# The role of culture in shaping technology - the case for cute/acc by Fatemeh Fannizadeh | Devcon SEA

- Speakers: Fatemeh Fannizadeh
- Channel: [Devcon](https://streameth.org/devcon)
- Date: 2025-10-09
- Duration: 07:42
- Topics: Science & Technology
- Watch: https://streameth.org/watch/yt-ENttqPaOPS8
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENttqPaOPS8

## Description

Who builds technology and for whom? In decentralized technology, we must apply the cypherpunk ethos not only to the product we want to provide to the world but also to the manner we build that product. We must avoid imposing our worldview onto different cultures, or we risk reinventing tech neocolonialism. This talk will illustrate the risks of concentration of power and tech within our industry into the hands of a few cultures and present ways to build a truly cypherpunk future.

Speaker(s): Fatemeh Fannizadeh
Skill level: Beginner
Track: Real World Ethereum
Keywords: Network State, Digital Sovereignty, Decentralization, diversity, democracy, philosophy

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Devcon SEA was held in Bangkok, Thailand on Nov 12 - Nov 15, 2024.
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## Transcript

[Music] hello everyone thank you for being here I'm going to talk to you about cute act but before I start there's the session QR if you have questions I'm not going to take questions but I want you to use this to put comments or anything else that you want to flash on stage after my five minutes um I'm going to talk about cute egg and the role of culture in shaping Tech technology because this is my latest Obsession and it has like cute act has a lot of mtic power that I hope will catch on with you and why am I talking about cute I'm not going to describe you what cute Act is because I think you have to feel it and I think you all can relate somehow with it I'm going to talk to you about why I actually think it matters and why I care so much about this and this is because we're going through I think the world right now is going through a war of meaning about like what is good and what is bad there's a lot of weaponization of what is good or bad these Notions to actually do harm or to impose bad things on uh good people and um we see also with our within our industry the fact that Cypher Punk is seeing a Revival that ethereum wants to make it Cypher Punk again and the whole track in Devcon about Cypher Punk but I am actually worried when I see how we idolize cyer pun technology or how we are idolizing privacy and also the projects and the people that are involved with this one particular set of Technology because Cipher bong does not necessarily mean good or bad right it's kind of the end the technology that is being birthed but the whole process that leads us to this technology is not necessarily a process that is grounded in goodness or um that has some values that goes with it I think it's very similar to having a kind of like single issue approach to things and we saw that with the US elections where um you know politics have been supported by our industry although there is actually nothing I think cute about this politics and maybe it can serve our industry in the short term but I don't think that if we imagine a utopian future then there is going to be these sets of politicians in it so Cypher bang is not enough and I think that we need to put the bar way higher and not just content with Cypher pun technology and not just be idolizing or having Cult of personalities around people involved in cypherpunk technology if there is not this goodness that goes with it and if actually the way they are building and the means that they're using toward this end is good and something that we want to be associated with and we want to see in the world yes another cat um so yeah Cypher punk needs to be grounded in goodness but how can we actually ground it in like in in what is good like what is good what is bad like I cannot tell you what is good and what is bad because I have my own opinions but I don't think that these are universal truth and I think history proves to us that too like what was good or bad in the past is not necessarily good today what was bad in the past may even be desirable today and with the same logic things will change in the future so there is no one single like universal truth within time and our technology is kind of transcends time right and we cannot like make this decision today what is good and bad and have it St for for the future but at the same time it transcends space as well like what is good or bad in a specific culture for a specific person is not necessarily the case elsewhere people have different priorities and different values so absent the possibility of rationally coming up with what is good and what is bad how can we conduct our elves because I still think that we should not give up on grinding grounding Cypher punk in goodness and when we see that like fascism and hatred and violence is accelerating in the world while we're living in this world of actual abundance or like we we have democracy we have a lot of toolings we have amazing technology like internet blockchain distributed consensus mechanism Ai and with despite this abundance there's a lot of of negative things are accelerating and I think that we need on the other hand to accelerate positive culture and this positive culture acceleration must come through cuteness and cute acceleration and I think that this one sentence that someone told told me yesterday about it summarize it really well feeling the this fuzzy feeling that we all have experienced when we're faced with cuteness is actually very powerful it REM it takes a lot of space within us it removes space that could be used to do harm or like removes tolerance for harm as well it promotes collaboration promotes motivation feeling good is great it has value in itself and I think that we should all be cute accelerationist thank you [Applause] I thank you for the lovely presentation we're going to have a few questions here based on the most top voed comments what visual symbols and imagery could help the cyper funk model move to be grounded in goodness so I don't know this is up to all of you but I'm actually forgot to mention this I'm wearing this little toy that is um swag from the diac day that you should go check out and this is exactly an example of like a really cute useful swag that does accelerate uh goodness because it's useful and you can find out more about it at their booth and more of a serious question so multinationals corporations play a huge role in shaping the tech landscape for developing countries so what do you think about this on a global scale how might this impact local cultures and economies for you yes I this is a big problem right and that's what I call Tech neoc colonialism when like a set of like a few entities and people and Technology are actually imposing our online realities to the whole world and then it does impact a lot culture and I think culture is becoming more and more harmonized the more we're moving and the more we are interconnected but I think by bringing in cute act again we can actually have this critical view of technology and deci whether or not like it's cute and whether or not we want to promote it or even relate to it like is surveillance cute I I don't really think so right like there are so many things that I think we can navigate through this LS there was no troll questions I invited you to do so any final questions from the audience otherwise if you have any follow-up or detailed questions please uh shoot the Q&A and then we can have it all perhaps we can maybe give it to the audience for one final special edition before lunch break cannot but you can always follow up with Fatima later so this will conclude the session on the role of culture in shaping technology the case against Tech neoc colonis we will have our next session in approximately an hour from now at 1:10 p.m. thank you very much for your time [Applause]