I know your question is about technology, Harnidh, and I don't know if my thoughts will be helpful, but I wonder if the spaces we use every day (dwellings, streets, places of work and recreation) can make us less or more compassionate. We are forced to navigate built urban spaces, we quickly learn the spatial language and cues that help us move through them, but are these languages and cues inclusive? When I help a blind person get on the right bus, am I helping him or am I helping normalise a system that wasn't designed to be sensitive to his needs?
Is it that we are all adjusting, to varying extents, to a system not 100% designed for us? Our cities are not very kind, but they are rarely specifically designed, they evolve piecemeal as byproducts of decisions made under possibly unrelated circumstances. Shaping and directing a living, thriving city's growth is difficult, and where there is any urban planning in India (as elsewhere, I suppose), it is largely hit-and-miss. It's hard to say if unkind cities are a result of poor forethought, bad implementation or ignorance and privilege on the part of the planners. I can immediately shrug off the question of built-in exclusion by saying I was too busy worrying about water scarcity, garbage, traffic congestion, pollution, housing need etc, but the fact remains that if I don't stop to think of the world outside my own lived experience, a lot of details simply escape my notice. With or without planners, cities tend to be highly segregated spaces, and this segregation sometimes has to do with kindness or the lack of it. Buildings can be blatantly unkind, for example - a fancy façade, some glazing, lawns, air-conditioning and you already know not everyone is "allowed" in. Most of us do not visit or wander around truck parks or logistics facilities because we do not need to. I seek to avoid them if possible because as a woman, I have been trained to perceive them as potentially unsafe - but I am unable to say whose unkindness I can put this down to. One of the things I look out for in large cities are less-than finished urban spaces - not necessarily buildings, but streets, chowks, neighbourhoods. By this I mean spaces which are not "strict" - which is to say not flawlessly paved, not kept constantly spotlessly clean, usually not areas with high-end retail or office spaces. In less-than finished spaces, vendors (are allowed to) gather, people linger. Animals - livestock, working animals, dogs, birds - are more welcome, and those who live or visit there keep water, leftover rice, vegetable peels or biscuits out for them. To my own mind, these spaces may not be pretty, but they are kinder than others. On Sun, Feb 4, 2018 at 6:14 PM, Harnidh Kaur <kharn...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi SilkList! > > I don’t think most of you know this, but I work in the development space > and we’re always trying to find cool ways to make tech make the world > better. I’ve been trying to read up more about the same. So, here. > > Is ‘kind technology’ a thing? Where people are trying to change gears of > existing/incumbent technology to specifically serve vulnerable populations? > > Any existing ideas/something you’re working on/things you think SHOULD find > a kind tech iteration. Gimme! > -- > Regards > > Harnidh Kaur > Lady Shri Ram College for Women '15 > St. Xavier's College, Mumbai '17 > Foreverawkwardandlearning.wordpress.com > <http://foreverawkwardandlearning.wordpress.com/> > +91-7718951383 >
