Problematic technology adoption? Great news!

On why more problems with technology implementation is a good sign.

Oftentimes I think about this one particularly memorable episode of Black Mirror that tells the story of Martha (Hayley Atwell), a young woman whose boyfriend Ash Starmer (Domhnall Gleeson) is killed in a car accident. After this tragedy, Martha mourns him, but soon learns of a new technology that allows her to communicate with an AI imitating Ash.

The episode, called “Be Right Back” is by many considered to be a masterpiece, because of its deeply humanistic approach to human-technology relations and its fine-grained depiction of individual reactions to a post-mortem robot imitating someone we loved.

Obviously, such a robot is a highly speculative and futuristic technology that will (most probably) not be invented any time soon. But I guess after watching “Be Right Back” many of us started thinking about our own potential reactions to such humanoid robots.

This brings me to the issue of “problematic technologies”. We could argue, of course, that in one way or another all technologies are problematic. Their adoption bears many consequences that are hard to foresee upfront. Some technologies, however, are harder than others in terms of ethical, societal and regulatory challenges…