Technology is not neutral: That is the core insight of Tristan Harris, former Design Ethicist at Google and co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology. Called “the closest thing Silicon Valley has to a conscience” by The Atlantic, Harris has spent his career documenting how the platforms we rely on every day are not designed to help us — they are designed to capture us.
If you have ever found yourself at 2 am falling down a social media rabbit hole about IVF success rates, or felt more anxious after reading fertility forums than before you started, you already know, intuitively, what humane technology is not.
His work is not abstract. For anyone navigating infertility, pregnancy loss, or complex family-building decisions, the stakes of how technology treats human attention and vulnerability are deeply personal.
The Four Core Concepts of Humane Technology
Based on the work of Tristan Harris, tristanharris.com, and the Center for Humane Technology:
1. The Attention Economy
Technology is a system designed to treat human attention as a harvestable commodity. Rather than serving our goals, platforms are built to maximize engagement, often by triggering primitive neurological responses — like dopamine bursts from likes or notifications.
2. The Wisdom Gap
Harris describes our situation as having paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology. As technology exponentially increases in power, human evolutionary biology and social structures remain largely unchanged — creating a vast gap that threatens our ability to safely manage these tools.
3. Human Downgrading
Technology subtly degrades core human qualities. By optimizing for outrage, fear, and algorithmic personalization, platforms actively erode our attention spans, shared social reality, mental health, and democratic systems.
4. Humane Technology
As an alternative, Harris advocates for tools and systems designed to be responsive to human needs and considerate of human frailties. Instead of hijacking our minds, humane technology strengthens our capacity for choice-making, empathy, and collective action.
A Familiar Pattern
At INCIID, we have spent more than 30 years watching patients navigate systems that withheld the information they needed most.
Patients who were told their treatment failed without being told why. Patients who were denied access to clinical trials under criteria that no one would explain. Patients who discovered — sometimes years later — that the standards being applied to their care were never visible to them in the first place.
The infertility community knows what it feels like to be subject to decisions made behind closed doors.
It is exhausting. It is disempowering. And it is wrong, whether the institution making the decision is a hospital, an insurance company, or a government agency.
Transparency is not a technical issue. It is a human one.
When the people most affected by a decision are the last to understand it, something has gone wrong — regardless of the technology involved.
That is why INCIID is watching this situation closely. And why we believe our community, more than most, understands exactly what is at stake.
INCIID’s Response: What Humane Technology Looks Like in Practice
INCIID was built — and rebuilt — as a direct answer to this problem. Since 1995, our mission has been to replace noise with clarity and fear with informed choice. Every resource we create is an act of humane technology in practice.
Against the Attention Economy
No ads. No algorithmic feeds. No engagement traps. INCIID is designed to help you find what you need and leave — not to keep you scrolling.
Against the Wisdom Gap
All medical content is peer-reviewed and ASRM-aligned. We translate complex clinical information into language that real patients can use to make real decisions.
Against Human Downgrading
Our forums are moderated, our community is supported, and our content is designed for emotional safety — not outrage. We protect our community’s mental health as fiercely as we protect their access to accurate information.
Building Humane Technology
The IVF True Cost Transparency Registry (Coming Soon), our consumer guides, and this resource section are built on one principle: technology should serve your goals — not someone else’s revenue.
Resources
Practical tools and guides built on the principles of humane technology.
IVF True Cost Transparency Registry (Coming Soon)Standardized, line-item IVF pricing from 512 US fertility clinics. Transparency in a system built on opacity.
Pet Insurance Guide for Service Dog Handler Families: A research-based guide for service dog handler families — because your fur babies are family too. Read the Guide →
Fertility 500: An interactive learning game that builds fertility literacy without the anxiety spiral. Play Now →
Employer Fertility Benefits Registry: More than 300 companies offering fertility benefits — searchable, current, and free. Search the Registry →