“Unfortunately, the makers of technology are generally not encouraged to be introspective or reflect too deeply on what they are making, and this really worries me…Reading science fiction is like an ethics class for inventors, and engineers and designers should be trying to think like science fiction authors when they approach their own work… I feel with great urgency that we need to very thoughtfully consider what we build as well as encourage that same thoughtfulness out in the world.”
Anticipating consequences is hard, judging them perhaps harder.
Consider, for one of the most important technologies of the past century, the birth control pill. Arguably it played a central role in destroying the then existing system of sexual norms and behaviors–and was intended to do so. Was that was a good thing–sexual liberation for both men and women? Or did it destabilize marriage, produce a world where many children ended up with only one parent?
Anticipating consequences is hard, judging them perhaps harder.
Consider, for one of the most important technologies of the past century, the birth control pill. Arguably it played a central role in destroying the then existing system of sexual norms and behaviors–and was intended to do so. Was that was a good thing–sexual liberation for both men and women? Or did it destabilize marriage, produce a world where many children ended up with only one parent?
Anticipating consequences is hard, judging them perhaps harder.
Consider, for one of the most important technologies of the past century, the birth control pill. Arguably it played a central role in destroying the then existing system of sexual norms and behaviors–and was intended to do so. Was that was a good thing–sexual liberation for both men and women? Or did it destabilize marriage, produce a world where many children ended up with only one parent?