The Unintended Consequences of New Tech

Feb. 3 -- Since the turn of the century, every movie and story about the future has, to some extent, dealt with the unintended consequences of technology. We watch these films and read these stories, I think, because of the "what if" element.

What if genetics experiments resulted in monkeys intelligent enough to take over as the ruling species?

What if computers advance to the point where they not only have consciences, but can go mad, like humans?

What if our interplanetary exploration turns up real aliens intent on exterminating us?

These possibilities remain fiction, but other more pedestrian consequences of technology have become as real as the planets are distant.

Devices we consider ordinary technology these days, like cars and oil furnaces, have — to our dismay — produced a warming Earth and a hole in the ozone. But we're entering an entirely new era in which some of our most advanced technologies will have far more immediate repercussions than our shrinking ozone.

I am hardly the first to notice this. In an April 2000 Wired Magazine article, "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us," former Sun chief scientist Bill Joy warned of how technological innovation could lead to catastrophe. But unlike Joy, I do not see world disaster or human extinction, just continual unhappy surprises.

Elusive Electronic Eyes

Here's one small example.

A friend of mine related how, in checking out a store's latest digital video camcorders, he began fiddling with one that could easily fit in a small handbag and had remarkable zoom capabilities — 20X optical and 700X digital. He aimed the camera, pushed the optical zoom to the max, and flipped on the digital enhancement.

As the image came into focus, he clearly saw not just what a person at the register was buying, but more alarmingly, the numbers and name on the purchaser's credit card — not necessarily a use the camera maker intended.

After telling me this, my friend said, "You don't feel the electronic eyes." I looked at him quizzically. "You know. If someone's staring at you from a few feet away — even further — you feel the eyes. It's that human thing."