Rematriating Tech. The Future Was Never Theirs Alone

This piece critiques the male-centric narrative in technology and economics, highlighting the often-invisible contributions of women. It introduces ‘rematriating tech’ as a way to recover and build upon excluded ways of knowing, moving beyond mere inclusion to a fundamental reimagining of technological foundations. The author advocates for understanding power, reclaiming technological histories, and actively building new worlds based on diverse knowledge systems, rather than trying to fit into existing, patriarchal structures.

• The dominant narrative in technology and economics often omits or undervalues women’s contributions, creating a skewed history of invention and progress.
• ‘Rematriating tech’ involves recovering and centering excluded ways of knowing, creating, and organizing intelligence, rather than just making technology more inclusive.
• Historical figures like Adam Smith relied on significant familial care, often provided by women, which is frequently overlooked in popular accounts of their work.
• Napoleon Hill’s ‘Think and Grow Rich,’ a foundational text of success culture, covertly reveals the significant, yet uncredited, influence of women on male achievement.
• Modern organizations are increasingly valuing ‘soft skills’ like communication and emotional intelligence, which have historically been associated with and performed by women.
• The AI industry often rebrands functions historically performed by women (e.g., caring, organizing) as advanced technology, without acknowledging their origins or compensating the originators.
• Alternative technological futures were imagined and built by women (e.g., Systers, ECHO, VNS Matrix, Archive of Our Own), demonstrating a different path for technological development focused on community and culture.
• True technological sovereignty requires understanding power dynamics, ownership, and control, and building new infrastructures rather than simply seeking inclusion in existing ones.
• The ‘heroine’s journey’ of descent, re-membering, and return offers an alternative framework for understanding technological progress, emphasizing self-knowledge, integration of diverse knowledges, and building new worlds collaboratively.
• The concept of ‘abundance’ is proposed as a richer definition of wealth than mere financial accumulation, encompassing knowledge, relationships, wellbeing, and legacy.
  https://bender.layer3.press/articles/b94aa46b-68ad-4ae5-a0eb-9f81ba0c4640