Technologies and tech companies are routinely accused of creating many societal problems. This book exposes these charges as mostly myths, falsehoods, and exaggerations.
Technology Fears and Scapegoats debunks 40 widespread myths about Big Tech, Big Data, AI, privacy, trust, polarization, automation, and similar fears, while exposing the scapegoating behind these complaints. The result is a balanced and positive view of the societal impact of technology thus far.
The book takes readers through the steps and mindset necessary to restore the Wests belief in technological progress. Each individual chapter provides a cogent and often controversial rebuttal to a common tech accusation. The resulting text will inspire conversations among tech insiders, policymakers, and the general public alike.
- Introduction. The roots and risks of todays techno-mythologies.-
1.
Technology is changing the world as never before.-
2. Technology is
destroying individual privacy.-
3. Social media is polarizing America.-
4.
Technology is driving todays societal distrust.-
5. AIs arrival is an
atomic bomb moment.-
6. Social media is the leading source of
misinformation.-
7. Your data is gold.-
8. Digital technology is dangerously
addictive.-
9. The internet is extinguishing local languages.-
10. Social
media is an existential threat to democracy.-
11. The pace of technology
change is accelerating.-
12. Technology increases societal biases.-
13. Big
Tech faces no competition.-
14. Silicon Valley doesnt value diversity.-
15.
Facial recognition is inherently biased.-
16. Big Tech should be arbiters of
the truth.-
17. Digital technology is increasingly disruptive.-
18. Strong
privacy regulations spur digital adoption.-
19. Big Tech practices data
imperialism in emerging markets.-
20. BigData systems cant protect
individual privacy.-
21. Data is the new oil.-
22. Productivity gains no
longer benefit U.S. workers.-
23. Corporate profits are at an all-time high.-
24. Technology is wiping out the middle class.-
25. AI will lead to the end
of work.-
26. Digital copying is victimless.-
27. U.S. broadband lags behind
other developed nations.-
28. The internet is destroying journalism.-
29.
Market concentration is at an all-time high.-
30. Big Pharma is driving high
health care costs.-
31. Small businesses create most new Jobs and
innovations.-
32. We have all the technology we need to fight climate
change.-
33. China has invented a new form of capitalism.-
34. American
manufacturing is roaring back.-
35. India will save the west from China.-
36.
The EUs digital rules are a model for the world.-
37. Antitrust actions are
needed to curb Big Tech.-
38. Federal R&D crowds out private R&D.-
39.
Industrial policy is not the American way.-
40. Industrial policy doesnt
work.- Conclusion. Returning to a pro-innovation American agenda.
Robert D. Atkinson is the founder and president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), the science and technology policy think tank. His previous books include Big is Beautiful (The MIT Press, 2018), Innovation Economics (Yale, 2012), Supply-Side Follies (Rowman Littlefield, 2007), and The Past and Future of Americas Economy (Edward Elgar, 2005).
David Moschella is a nonresident senior fellow at ITIF, in charge of its Defending Digital project. For more than a decade, Moschella was Head of Worldwide Research for IDC. His previous books include Seeing Digital (DXC Technology, 2018), Customer-Driven IT (Harvard Business School Press, 2003), and Waves of Power (AMACOM, 1997). He has lectured and consulted on technology trends and strategies in more than 30 countries.
