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Ten years ago, the world marveled at the ability of social media technology to assist an entire region in its pursuit of democracy. As I write this column days after the U.S. Presidential Inauguration, the world this time is overwhelmingly appalled by the role that same technology played in a violent attempt to overturn democracy. Those who decried the shutdown of access to social media desperately implemented by authoritarian regimes applauded similar restrictions implemented by tech companies in a quest to forestall additional violence. In between the attack on the Capitol on 6 January and the inauguration on 20 January, a historic event provided us with another stark reminder of the great power of technology. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration approved the first fully automated commercial drone flights. These flights will operate with no hands-on piloting or direct observation by humans. As automation extends to other means of transportation, it will inevitably accelerate disruptions in the workplace, potentially leaving large swaths of the human population behind.
Any keen observer of these events, and a slew of other similar events in the past months and years, will recognize the relevance of a sentence written by the Comité de Salut Public and addressed to the members of the French National Convention in 1793: “Ils doivent envisager qu’une grande responsabilité est la suite inséparable d’un grand pouvoir,” which translates to “They [the Representatives] must contemplate that a great responsibility is the inseparable result of a great power.” This same principle appears in many other writings after the French Revolution. In fact, it was popularized by the Spider-Man comic books in the form of the proverb, “With great power comes great responsibility.”
We, scientists and engineers, have certainly acknowledged the societal impacts of the technologies that we have all helped create. However, it seems to me that we haven’t quite absorbed the great responsibility that is inseparable from our great power. Our engineering colleges are large consumers of service classes offered by math, science, and liberal arts departments. Yet, they hardly provide service classes in technology and computer literacy to students in these other disciplines. Our conferences and publications seldom establish dialogs around the impacts of technology, and how to develop and deploy it, with policy and decision makers from government and the private sector. The results of the lack of technology and computer literacy among nonpractitioners and the lack of social science and economic literacy among scientists and engineers are clear: Technologies can exacerbate, rather than reduce, systemic inequities, and public and legislative policies around privacy or freedom of expression often fail to consider critical risks and downsides for individuals and enterprises.
While there is no easy solution to this growing challenge, we as individuals and as a professional Society must start to seriously address it by educating current and future engineers and other professions across society at large. I hope to witness the first steps toward bridging the chasm this year in our flagship conferences and publications. I realize that we, along with mankind, have a lot on our plate as we increasingly take measure of the inequities and unequal opportunities that many experience across the globe, while working to overcome a global health crisis and its destructive economic impact. But, like the rest of society, we have no choice but to take on all these challenges at once. Our track record and the magic that we have repeatedly created, tell us that we will succeed.
