Us humans do have noble goals which some literally willing to die for and we also produce world class villains and everything in between. Tech does nothing but amplifies what we can do to achieve our goals. It enable all the good things we have dreamed about and it also fucks everything up.
Well it also absorbs a lot of resources. We could have largely the same benefits from tech at a fraction of the cost. But that doesn't produce maximum growth! Or at least, not in terms of GDP.
This sort of thinking is what leads you down the “guns don't kill people” route. Each piece of technology has, in it's design, a set of biases. To someone with a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. The tools you have affect how you view the world.
It's not that simple. If all I have is a hammer, I don't view everything as a nail; I see first what other uses my hammer can have, then if a hammer won't do the job I seek or create another tool that will.
I am still really happy about what tech has brought us and how comfortable life is in this day. OP brought out all sorts of negative examples, but so could I bring out equal amount or more of positive examples on what the tech has brought us.
I'm excited for what the future brings, and I'm still amazed by how sudden jump there was of ability of LLMs. It's still crazy to me.
