Tech leaders make risky choices that will affect all of us. This is how we fight back.
Did you get any say in whether or not A.I. will radically transform our world? (Or autonomous robots, or quantum computers, or genetic engineering, or many other radical new technologies?)
The fact is that—right at this moment—a tiny number of tech leaders are making brash decisions that will have a huge impact on the rest of the eight billion people on this planet.
They don’t mean to cause harm, but their new creations often bring dire unintended consequences. Throughout history the pattern has been the same: inventors develop technologies for specific practical and commercial purposes, but fail to foresee their psychological, social, economic, and political impacts. We call these “side effects,” but they're often more profound than the intended ones.
We’re told that “You can't stop progress,” but we CAN identify powerful factors that push technologies (and technologists) in dangerous directions. And there are all sorts of things that we CAN do to push back.
The Frankenstein Fix offers insights from many experts, including tech critic Douglas Rushkoff, science historian Stephen Johnson, and psychologist Katy Cook. It also provides a cornucopia of unique features, from an intriguing account of how people have resisted problematic inventions throughout history, to surprising takes on space colonization and why the Amish resist technology, to a toolbox of powerful techniques that could enable us to predict—and avoid—future troubles.
Gabriel Cohen is a professor of journalism, critical thinking, and creative writing at Pratt Institute in New York City, and has taught at New York University, the Center for Fiction, and Long Island University. He is the author of six previous books, and has written articles and essays for The New York Times and many other publications.
