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Why Societies Fear Technologies
There can be a lot of division over emerging digital technologies these days, from crypto and blockchain to the most divisive of them all, Artificial Intelligence (AI). There is a pervasive fear and in equal measures love and excitement.
Why do cultures and societies fear and love technologies? Why does it help us to understand these emotions and what role do they play in evolving technologies to become truly useful to us?
In this article I’m exploring our fear and love of technologies at a sociocultural level. In prior articles I wrote about how culture becomes aware of, then evaluates and eventually adopts technology.
It helps to understand fear and love at a macro sociocultural level as well When we do, we can see technologies in a different light and think about them more critically. As we are in a period of unprecedented technological advancements and changes, this becomes even more important.
Why We Fear New Technologies
Those who imagine and then bring to life new technologies do so because they see a problem that can be solved using technology. From when we figured out smacking some stones together could result in getting dinner faster and creating high fashion with animal hides to automating as much as we possibly can.
