Technology: Promise And Peril

I love technology. Always have. Even though it has always been obvious that it could be used as a tool or a weapon. The first human who picked up a stick could use it to dig a furrow to plant seeds or to bash someone's head in. A stone could be used to strike sparks to start a fire for warmth or cooking or shaped into a spearhead to bring death to an enemy. Splitting atoms allowed us to light our cities and homes or make bombs with incredible destructive power that could flatten those cities and kill hundreds of thousands in seconds.

Now with the digital revolution comes the potential to usher in a truly golden age where most of the ills that have plagued humanity could be conquered. Some of us dare to dream of a possible world where disease, hunger, and poverty are banished to memories that fade to historical record. A world where all our energy and resources could go to realizing human potential instead of battling nature and our fellow humans for survival or mere advantage. But the perils posed by that same technology are terrifying to contemplate. Molecular nanotechnology could be used to repair human illness at the cellular level or in runaway reactions turn all matter on the planet to "grey goo".

Some weeks ago and again today on NPR I heard of the danger posed by the incredibly rapid drop in the cost of digital information storage. For example, every conversation you have on your phone for a year can be stored in a data bank for 17 cents. Every move you and a million other people can be tracked and known with an accuracy of a few feet and stored for $50. This could morph into the kind of Big Brother nightmare world that dictators and tyrannical governments could only dream of just a couple of years ago.

I have no idea whether we are going to get a Utopian world or a worldwide North Korea. But unprecedented change is coming and we better be figuring out how to do our best to steer this inevitable technological progress toward enhancing human happiness and liberty or face disaster on a scale undreamed of.