Technology brings convenience and efficiency to our lives, but it also brings negative impacts, such as inequality and invasion of privacy. Technology impact assessment is the process of evaluating and moderating the social impacts of these technologies, with the goal of maximizing positive impacts and minimizing negative ones.
Technology, which has existed alongside human society for a long time, has been developing at a very fast pace since the Industrial Revolution, and its impact has been increasing day by day, making it impossible for anyone to escape its influence. Far from being just a tool, technology has become a deeply embedded part of our lives, allowing us to maximize the convenience and efficiency of our lives. For example, advances in communication technology have brought the world together, making information more accessible and easier to exchange than ever before. The benefits of these technologies have transformed not only our daily lives, but also many other areas of society, including education, healthcare, and the economy.
But has technological advancement only had a positive impact on improving the quality of life and advancing society? Not necessarily. Technological advancements have both positive and negative impacts on humans and society. For example, the introduction of automation and artificial intelligence has dramatically improved productivity, but it has also resulted in the loss of many jobs and increased inequality. In addition, controversies around personal privacy have become increasingly acute as digital technologies expand. For these reasons, the need for social control over technology has been raised. One tool that has emerged in response to this is the technology impact assessment.
Technology impact assessment aims to help experts, stakeholders, and ordinary citizens assess the social impacts of a given technology, and then control the direction and pace of technological change to maximize positive impacts and minimize negative ones. It is an effort to align technology with human values and societal needs, rather than simply promoting technological progress. This process takes into account the ethical, environmental, and economic impacts of technology. It is especially important to consider the long-term impacts of technology and intergenerational equity.
Early technology impact assessments tended to focus on ex post evaluation and prescription of the impacts of already developed technologies on society. However, this ex post evaluation and prescription runs into the problem of the “control dilemma” for technology. The control dilemma refers to the situation where, even if a technology impact assessment determines that a technology is problematic, it is nearly impossible to stop its development if it is already well advanced. This dilemma makes social control of technology difficult. As a result of the control dilemma, ex post technology impact assessments are limited in their ability to fulfill their original purpose of controlling technology.
To overcome this dilemma, a new approach has emerged: proactive and processual technology impact assessment, which actively seeks to steer technological change in a socially desirable direction through continuous assessment of the entire process of technology development. This is driven by the sociology of technology, which recognizes that technology does not just affect society unilaterally, but that society can also influence the content and pace of technological change. By focusing on the process of technology development, this new approach to technology impact assessment is considered more successful than traditional technology impact assessment in terms of controlling technology. The idea is that social control of technology is more effective when it is not merely a reactive measure, but rather an ongoing opportunity for intervention from the beginning of technology development.
But have these new technology impact assessments completely solved the control dilemma? It’s hard to answer that question in the affirmative. First and foremost, the direction of technological advancement is so uncertain that even proactive and processual assessments cannot accurately predict the impact of technology. Even if we make good predictions and implement appropriate technology policies to control technology, the policies may have unintended consequences. For example, a technology may be developed to protect the environment, but it may waste resources or create new types of pollution in unexpected ways. Situations like this illustrate the inherent limitations of technology controls.
Nevertheless, given the need to assess and control technologies with increasingly significant societal impacts, technology impact assessments are the best technology policy tool we have at our disposal. As society and technology interact and co-evolve, technology impact assessments play an important role in building social consensus and aligning technology with societal values and goals. They can also contribute to maximizing the positive potential of new technological innovations, rather than simply reducing their negative effects. In the end, technology impact assessment is a guide to the future of society and an essential process for human-technology coexistence.
