Thursday, January 26, 2017

Out-of-sync: When social evolution lags technical innovation


     Humans, as a whole, are very capable intellectually. They're "smart". They can figure out how to take something and improve it. They can take two or more, apparently unrelated, items and figure out something completely new that can be done by using all of them together in a way that has never been done before. This is called "technological advancement" or "technical innovation".
     This is good. It has allowed us to move from caves to weather-secure buildings with running water and toilets and to be able to go from point A to point B in hours rather than weeks or months. It has allowed us to be able to feed 100 people, for a year, from an acre of land rather than 20. In most areas of the planet, it has helped us to be able to spend some time each day doing something other than trying to survive.
     What humans, as a whole, are NOT very good at -- is using technology consistently for constructive purposes. We invent ways to initiate, and control, fire and some individuals start burning down forests, or houses, or even tying alternative health specialists to stakes and burning them. We figure out ways to communicate at the speed of light across the planet and use it to spread false information more quickly. We work on methods to cure disease and help those who have incurable problems to live more easily and efficiently -- then we use those same methods to create diseases that kill millions. These are examples of "social evolution" (or lack thereof 😢).
     This is an example of being "out-of-sync" (or out of synchronization). Technology becomes capable of certain actions before people have matured sufficiently to consistently make use of the technology for good. Another way of putting it is that technology advances faster than people's ability to use it properly -- and the spread between these two appears to continue to widen.
     In order to curtail this problem, of course, one of two solutions can be applied. The first would be to slow down technical innovation. This is unpopular and unenforceable. As stated at the beginning -- humans, as a whole, are very capable intellectually. If one government, or group of people, agreed to slow down technological development in one area then another group of people will be completely willing, and able, to proceed on the development path on their own. A similar method could be done on an individual basis (since usually there is someone who is first with a technical innovation) with that person deciding to slow down, or withhold, research or results. This might work for a while but it disrupts many social policies of reward and competition.
     The other thing to do would be to accelerate social development. This sounds great but it also has problems. One problem is there no way to accelerate social development universally. In other words, if you have a nuclear bomb it only takes ONE finger to "push the button". And, within current economic patterns, there is no incentive to devote the resources (time, people, energy, "money") to help people to develop socially; there is no direct, short-term, "profit" from a more mature, socially capable, human.
     So, we have a problem. The problem doesn't appear to have a solution. They why talk about it? Because awareness of the problem is, in itself, an approach to a solution. If most scientists and engineers and tinkerers keep this problem in mind then technology can be presented in such ways that constructive ideas are promoted before destructive ones. This doesn't stop abuse but it does reduce it and slow it down. Such awareness can also avoid the social problem of technical abandonment -- "I just invented it -- it's not my responsibility how it is used". A true, but very lazy, excuse.
     Do you have any suggestions as to how to keep technical innovation and social responsibility at the same point?

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