Tech 631 Week 10
The Exponential Age
Question: How can policy keep up with technological change?
New World Disorder
The speed of technological change brought on my exponential technologies has created new opportunities for our adversaries and other malicious actors by increasing the attack vector while being unable to update policies and regulations that defend assets and discipline criminals. The re-localization of the economy has diminished economic inter-dependency removing the driver for nations to compromise allowing more escalation of conflict. Urbanization grows the urban-rural divide further weakening the intergovernmental bodies. Platforms allows for rapid spread of misinformation and division, which is inherently promoted by platforms that seek ways to engage and maintain the attention of their users (Azhar, 2021).
To effectively and efficiently bring order to this new world disorder, policy must be updated to help control and regulate these emerging issues. Unfortunately, policymakers and speak tech and they can't keep up with the pace of change. To avoid this new world disorder in the near-term, technologists must work with policymakers to address the complexity of socio-technical systems at all levels of society. These "public-interest technologists" recognize the danger of technology development independent of policy and help bridget the gap so policy can keep pace with technology. For the long-term solution, technology needs to be included in ethics, social science, policy, and human-centered design and be considered mandatory education from childhood to university and beyond (Schneier, 2019).
Virus in the Age of Madness
Question: What makes an expert?
Come Back, Michael Foucault
Those that are genuinely considered experts in their field by their peers achieve this recognition through years of intensive practice and studies with devoted teachers and mentors (Ericcson, 2017). Unfortunately, the term expert is thrown around by those who feel they have sufficient years of experience and/or degrees to back the claim in order to establish clout in a saturated field of similar resumes. This approach is flawed because, "not all practice makes perfect" as most people focuse on things they already do well. Those seeking expertise need to exercise deliberate practice where they exert considerable, specific, and sustained effort to do something they don't do well (Ericcson, 2007). The ability to understand multiple domains pertaining to an area of interest, deepens understanding in the target domain.
According to the Harvard Business Review, to truly validate an expert, they must be able to demonstrate that (1) their performance is consistently superior to their peers; (2) they are able to produce concrete results; and (3) they can replicate and measure their expertise in a lab setting (Ericcson, 2017).
While industry recognized experts certainly have unique insights into their field, we should not take their analysis as fact. Lévy (2020) believes that the community of scholars is riven with fault lines, divergent sensibilities and fundamental differences often making a habit of contradicting themselves. In some cases the recommendation of experts is influenced by politics, ego, or economics and not for the greater good of the human condition. Thus, we should not blindly accept the analysis, diagnosis, or solution of experts, whether they are self-declared, peer acknowledged, or industry accepted. We should apply caution to their recommendations as we would with anybody else to ensure their motives align with our values.
References
Azhar, A. (2021). The Exponential Age. Diversion Books.
Ericsson, A., Prietula, M., and Cokely, E. (2007). The making of an Expert. Retrieved March 2024 from Harvard Business Review: https://hbr.org/2007/07/the-making-of-an-expert.
Lévy, B. (2020, Jul 28). The Virus in the Age of Madness. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Schneier, B. (2019, Nov 12). We must bridge the gap between technology and policymaking. Our future depends on it. Retrieved Mar 2024 from World Economic Forum: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/11/we-must-bridge-the-gap-between-technology-and-policy-our-future-depends-on-it/.