Technology and its Discontents
The role of technology is under attack
by K.N.C.
Nuclear bombs can destroy us. Facebook undermines our privacy. Artificial intelligence (AI) and robots can enslave us (or, worse, take our jobs). Synthetic biology and gene-editing have humans playing God. Social media make us depressed: we’ve never been so connected yet never so alone.
Today a “techlash” is under way. It comes in many forms, but two stand out. First, a belief that web titans such as Facebook, Amazon and Google have grown too dominant; and, second, a view that AI and algorithms are not transparent or accountable. Both concerns pit the individual against potentially overwhelming power — of the company, the platform, the algorithm.
Take the web giants. They collect a vast amount of data on their users. Much of this is sensitive, from medical matters to political views. So protecting privacy is vital — yet many people have been shocked at revelations about the extent of the information Facebook holds, and the company’s relaxed approach to safeguarding it. That has further fuelled fears about the platform’s growing influence on society and politics.
Facebook’s mantra, “move fast and break things” (an injunction to software developers not to rely on legacy code), has the ring of not caring about the…
