Institution, Human, Technology

​This session is part of the Introduction to Political Technology course at Newspeak House, open to faculty and fellowship candidates only.

​Dr Six Silberman leads us in exploring the complex interplay between institutions and organisations; humans; and technologies.

​In this third seminar, we turn to the relationship between technology and institutions over time — how they emerge, evolve, are maintained, and fail. We will trace the histories of systems such as navigation, timekeeping, and the internet to explore how institutions enable, constrain, and sustain technological development. The discussion examines technology as a way of formalising and automating rules, the growing complexity this produces, and the trade-offs between innovation, simplicity, validity, and human rights.

​From there, we reflect on how metaphors shape our understanding of institutions and their lifecycles — how they grow, decay, and interact within wider ecosystems. Drawing on ecological imagery and organisational theory, we will consider what it means to cultivate sustainable, mutually supportive relationships between technologies, institutions, and the people who inhabit them.