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Ben and I sit down a few weeks ago over iced coffee and a cup of tea at The Coffee Bar to chat about Ben’s technology and ethics classes at UVA, how studying ethics can impact our decision-making, Shabbat in a digital world, finding moments to uphold personal values, and why we should all appreciate Rock Creek Park a little more!
Samuel: What brought you to the DMV?
Ben: I’ve been in the DMV in several stints – first for an internship in college, then another summer after college, then for a few years before graduate school I’m approaching my three year anniversary for this stint.
Samuel: What’s brought you back each time?
Ben: I grew up in Baltimore, so this is close to home. DC has been the epicenter of my social life for a while. I’ve had a lot of friends and family here over the years. Professionally, it has anchored me in a variety of ways. Earlier in my career that was politics and media, and now the teaching I do at the University of Virginia.
Beyond all that, it’s really the culture of the town. People care about things here. In addition to the quality of life and the beauty of the city, they’re here to work on something that’s meaningful, and that passion and intellectual curiosity comes out in the people who live here. I find it easier to connect with people here than other places.
Samuel: What do you teach at UVA?
Ben: I teach courses on technology and ethics. The specific angle I teach on is how employees at tech firms can use their own personal agency and ethical agency to build products that are compatible with a healthy society. It’s not for granted that consumer technology products are going to erode democracy or erode teenagers’ mental health, right? These are choices that people deliberately make. People have a lot of power to make sure that what they build is helpful, not just in a monetary sense but in an ethical sense.
I think we’re stuck in this zero-sum conversation between tech optimists and pessimists. You’re hearing that in the AI conversation right now. It’s all good or it’s all evil. But actually, there’s a lot of complexity around how things are applied. Tools have their own politics. No tool is truly neutral, but you wouldn’t ban a shovel just because you could also hit someone with it. The question is, how do you amplify the gains that technology inevitably will bring while mitigating harm, and mitigating those harms for whom?
Samuel: Where do you find these questions of tech and ethics showing up elsewhere in your life?
Ben: The ethical frameworks that we teach might be modified for technology-specific questions, but these are virtue ethics, character ethics, Kant, Aristotle. We don’t use those names because we don’t want students’ eyes to glaze over, but these ideas are as old as time, you know? The real question is: How do you bring a comprehensive moral lens or ethical lens to the decisions we make? When you make choices, you’re thinking to yourself whether you’ve considered all the potential ethical lenses of this choice before going ahead and making that choice. My hope for myself, just as it is my hope for my students, is that I’ve become a little less impulsive, and that I can see the ethical trade-offs and implications of the decisions I make in my everyday life.
Samuel: I’m curious about how thinking about technology, and ethics, and Judaism all collides for you. I’ve talked to a lot of people who feel closest to their Judaism during the break Shabbat provides from phones and screens and whatnot.
Ben: You hear Jewish people talking about a Shabbat in a lot more of a reverential tone. But you also hear non-Jews! I was at this wedding the other week, talking with a Catholic friend about Shabbat and how he tries to take a digital Sabbath on the weekends. He has two small kids, and it’s about him being present with them on the playground.
The idea of being present on Shabbat and nurturing that presence is ancient, but it’s an especially important thing to do when your phone is such a call.
Samuel: What else is resonating Jewishly for you right now?
Ben: I’ve been exploring a bunch of Torah study, which is something I never grew up doing. I’ve always thrived on intellectual conversation. I’ve been hanging out with Hadar a little bit, and have really enjoyed them.
Samuel: Okay, a few quick ones to close. What is something in the DMV that you think deserves more shine?
Ben: I don’t think people are nearly as grateful about Rock Creek Park as they should be. It’s just such a great place to go escape; it lowers your blood pressure. Sometimes people only have the Type A gear here, but just being in the park and enjoying it on purpose is great.
Samuel: What’s something you’re bad at?
Ben: Visual art. I can’t paint. I went to a pottery class for a work off-site event, and…lumps of undefined clay came in, and lumps of undefined clay came out.
Samuel: What are you feeling proud about right now?
Ben: This UVA adventure has been so wonderful. I’ve gained so much from interacting with students and I’m so enriched by the light bulb moments that happen for me in the classroom that come from them. I’m really looking forward to it this year.
Samuel: If someone is reading this and is curious about the intersections of tech and ethics, what would you recommend they do? What should they read or listen to?
Ben: I’d refer people to various episodes of The Ezra Klein Show. Hard Fork, another New York Times podcast. Platformer, which is the newsletter of Casey Newton, who is one of the hosts of Hard Fork. Those are great places to start. But, I would encourage you – whether you work in tech or any other type of job – to think about what your values are, and what kind of leverage you have in exercising those values over the work you do. How do you raise your hand at the right time and right place?
Samuel: You can invite any three people to Shabbat dinner. Who are you bringing?
Ben: One of them has to be Barack Obama. He was such a role model for me when I was coming up and thinking about my story, and how I wanted to make an impact on the world. His call to citizenship was super inspiring, and I also just think he’s cool.
Relatedly, I’ve always been a huge Abraham Lincoln fan. At that dinner, I probably wouldn’t want to talk. I’d just want to watch Lincoln and Obama talk. And then, I would want Rabbi Sharon Brous. Because of how she talks about the universal and the particular, and because she’s such a pot-stirrer.
Samuel: Last one. Finish the sentence: When Jews of the DMV gather…
Ben: I’ve found such openness and honesty. It feels very welcoming and inclusive and safe.
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