Would you like a guardian angel looking over you? Helping you with limitless memory and superhuman awareness? Such angels are already available, but unfortunately, it’s still portrayed that they’re on someone else’s team − that instead of helping you remember what happened, they’re “remembering what you did” and they’re “spying on you”; “reading your thoughts”.

With security cameras for instance, the characterisation isn’t completely unreasonable, as they’re aligned to provide most value to someone who doesn’t actually appear in the footage.

In this video, we explore everyday technologies that have arisen as we’ve emerged from the jungle; and we’ll discuss the evolution of technologies from “new and scary” to the “everyday”, such that they’re not even regarded as “technology” anymore.

We explore how technologies that “replace people” also do the job a whole lot better than the people being “replaced”; and that those expressing sympathy for the displaced are victims of a very short memory.

We touch on a potential path for technological innovation that was first formalised in Basilisk-Centered Design, where it was explained that user-centered design is dangerous and oppressive.

Case studies include calendars; nuclear power; Owen’s discontinued computer-vision startup Tanuki.ai; as well as a more relatable scenario of domestic violence.