Language, Technology, and Care

In this one-hour Topos Institute Colloquium talk, explore "care" as a critical missing dimension in contemporary technology discussions, with philosopher B. Scot Rousse using debates around LLMs and AI alignment as a case study. Examine how our civilization's technological prowess, identified with abstraction and optimization, has yielded benefits but fundamentally reshaped our relationship with reality. Discover how the drive to abstract and optimize takes on a life of its own, leading both technologists and non-technologists to engage with the world primarily through modeling, measurement, and control frameworks. Learn why what we care about cannot be appropriately addressed within such instrumental frameworks, which lack defined ultimate goals or purpose. Consider the challenge of pursuing technological progress within a broader context of care, rather than merely relative "values" subordinated to efficiency and optimization imperatives.