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Technology’s Immutable Laws?
Humanity’s relationship with technology is intrinsic to human culture. Just as culture is always changing and evolving, so is technology. It’s been this way since we figured out how to whack stones together to make tools. And it will always be so as we survive as a species.
Digital technologies offer us some of the greatest opportunities to advance as a species. To set humanity on some interesting roads that before were the domain of science fiction and artists. We know too, that technologies can be equally deadly to us as a species.
We’ve had enough time now, evolved our understanding of the world, our role in it (somewhat) and played with enough revolutionary technologies, and not so revolutionary ones, that I think we can lay a foundation of immutable laws around them. Why would we and should we?
As I’ve written before, we tend to go through three main phases of technological absorption into our sociocultural systems. Awareness, Evaluation and Adaptation. This is how culture decides the success or failure of a technology over time.
The success or failure of any technology is never decided by an individual. It is an inherently social act. Technologies are social. In our present model of capitalism, this is referred to by economists as markets. Yes, but this approach often disconnects from what it means to be humans…
