creation of a very specific set of circumstances, ranging from arrangements of matter and mechanisms, to meticulous measurements and processes, including a huge amount of mapping and planning work happening in combination with precision manufacturing and assembly, rigorous training and scheduling — and regulation.

• Speed often makes things more prone to error, while simultaneously making the errors potentially more costly. It is at high speeds that one could make some of the more serious mis-judgements (related to bottlenecks in human information processing), and it is also at high speeds that we see even small errors can become amplified.

The Gold

The most valuable assets in our times are different forms of technology associated with information, as well as information itself, which can be of varying degrees of quality or purity.

How exactly do the outcomes of building tech usually change with speed? I think we don’t need to call on Nick Bostrom to answer this, just ask any developer. They: a) Have been in the situation of needing to accelerate a part of the work b) Oftentimes had to deal with some of the consequences while understanding the causes.

I’ll just try to answer off the top of my head:

• Spec precision loss
• Technical & conceptual debt
• Culture debt^[3]
• Health debt^[4]
• Fewer chances to develop empathy towards the end user, resulting in a poorer integration between the product and the use case.

Basically, speed is great (and the correct priority at times) but not a silver bullet and can come at the cost of greater quality somewhere else.