If you did this week's reading, techno-optimism might sound familiar. It is the "belief that technology can continually be improved and can improve the lives of people, making the world a better place."
When you think about possible solutions to today's societies' problems, do you see more technology as a solution?
OR are you a techno-pessimist? A Technological Citizen blog defines techno-pessimism as the belief that technology has "created just as many problems as solutions" and that it brings "unforeseen consequences and dangers."
Consider the following from a recent Huffington Post article:
When you think about possible solutions to today's societies' problems, do you see more technology as a solution?
OR are you a techno-pessimist? A Technological Citizen blog defines techno-pessimism as the belief that technology has "created just as many problems as solutions" and that it brings "unforeseen consequences and dangers."
Consider the following from a recent Huffington Post article:
Techno-optimists "find reassurance in a dependable habit of technological progress to clean up after itself. The Industrial Revolution gave us climate change. It’s a big problem, but the best advice is to keep calm and carry on. The carbon dioxide-eating nanobots will be along shortly. The increasing power of our technologies seems to justify the notion that if we really care about improving human well-being, we should focus on improving our technologies. [...] Suppose that it’s true that many new technologies bring considerable benefits to the individuals who acquire or experience them. We err in translating improvements in individual well-being into predictions about the long-term effects of technological progress on society. Predictably happier individuals don’t necessarily make a predictably happier society."
Personally, I lean more towards the techno-optimistic beliefs but I recognize the concerns of a techno-pessimist. I think before putting all our money into any kind of technology, we have to consider all the risks and consequences (calculate negative and positive externalities). The only trade-off this has is that it would slow down implementation of innovation.
How do you define yourself? What concerns, if at all, do you see moving into the future?
I think there's a difference between blind optimism and faith in our ability as a species to innovate solutions to problems. The snippet from HuffPo describes the blind optimism. I would of course be stoked for fleets of drones that scrub greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere. In the mean time, we still have to reduce emissions of those gasses.
ReplyDeleteWhat has always been concerning for me are things like anti-vaccination movements. False information spread either deliberately or out of ignorance has brought a resurgence in disease among children in some parts of the country.
I am starting to wonder if these Luddite movements are related to a mistrust in large institutions--the same mistrust that brought populist backlash to the front of the 2016 U.S. election.
I definitely see the positive change which technology can bring about, particularly in Africa. For example, in Kenya, a mobile banking service called M-Pesa was launched, largely because a lot of people did not have access to banks and financial services; many of them lived too far. M-Pesa increases access by allowing people to make financial transactions simply using their phones. And they don't have to be smartphones either. And the same service now allows people to buy government bonds. For as little as $30 someone who may not even have enough money to start a bank account can still make an investment and get a return on it in 6 months.
ReplyDeleteHowever, there is also a danger in relying too heavily on technology. Yes, in this case it has allowed more people to benefit from financial services. But we need to fix the real problem behind why these people don’t have access. So yes, I’m more of a techno-optimist, but technology won’t solve all of our problems.
I agree with Shanice's.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Shanice as well. We cannot depend entirely on technology but improved technology itself has reaped outstanding benefits.
ReplyDeleteI think it definitely depends on how we let the things around us change the way technology is improved. If we continue to let industry drive innovation we will not be able to put sufficient resources toward technologies that will solve the problems we face today.
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