Why technology revolutions spark unexpected consequences [Q&A]

The current technology revolution — a culmination of computing power, global networks, and learning algorithms — is remaking our world in real time.

We spoke to Jamie Dobson, the founder of digital services company Container Solutions and author of Visionaries, Rebels and Machines: The story of humanity’s extraordinary journey from electrification to cloudification to discuss the unexpected consequences of technological progress.

BN: Of all the technologies available to us, Artificial Intelligence is the current headline act, and it’s becoming an increasingly important part of modern life, but it’s not welcomed by everyone. Do they have a point?

JD: What we all need to remember is that no technology is inherently evil. A radio is just a radio. But in the 1930s, the Nazis used that technology to warp public opinion. Radio sets were distributed to ensure German households tuned in to carefully crafted propaganda programming. That’s not something Marconi had in mind when he was developing the technology. The transformation of technology happens again and again. The telephone was supposed to be a business tool; it became a social one. The internet was designed for military communications; it became a global platform for everything from cat videos to scientific collaboration. Twitter was meant to be a status update service; it became a political force. So, it’s not creators, it’s users that determine a technology’s destiny. Any technology, including AI, will be what we make it.

BN: And how are we doing?

JD: We need to be careful what we wish for. We now have technology that accelerates wealth accumulation in ways that would have been impossible just a few decades ago. We also have technology that’s eliminating the entry-level positions that previous generations relied upon to get a foothold in the economy. Young people are finding fewer opportunities to develop skills, falling out of the workforce, and becoming angry at a system that promised them a future but delivered precarious gig work instead. There’s a growing feeling that the baton of skills development isn’t being passed on.

While it’s true that in the past, technology has always replaced jobs in the short-term, and we’ve always found new jobs — and that may be the case with AI — today’s frustration and anxiety has to deal with algorithms that know our fears, our biases, and our weaknesses, and that can deliver precisely calibrated messages designed to trigger specific emotional responses. And today, information warfare can be waged by anyone with a laptop and a basic understanding of social media dynamics.

Take those elements and consider that someone using AI and a home CRISPR DNA editing kit (available online for as little as $59) could deliberately engineer a pathogen that combines the contagiousness of COVID with the lethality of Ebola. The technology to do this exists now, and it’s becoming cheaper and more accessible every year.

We find ourselves in a world where technological progress is outpacing our social and institutional capacity to manage it. Do we really want to allow our relationship with technology to result in there being a fundamental breaking of the social contract?

BN: How do we avoid that? Can we avoid it?

JD: The very fact that we’re having conversations about algorithmic bias, technology-induced wealth inequality, and bioengineering risks means we’re not sleepwalking into catastrophe. Awareness is the first step towards action.

We also need to remember that there are things robots simply cannot do. Try getting a robot to fold a fitted sheet or arrange flowers in a vase. These types of tasks require a kind of tactile intelligence and adaptive problem-solving that humans possess in spades, but machines struggle with enormously. Humanity has survived and adapted to every previous technological revolution. The printing press was supposed to destroy social order. The telegraph was going to make the postal service obsolete. Video didn’t kill the radio star — they just became podcast stars. Each time, we learned to live with the technology, to adapt our institutions, to create new norms and regulations that mitigated the worst effects whilst preserving the benefits.

And we also need to see our glasses as being half full. AI might actually be put to good use. Climate change, medical research, and infrastructure development are all problems where machine learning could help us make breakthroughs we’re currently struggling to achieve. In some parts of the world, new technology might allow developing nations to leapfrog Western development entirely. Why build expensive copper telephone networks when you can go straight to mobile? Why construct coal power plants when solar panels are becoming cheaper every year?

The technology that enables exploitation can also enable cooperation. The same social media platforms that spread propaganda can be used to organize protests and social movements. The algorithms that concentrate wealth can be reprogrammed or regulated. We have choices. The future isn’t written in code. It’s written in policy, in voting booths, in boardrooms, and in the countless small decisions we make about how to use the tools we’ve been given.

So, here’s my challenge to you: keep using technology in ways they don’t intend. Keep connecting with other human beings. Keep organizing. Keep pushing back against systems that treat you as data points rather than people.

Rapid change is scary. But it’s also full of possibility. Yes, the unintended consequences of technology can be catastrophic, but they can also be miraculous. And which way it goes depends far less on the technology itself than on what we choose to do with it.

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