Technology Outpacing Responsibility

Hey Jesscientists

This post is a bit of a jumbled mess, I probably don’t have the words to articulate it correctly but here goes.

The technological revolution or digital revolution is well underway, and we see huge progress in the field of AI, machine learning, IoT, bioengineering, space travel and more. Many of the things we can achieve today, from curing diseases to travelling across the world, would be I thinkable a few decades ago.

We’ve essentially continued to acquire almost godlike powers when compared to our ancestors. What took them ages to do can now be archived with a simple tablet in your water, a flick of a switch, or a swipe on a screen.

Humans ability to adapt also makes these achievements seem trivial with time. Oh, that’s normal to ping someone in China with your smartphone, and they’ll send you goods to your door on the other side of the world.

Video calling used to be futuristic technology, and now we have video surgery happening with the help of 5G and technology. It’s actually scary to think about how quickly things develop.

Even scarier is how quickly we accept things as the norm.

With great power comes great responsibility

I think we all need uncle Ben in our lives, the way we’re going and the power we can wield these days. If we look at how social media had given people the ability to rally, like in the unrest we saw in Lebanon, the Arab spring movement, the Capitol Hill riots.

We have the technology to create mass change and movement but do we stop and think should we do it instead of yes, we can do it. Technology has given us powerful tools and given it to as many people as possible, and it's only going to keep expanding. The cheaper technology becomes, the more people will have access to these tools.

But every tool humans create is another person's potential weapon that can harm others. Just because we CAN do something doesn't mean we should do it.

Never waste a good crisis

If we look at how this pandemic has shaken up society's fabric, we see governments wanting to do mass surveillance; we see the idea of chinas social credit score coming to other countries. We hear calls for travel restrictions based on a prick in your arm and tracking those who do and those who don't.

The idea that it's for the greater good is, to me, not enough of a reason to constantly track people. Just because we have the technology doesn't mean we HAVE to use it.

Technology and money have no moral compass; they are just tools; in fact, they are scapegoats and amplifiers for human behaviour. So I've been thinking, is it time we as a society discuss what their technology line is?

Should technology be governed by ethics?
or should we allow it to expand and see where the chips may fall?

Got Tethics?

Do we need tethics?

Tethics or tech-ethics is a meme from silicon valley; if you haven't seen the episode, I highly encourage you to do so; the way they meme tech bros are too good. Anyway, the competitive nature of tech and this pandora's box we've opened up of light-speed innovation has as creating things so quickly without thinking of the consequences.

It reminds me of the stories of the cold war, while 2 parties are racing to build the most powerful weapon. Here it's countless businesses racing to create the best tool. Those tools are then combined by a 3rd party, and we create better tools, and it just snowballs as things do in a free market of ideas and resources.

I am a big proponent of technology and how it improves our lives, but a lot of this has got me thinking about why we need all these improvements? Am I just becoming an "old head"?

Do we need to take a breathe and think about what are we creating and why are we creating? It feels like the race to create and innovate can't take into consideration the scope of influence.

That's why we're living in a world where 2 guys manage the worlds entire social media sphere, and then we wonder why its a shit show.

Governance parasite

I hate to say this, it may be even throw up in my mouth a little, but perhaps technology needs a governance system, like the kind we've attempted in the blockchain sector. Governance is like the antithesis of innovation; it's slow, it's resource-intensive, but it also brings in different view points.

It allows stakeholders to affect how a tool is used and allows the group to impose their tethics on what is produced.

Perhaps it's time we have a counterbalancing force in the tech space, to take a beat, to stop and consider what we're creating and working towards.

Do we create tools for prosperity or tools for your enslavement?

Have your say

What do you good people of HIVE think?

So have at it, my Jessies! If you don't have something to comment, "I am a Jessie."

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