Why Technologies Become Geopolitical
When we delve into a delicious cinnamon bun for a treat, we don’t tend to think about the how that spice impacted technological developments and geopolitics. But spices had a huge impact on technology development and geopolitics. Because colonial powers rather enjoyed new spices, they wanted to get more as fast as possible. This spurred on the development of ships and navigation techniques.
Today, the most well known technologies impacting geopolitics are wee computer chips and various types of Artificial Intelligence. In the early periods of metallurgy, the techniques and tools used to make stabby things like swords and spears were often closely held secrets that other powers wanted to get a hold of.
While we like to think that technologies are neutral, they are not. Technologies come from human imagination. A human sees a problem that needs solving, or a process that can be improved upon or living made easier by a technology. One creates a technology to serve a purpose, be it good or bad, no one invents a technology to just, well, sit there. That would be a bit boring.
“Everywhere we remain unfree and chained to technology, whether we passionately affirm or deny it. But we are delivered over to it in the worst possible way when we regard it as something neutral; for this conception of it, to which today we particularly like to…
