12. Designing a griefbot-for-good
Rens van der Vorst, Jo-An M. Kamp · 2022
We teach our students to solve problems with technology. After all, the possibilities of technology often seem limitless. Students design technological solutions to problems in their field or in society. We think that is important. Our educational programmes buzz with terms such as 'technology-for-society' or 'technology-for-good'. But how do you determine the impact of new technology? When is the impact positive? When does a technology make something better? What do we even mean by 'better'? It is already extremely difficult to assess the impact of an existing digital technology on technological, ethical, democratic, and economic affairs. But this assessment may be even more complicated if a technology does not yet exist. Yet it is precisely then that an impact analysis is extremely important. After all, everything is still possible in the design phase. We tell our students that a good idea is not enough. That a good idea only gets better when you ask better questions. That is why we introduce them to the Technology Impact Cycle. This is an approach we crafted based on four existing frameworks. We introduce our students to the Technology Impact Cycle by asking them to design a griefbot with a positive impact. In this chapter we describe the process that we have now gone through a number of times. By describing this process we introduce the reader to the Technology Impact Cycle (which can also be used for other technologies and by people other than students) and we take the reader into the controversial world of digitally bringing the dead to life. As a central example, we use the hypothetical design of a griefbot.