Noam Chomsky is famously quoted as saying that technology is neither good nor bad, but a neutral tool; he likens it to a hammer that can be used by carpenters and torturers alike. While the neutrality of tech is an idea that appeals to many technologists, this perspective is misaligned with today’s realities of surveillance capitalism, AI bias, algorithmic manipulation, and rising techno-fascism.
We Just Build Hammers uses a lens of speculative and science fiction to connect contemporary technologists with a historical lineage of visionaries and leaders in responsible tech.
Its stories span a century of major technological upheavals, including:
This book challenges technologists to consider for themselves whether they’re really just “building hammers”—technologies whose potential for good balances their potential for harm—or if they are unwittingly contributing to systems that exacerbate inequality, inequity, and injustice.
Take a peek inside We Just Build Hammers.