Shaping Disruptive Technological Change for Public Good

Disruptive scientific and technological progress is not to me inherently good or inherently evil. But its arc is for us to shape. Technology’s progress is furthermore in my judgment unstoppable. But it is quite incorrect that it unfolds inexorably according to its own internal logic and the laws of nature. My experience and observation is that this is true only directionally. Which specific technologies develop most quickly is heavily shaped by the mission that motivates and rewards the innovators: improving health, selling advertising or some other service, cheap energy, education, or national defense, for example. Making “disruption” more good than bad is the topic, as I understand it, of this year’s Aspen Strategy Group.