Technology is currently out of control, and even though some technologies such as AI are mainly destructive and will cause severe damage to human society, we have no safeguards in place to ensure that they are not invented. Technological development now largely proceeds down a deterministic path, out of human control. We need to be more cautious with new technology. Unfortunately, there are many mechanisms that have evolved in modern society to keep technology free from obstructions. On this page, I will list them and update the list frequently with explanations so that those who are aware of the problem can work to ameliorate the deleterious effects of technology.
It is important to note that tool use in itself is not necessarily a bad thing, and humans will always be tool users. But technological development is simply out of control, and we must bring it back under our control or eventually be relegated as either cogs in an advanced technological organsims or be declared obsolete by autonomous technology. So without further ado, here are the mechanisms.
Capitalistic evolution. We have a system of capitalistic evolution, where ideas and inventions thrive because they give short-term advantages to individuals, and this is the primary mechanism by which new technology evolves quickly. Capitalistic evolution of technologies is not inevitable, as the Amish are wise enough to safeguard against it. Nevertheless, the evolutionary system of capitalism on a global scale has immense inertia and so technological development continues even though it has long-term negative consequences.
Prisoner’s dilemma without safeguards. Technology provides short-term advantages to some, and a competitive advantage as well. This puts pressure on others to use technology to keep up. Since we have no safeguards against this in society like the Amish do, we cannot prevent technologies from being introduced even if widespread use is detrimental.
Technology as primary interest. Many people, especially computer programmers, have taken up technology as one of their primary interests. It is intellectually satisfying for them and they derive part of their identity from a mastery of technology. This makes a deadly combination with those who want to use technology to divert wealth towards themselves, because all they have to do is provide a comfortable place for such technologists to work on their inventions. People who have take technology as an interest were also very intelligent as children and probably isolated or awkward at formative stages, and technology thus represents not only an interest but a place of emotional security. Such people are blindly following technology due to this.
Technology as a good of culture. Technology historically has come to represents a saviour from dark times, and this idea is especially prevalent in secular cultures whose new saviour is technology. Children are indoctrinated at school to think that scientific and technological development is good, so they naturally support it into adulthood. It is an implicit belief of many that technological development is good and it is difficult for many to see the truth because of this.
Technology represents safety. Technology, undoubtedly, makes us more physically safe, even if it renders large parts of life (such as jobs) meaningless. Thus, people have a natural instinct to gravitate towards technology simply because it makes them safe. This is true even if people already have more than enough technology to make them safe, because people do not choose technology for safety through rational thought. Rather, they simply choose it on instinct. Technology as a safety mechanism only works as well as it does because technology has isolated us so that we cannot rely on each other.
Technology creates problems that only it can solve. Another aspect of technology is that it creates enormous problems such as climate change that only more technology seems able to solve. Or at least, human beings in modern society only have one mode of thought: if there is a problem, invent a technological solution for it.
Loneliness-Salve Complex. Technology isolates people because it makes them too independent. Some independence is good, but the amount of independence from community we have because of technology is detrimental and makes the average person lonely, especially because average people have fewer means each day to contribute meaningfully to society, except by being a replaceable cog. The only thing that alleviates this loneliness is technology in the form of online interaction, streaming media, and virtual worlds, all of which are superficial and only provide the bare minimum to distract people from their loneliness.