Tech Fear-Mongering Must Stop

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jwinkler,
User Rank: Apprentice
4/2/2014 | 2:09:12 PM

Re: Legal Contstraints of Progress

I had a great deal of difficulty getting past all the fearmongering about the dangers of fearmongers.

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dfiejdasz010,
User Rank: Apprentice
3/31/2014 | 1:19:35 PM

Legal Contstraints of Progress

The oversupply of lawyers in the US is also an obstacle to progress. The fear of lawsuits squelches all kinds of ideas in this country. The costs to implement anything, extra testing, legal reviews, liability insurance, and even that extra time to market, puts a lot of good ideas out to pasture.

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J_Brandt,
User Rank: Ninja
3/28/2014 | 2:28:00 PM

CAN<>SHOULD

I think there is a lost element here. Just because we can do something, doesn't mean we should.

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I give,
User Rank: Moderator
3/28/2014 | 11:32:41 AM

Re: earm my trust, and consider unintended consequences

That's about the size of it

But it's not easy either way

Trans fats (shortening and margarine) had benefits, made money, "fed" people and killed millions of them. Now it is declared non-food. Could not have known the consequences at the time. Natural or un-natural? Not enough. Jobs? Not enough? Progress? Often confused with new, or with mere "change."

Only time will tell. And you can rewrite history, but you can't undo the consequences of the past.

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moarsauce123,
User Rank: Ninja
3/28/2014 | 9:29:33 AM

New tech is either made to money or abused right away

The problem is that with any new tech the two things that happen first is squeezing as much money out of it as possible or thinkg of ways on how to abuse it. That applies to corporations and administrations alike. Just look at the digital media revolution. New tech such as MP3 was released and the first things that happened was some abused it for sharing copyrighted content and others massively fought it because they could not figure out how to squeeze money from it. Then came Apple with the iPod and iTunes and made a successful business out of it. They figured out how to satisfy the need for quick access to music, but they demanded an excessive premium for it. By now many more sell the 99 cent song to everyone who is naive enough to subscribe to that one ecosystem. Distribution costs are less than a penny per song, much cheaper than CDs (which were always much cheaper to make and distribute than vinyl). And don't think even for a moment that artists get more money from all that. They remain at the short end of the stick although the ease of manufacture and distribution allows them new avenues. There are plenty of artists who ditch labels and distributors and sell their art directly to consumers.....something record labels fear the most.

Or a more recent example: the Internet of Things is starting to ramp up, but companies like Cisco are not looking for how they can use the new tech to fill the need of customers, the sole intention is to "monetize IoT". It also does not help that it isn't any longer considered a joke that the NSA collects all data from the Internet connected fridges or other IoT home automation just because they can.

Look at the invention of the Internat and the often noted "Mother of all Demos". That presentation of new technology was solely based on using new tech for making thuings better, creating more collaboration and information exchange for science and the greater good. It was not about new means of making as much cash as possible or tricking others into a trap. If new tech is to be broadly accepted then it needs to be made broadly available without restrictions and making just a few entities richer than they already are.

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fredatiweek,
User Rank: Apprentice
3/27/2014 | 3:01:38 PM

earm my trust, and consider unintended consequences

I agree with the premise of your column, however, you're overlooking a significant barrier for those in the Luddite crowd. Specifically, that is Trust. Modern capitalism does not work without it. It took the Sherman AntiTrust Act of 1890 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to stop monopolies and market collusion in order for investors to put their trust in the markets. Today's information technology does wonderful things, but we are fast approaching an inflection point where security and privacy issues (lack of trust) will have a negative effect on the whole system. Why should I bother registering my Starbucks Card online to reload it from my checking account and then pay for my latte with a barcode app on my phone, and risk my identity and finances to hackers, when a simple $5 bill will suffice. That's the question I put to you. Technology has made huge advances in the last decade, but the corporations have not truly put the customer's interests first. Perhaps they do, but look at Target's breach. Even the best laid plans are subject to unintended consequences or human mistakes. As for GMO crops, I think people look at the factory food industry and think, gee, in the beginning we all thought TV dinners were terrific but now that we look at the ingredients, maybe you shouldn't eat a lot of them. Likewise, maybe GMO is genius. Only the next 50 years will tell us what the unintended consequences are. Finally, we are in a time period where the government has a trust and credibility gap as well. So on behalf of us Luddites out there, don't tell me you care, show me.

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Lorna Garey,
User Rank: Author
3/27/2014 | 12:33:24 PM

Hope from next generation

How much of this is due to an aging society? I have a daughter studying genetics now who gets amazingly irate at the GMO scare mongerers and essentially has the attitude: If we can do it, we should and see what happens. She's not alone -- I think that we just need to get the boomers out of they way!

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Gary_EL,
User Rank: Ninja
3/26/2014 | 10:04:30 PM

Research Spending

Pretty scarry stuff. Do your figures include Military spending on pure and applied research?

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asksqn,
User Rank: Ninja
3/26/2014 | 6:33:38 PM

Luddite Fan Club members incl industry giants

Except that the Luddites are Big Biz (like the RIAA/MPAA) that want to keep a chokehold on their respective gravy trains via litigation & laws passed by pet politicians and otherwise quash any tech that threatens its outdated/outmoded business model(s).

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