Director’s Corner
August 2024
“You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.” – William Faulkner
I spent much of the summer watching America go by. I drove across the country with my family, from Maryland to Arizona and back, traveling through 18 states in total.
Each day, America unfolded like a story before me. The high voltage energy of Nashville bars and cafes ebbed away as we moved towards the worn down, boarded-up areas of Memphis and along the mosquito-filled banks of the muddy Mississippi. The cheerful pluck of Oklahoma City’s burgeoning downtown gave way to the spikey, pale-yellow grasses of the Texas prairies and eventually to the poverty and extreme isolation in pockets of New Mexico. Every so often, there was a single, off-the-grid house, tricycles out front, standing sentry for miles and miles among the red-rocked mesas and soaring mountains.
America is, as always, a study in contrast. The further west and south I went, the more I became aware of the bubble that I live in and how much I needed to leave it to gain perspective.
What I learned is: People don’t talk about politics.
The people in restaurants and gas stations along the way didn’t talk about politics. They spoke about their kids, about how expensive groceries are now and about what it was like during the pandemic. I didn’t see many signs for Biden or Trump. Outside of the bubble, politics is just noise.
What I learned is: Technology has brought us to each other and taken us away from each other.
In some places, no phone lines were visible. A mobile phone is literally the only connection a person has to their community and to the world. But these devices have also been a part of ripping us apart, taking us away from real life, and platforming apps that have disconnected us and turned us against each other. On highways navigated by maps apps, they have flattened the world, turning us away from the serendipitous path and the road less traveled in favor of the one that saves us five minutes.
What I learned is: The most important word in public policy is public and technology should be designed to advance our interest, not a company’s.
Back in DC, once again amidst the noise, I’m reminded that public policy must constantly evolve to reflect the complexity and divergence of the population it represents. Likewise, advanced technologies should fundamentally further human interests, not act as vehicles for commercial manipulation, steering us into believing that a company’s priorities – what is fast, easy and profitable – are our priorities too.
I believe the best way to achieve these aims is to create innovative, practical and people-centered technologies and policies. McCourt’s Tech & Public Policy program does this through its programming and research grants, including funding high-quality academic research, translating that research for policymakers, and through building a body of work in our impact projects. We are a third space between the public and private sectors where new ideas can flourish.
It’s time to get back to work. First up this semester: TPP’s Safeguarding Democracy: Protecting Elections and Election Workers event on September 4 at 125 E. Street.
Until next time,
Michelle