David Orr, as quoted in “Prophetic Possibilities":
The increasing velocity of knowledge is widely accepted as sure evidence of human mastery and progress. But many, if not most, of the ecological, economic, social, and psychological ailments that beset contemporary society can be attributed directly or indirectly to knowledge acquired and applied before we had time to think it through carefully. We rushed into the fossil fuel age only to discover the giant problem of climate destabilization. We rushed to develop nuclear energy without the faintest idea of what to do with the radioactive wastes. Nuclear weapons were created before we had time to ponder their full implications. Knowledge of how to kill more efficiently is rushed from research to application without much question about its effects on the perceptions and behavior of others, about its effects on our own behavior, or about better and cheaper ways to achieve real security. CFCs and a host of carcinogenic, mutagenic, and hormone-disrupting chemicals, too, are products of fast knowledge. High-input, energy-intensive agriculture is also a product of knowledge applied before much consideration has been given to its full ecological and social costs. Economic growth, in large measure, is driven by fast knowledge, with results everywhere evident in mounting environmental problems, social disintegration, unnecessary costs, and injustice.
Is there any better example of this than AI? Sure they talk a lot about “safety,” but how long until it’s no longer in their best interest to fund research which might come back to bite them?
“Move fast and break things” does not allow for a patient evaluation of the risks of new technology. It seems to be absolutely impossible for the whizbang scientific and technological geniuses not to do something just because they can.
When changes like these are imposed on people by corporations and governments bought by corporations, why are we surprised when bullets start flying and molotov cocktails are thrown?