Our world is currently engaged in a frantic race toward so-called emerging technologies. This is now the daily obsession of major tech firms — conquering territories, companies, households, and individuals, pushing them to absorb technologies conceived in the image of what human intelligence is capable of producing. Some call this technological modernity.
But does this feverish race truly have a reason to flood our daily lives?
What delay are we trying to make up for?
Are we not heading toward a culture of wanting to possess technology rather than toward the happiness made possible by these emerging technologies?
That is why I have chosen to speak to you about what I call “technological sobriety.”
Sobriety, in my view, should be achieved through free software, by changing our paradigm.
Sobriety is the behavior of one who shows restraint — the quality of someone who acts with moderation, characterized by the absence of unnecessary ornamentation. The word has been spoken: restraint.
Do we have technological restraint?
Do we show restraint when major corporations endlessly produce technologies they impose on businesses?
Do we show restraint when the technological evolution of companies is suspended by the evolution of a proprietary software controlled by one of these firms?
Do we show restraint when, to access a new feature in proprietary software, we must wait for it to be included in the publisher’s roadmap?
Do we show restraint when companies rush toward every new technology that appears — with the sole entity controlling its functions being the software editor itself?
Do we show restraint when the release of a new software version requires replacing perfectly functional equipment, simply to accommodate it?
Have you ever heard of planned obsolescence — that massive deception still wreaking havoc in our companies and societies?
Do we show restraint when these corporations impose on us this dependence on obsolescence and the endless purchase of new versions?
There is an alternative: Free Software and Open Technology.
They allow us to control our technological evolution based on the real needs of our industries, users, and clients — who are becoming increasingly sophisticated.
Free software gives access to the source code of technology, guaranteeing durability and independence from software vendors. It allows us to make feature evolution tangible — without being hostage to corporate giants selling proprietary software for hundreds of millions.
A Time for Transition — and Transmission
We are living in a time of transition and transmission. We must ask the question that truly matters: What are we passing on, and for what kind of future?
When we invest in overpriced technology and must request a modification from the editor — because we don’t have access to the source code — we first have to pay a massive fee and then endure the long wait for the vendor’s implementation schedule.
Who truly controls our technological evolution?
Is it us, or these powerful corporations who, after selling us their dream, impose their vision of our future?
These firms have placed digital and economic handcuffs on us, dictating our evolution and shaping it in their image. Do we really control our own technological progress?
Toward a Rise in Technological Consciousness
We have all become “technological cart pushers”, ready to grab the latest gadgets, software, or electronic devices — driven by a mindset of possession. We buy everything, for everything, as long as technology continues to renew itself under the shadow of planned obsolescence.
We have lost sight of technology that adapts and is truly adopted.
Our companies are no longer alive — they are in technological survival mode, crushed under the weight of emerging technologies they do not truly master, monopolized conceptually by a handful of firms.
We must reset our clocks and shift from a culture of “purchasing power” to a culture of “knowledge power.”
Free software — with its four essential freedoms (to run the program, to study and modify its source code, to copy it, and to redistribute modified versions) — allows us to master our technology, evolving it at our own pace, according to our needs, aspirations, and budgets.
In this approach, the human being becomes the center of technology. Employees — the heart of these systems within organizations — are no longer viewed as costs, but as investments.
Because these corporations have managed to convince us that buying overpriced technology is an investment, while our employees are a burden.
We are witnessing an unjust technological future, driven by major publishers whose sole ambition is to maintain control over our organizations — dictating what the world of technology should become according to their vision and interests.
The logic of free software is a logic of life — a logic grounded in real needs, ethics, and what I like to call “the aesthetics of the heart.”
It is a logic of technological sobriety.
Technology that we do not control — whose source code is held exclusively by one company — becomes an instrument of power and dependency, stripping users of their freedom and their ability to direct their own technological destiny.
An Invitation to Technological Balance
This reckless race toward emerging technologies strips away the beauty of technology, which should serve humanity — not the other way around.
We build extraordinary tools that, sadly, overpower us and remain in the hands of corporations whose ambitions are not ours — ambitions far removed from the peace and meaning humanity seeks in ethical technology.
We have delegated too much of our lives to proprietary technologies, designed under a unified mindset, for self-serving goals, and singular ambitions.
We must reenter into cooperation with our digital lives, through technologies built by communities and open to users — technologies that can be deconstructed and adapted to our need for digital sovereignty.
The technological sobriety I advocate through free software is not an invitation to technological deprivation, but rather an invitation to technological balance — where technological happiness coexists harmoniously with our digital necessities.
Florent YOUZAN