Where Will Technology Take Us?

from the bad-or-good? dept

An Ausralian news organization asked some famous "thinkers" where they thought technology would take us by the end of the decade. What they say is certainly interesting, but I thought it was even more interesting to step back and look at the types of things they're saying. Many of them more seem worried about the effect of technology on society and culture, rather than what the technology is actually being used to do. While I have nothing against considering the consequences of technology use, I always get a little nervous when I think people are simply blaming the technology for problems. It also looks like some of these "futurists" are making the same mistake people have made for centuries when predicting the future: which is that they simply extrapolate certain things, as if everything else were held constant. Thus, for a few centuries now, it's been predicted that we'll run out of food or some energy source, or who knows what in a certain (short) period of time. Somehow, mostly due to technology creating the solution, we've never hit those barriers.