Item — HN Reader

> First Law: “Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral.”

In recent years I feel like I've gone from being a technology optimist – believing that technology in itself is somehow a force for good – to lying somewhere closer to Kranzberg's first law. While technology can occasionally be used for good, for example to give power to vulnerable groups, in the long term I think it usually just amplifies and ossifies existing power dynamics.

1 comments

For some narrow definitions of technology, yes. But if we make space for not only internet thingies, such as new medicines, how are those not net-positive?

Of course! But that is one technology of many. The power dynamics that technology amplifies can be a net positive force, and often is. In other cases it’s a net negative, like new technologies to kill, oppress, etc. The point, which Kranzberg captures, is that technology as a phenomenon is not a good thing, just because it can be and often is used for good. We don’t get to pretend that technologies don’t exist in a larger social context.