Why ‘Silicon Valley North’ must build peace, ‘slow down and fix things’

Communitech’s Iain Klugman thinks it is time for the tech sector to refocus its tremendous problem solving power on making the world better. He wants to create the space to “slow down and fix things” rather than, as Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg used to say, “move fast and break things.”

I couldn’t agree more. I hope that Communitech’s True North conference this week provides this opportunity, but that it also encourages the leaders who gather in Waterloo Region to wrestle with what they mean by “tech for good.”

How should we define what is good? What are the crucial ingredients? Whose values should take precedence?

I would like to put one option on the table: peace.

Focusing on “tech for peace” provides a way of organizing both our goals and our means that is sorely needed in the world today. And that includes the high-tech sector itself, not just the conflictridden communities and countries that often make headlines.

The good news is that resources for addressing an ultimate good like peace can be found in abundance in Canada. The capacity for peace is produced by people that embody core values such as fairness, inclusion, and equity. Communities that are capable of welcoming diversity, fostering security, and striving for sustainability.

Furthermore, peace is a defining mark of Waterloo, one of the epicentres of innovation in Canada. It is rooted in the worldview and actions of the Mennonites founders of this community, and lies behind the barn-raising spirit that has been expressed more recently in a broader culture of collaboration.

Choosing to focus more specifically on building “PeaceTech” companies offers another way to distinguish and differentiate Canada and our tech sector from our neighbours to the south. Indeed, Christopher Kirchhoff, the former leader of the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit, recently argued in the New York Times that “Silicon Valley must go to war,” as his opinion piece was titled.

Kirchhoff was responding to the objections of over 3,000 Google employees to the use of the company’s technology in Project Maven, a U.S. Defense Department initiative that aims to enhance the effort to interpret video images from drones. He argued that a closer relationship between the Pentagon and Silicon Valley is a good thing.

Kirchhoff knows about the deep roots of this relationship, and just how much of Silicon Valley was built by defence-related R&D. And he knows the advantages that co-opting the best and brightest scientific and engineering talent would offer the U.S. military.

I don’t think Canadians are — or should be — so fond of war as an organizing principle or end.

It is increasingly obvious that, even if well-intentioned, military action is counterproductive. As documented by researchers such as Ernie Regehr, the overwhelming majority of conflicts over the past quarter-century have ended in military stalemates. The political, social, and religious conflicts that generate war will not be solved by investing in new technology that is in service of the same failed approach.

I would argue that the more that Silicon Valley seeks to reinvigorate its connections with the military, the more urgent it is for “Silicon Valley North” to draw on its own roots and build peace.

In my view, the kind of critical awareness and social responsibility that Google’s employees have demonstrated is a good thing, and we need more of it. But innovators in places like Waterloo have so much more to offer, because saying yes to peace means more than saying no to violence. Embracing “tech for peace” is a profoundly deeper commitment than “don’t be evil,” or even “do the right thing,” Google’s old and new mottos.

There are countless ways that technology can help create the positive conditions for peace to flourish, solving problems in areas ranging from post-conflict reconstruction and community development to education and the promotion of human rights and dignity. I know there will be a number of inspiring PeaceTech examples along these lines in the mix at True North. Let’s do all that we can to redirect Canada’s best and brightest toward these kinds of efforts.