Technology has provided us with many amazing possibilities that were once only figments of our imagination. Who would have thought then that a self-driving car is possible? However, it’s not all luxury, comfort, or good life. There is what tech naysayers call the most dangerous new tech that can spell disaster for humankind.
Giz Asks have compiled a list of experts’ thoughts on this, and here’s what they had to say:
An associate professor of Law at Fordham University, Zephyr Teachout thinks private workplace surveillance is the most dangerous new tech. He believes that this upsets the relationships between employers and employees by making the workers seem like guinea pigs.
It can be used as a tool to gather employee information on what motivates them to work in unhealthy situations. It can also give employers insight into how they can get more value for less pay. Teachout likens this most dangerous new tech to what research has taught casinos about gambling and gamblers—that is, to identify the gamblers’ weakness to learn where they can earn the most from
Researchers Name The Most Dangerous New Tech
Artificial Intelligence
A computer science professor from Brown University, Michael Littman, believes that AI or artificial intelligence is the most dangerous new tech. He cites the 2021 AI100 report released last month by a panel of 17 experts. It states in the said report that AI has provided many benefits in real-life applications but runs the risk of overuse and abuse.
Littman said that AI systems are being in the proliferation of disinformation on the internet. This, in turn, gives this tech the potential to threaten democracy and fascism. He said that AI has mistakenly been awarded the title “techno-solutionism”. This means that people have this attitude about AI as a technology that can solve any problem, which is very far from the truth.
Synthetic Biology
For Amy Webb, author of the book The Genesis Machine: Our Quest to Rewrite Life in the Age of Synthetic Biology, the most dangerous new tech today is synthetic biology. She believes that it has but one goal. It’s to get access to cells to be able to write new, and possibly better, biological code.
The CEO of the Future Today Institute also stated that new biological technologies and techniques would let us read and edit DNA codes and allow us to write them. With this technology, scientists can now program living and biological structures the same way they do computers.
Quantum Computing and Social or Cognitive Technologies
According to Ryan Calo, Professor of Law at the University of Washington, the most dangerous new tech is quantum computing. Although its dangers are not something unheard of, quantum computing expedites the threats to privacy and autonomy. He believes that today’s supercomputers can get access to the most secret of information. What worries him is the fact that quantum computing can guess all of humanity’s secrets to be used by governments and companies.
Professor Jeroen van den Hoven of the Ethics and Technology department of the Delft University of Technology thinks that social or cognitive technologies are the most dangerous new tech. This is because these technologies hinder us from seeing the world and the needs of its people. He believes that these are conducive to dehumanization and can turn into self-obsessed and unthinking people.
The co-author of the book Evil Online further states that social and online applications of these technologies threaten to create epistemic chaos. He mentioned a quote by Voltaire, “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities”. By this, he means that the dangers of technologies can be downplayed and its benefits made to look bad. That the villains are glorified while the real heroes are demonized.
