We live in an age of exponential technology advancements — exciting and a bit scary, too. We cannot assume everything new is good and helpful.
Neil Postman’s questions for a new technology (from his lecture On Culture’s Surrender to Technology) are a useful framework:
1. What is the problem to which technology claims to be a solution?
2. Whose problem is it?
3. What new problems will be created because of solving an old one?
4. Which people and institutions will be most harmed?
5. What changes in language are being promoted?
6. What shifts in economic and political power are likely to result?
7. What alternative media might be made from a technology?
