Furniture

A short ponder about the systems that I used to ignore

Those many years in policy made me think that power belonged to the some people. It shaped my attitude to look for the room where it happened and figured out who was in it. Everything, and everyone else, is furniture. The technology, the infrastructure, the rules already built into the system before anyone shows up.

Then I went back to school, and learned about how the furniture... matters? That the systems we took as a given are shaping outcomes while we are busy with the policy makers. My first thought was, “huh?”, followed by, “what?”

Then I watched how my perpetual roommate works. As an interior designer, she arranges a room so that people move, sit, and interact differently depending on what she puts where. Different materials, different impact on the room and the people within even long after they are gone.

I used to study politics to explain technology. Now I study technology to explain politics. Same intersection but opposite direction. Turns out where you stand determines what counts as furniture and what counts as a decision maker. In tech policy, we spend a lot of time watching the people in the room. Maybe we should also check what the room is doing to them.