Opinion: Technology can be put to good use — or hasten the demise of the human race
By Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein April 9 at 6:28 PM Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein was the U.N. high commissioner for human rights from 2014 to 2018. He is the Perry World House distinguished global leader-in-residence at the University of Pennsylvania.
At the core of the issue is the belief that tech is value-neutral. When first developed, a new technology is neither infused with ethics nor bereft of them; it requires guidance. If augmented by ethical considerations, the hope is this invention will serve the public good and be profitable; if not, the outcome could be ambiguous at best, and devastating at worst. So we are going to focus more on ethics — that is what an assortment of leaders from the tech industry tell us will solve the problem.
It is this: When the global order is improving — when there is peace and prosperity, liberal democracies are expanding, repression is withering away and human rights are being honored — chances are technology will generally be put to good use. If the situation is the opposite — when liberal democracies are failing, repression spreads, human rights are violated and nations are engulfed by war — technology will become a partner of bad intentions.
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