In Code We Trust: The Perils of Technology Gradualism

The emergence of novel industries and technologies is often met with reactions at opposite ends of the risk spectrum. On the one hand, there is fear and apprehension, whereas on the other there is enthusiasm and opportunity. This tension has informed human reactions to novelty ever since our early ancestors encountered fire and eventually learned not to fear it, but to harness it.

Our quest for innovation, new frontiers, and breaking boundaries may be as natural a human instinct as fight or flight. When we organize this instinct collectively, we are capable of truly extraordinary achievements, as much as we are capable of causing truly extraordinary harm. The atomic age, for instance, at once augured the prospects of limitless clean energy, while also bringing about the specter of nuclear annihilation. But innovate we must — not for its own sake, but because so many of the governance and business models underpinning the modern age have ossified — stalled by an insidious innovation and technology gradualism.