The Four Mistakes We Make When We Talk About Technology

A fast changing world, driven by staggering breakthroughs and new fissures opening up. Can we make sense of patterns of change across the globe during this time of exponential technology?

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Earlier this year I had the opportunity to sit down with Matthew Taylor, the Chief Executive of the Royal Society Arts, a London-based organisation which is committed to sharing ideas and finding practical solutions to society's biggest challenges. Matthew laid out his thoughts about moving away from the narrative of runaway technological disruption towards a better conversation around the future of work, technology and the economy.

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What are we getting wrong with how we talk about technological development?

Matthew Taylor: I think the way we talk about technology is in danger of repeating a mistake. It's a mistake that we made very recently and with catastrophic consequences, so it's particularly poignant that we may make it again.

The mistake we made was in the way we talked about globalisation... It was portrayed as an unstoppable force, something that there was no point trying to object to and you were stuck in the past if you did. "Globalisation is coming, there is no alternative".

Secondly, it was portrayed as something which would have winners and losers, but that there would be more winners than losers. So the losers just need to suck it up, realise they're on the wrong side of history and adapt.

Thirdly, it was argued that globalisation would mean some things that you cared about, like national sovereignty or defending certain industries, these were things you could no longer expect to control.

Then, finally, we were told that ‘it's all terribly complicated but don't worry, because there are these people in banks and they really get it, and it's all going to be fine.’

We know how that story ended. It ended in a global financial crisis, and that more than anything else accelerated the trends we’re seeing now towards populism.

If you listen carefully to what you hear from Silicon Valley about technology, you’ll hear the same tune: technology is an unstoppable force, there’ll be winners and losers and losers need to suck it up. You’ll hear there’ll be things that you care about, whether it’s your privacy or your children’s wellbeing, those things you’ll just have to sacrifice.

How do we have a better conversation about the role we want technology to play in the future?

Matthew Taylor: It’s vitally important that when we talk about technological change, we start from the human ends of change. What is it we are trying to achieve as a consequence of technological change?

It’s bizarre to me how rarely conversations start with the assumption that we have to have a really strong account of what this is all for. Until we do that, I’m afraid people will feel about technology the way they do about globalisation, which is that it is something that is coming to get them.

The question of how we have an economy which is more humanistic, which emphasises wellbeing, not to mention environmental sustainability, is absolutely pressing. At the same time, we also need an economy which is able to generate the kind of resources we need to deal with the connected challenges we face.

I think the starting point would be that we would look at various activities that we currently undertake where we don't currently really value wellbeing very highly. How is it that we can have a realistic conversation about the way in which we want to value, and price, overall wellbeing?

This is where democracy and politics have an important role to play**.** So I think I want to say, let's try to repair the things about the system which are just currently, basically, not working. That means we need an agenda for democratic reform and renewal, so that democracy is more fit for purpose. And let's also try to have a conversation about the deep challenges of living in the 21st century.

How do you think we should talk about the challenges and opportunities of new technologies? Do we need to flip the conversation, and start talking more about how we want to shape technologies rather than how they will shape us? Is an economy which prioritises wellbeing over growth the answer to the rising challenges of populism in liberal democracies?

There are many more brilliant insights from this conversation which you can listen to on iTunes, Spotify, Overcast, Breaker & Stitcher. #brilliantminds