Technology in Society!

Technology has made rapid improvements in the past decade, which has pervaded all aspects of society. Artificial intelligence has exceeded human intelligence in almost all tasks except those that require a degree of emotion or creativity. From IBM’s Watson to Google’s self-driving cars, it's hard to imagine what humans will be able to provide in economic value that a computer can not. With further advancements of technology, reaching into all human related tasks, it is up to those who own the capital to decide how technology will be used and how the gains will distributed in society.

San Francisco is today’s melting pot of the latest and greatest technological innovations. It is in a way, a testing ground for what the future of technology and society will look like. The communication platform for this technological transformation is the smartphone. It’s harder to think of what there isn’t an app for than to think of what there should be an app for. From ordering food to finding a cleaning lady to getting a date, it seems that every industry has been touched by technology and new markets are being created for things that are in themselves created by technology (e.g. video game watching). Further, traditional aspects of society, such as marriage and in-class education, are constantly being challenged and are in decline. For the most part, anyone who owns a smartphone or who has access to the internet has been able to enjoy the services provided by technological innovation at little to no cost. The question then, is, how should the gains from technological innovation be distributed?

"If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed. Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution. So far, the trend seems to be toward the second option, with technology driving ever-increasing inequality." -Stephen Hawking (2015)

The above quote by Stephen Hawking brings to light a very important and relevant point of contention. Thus far, in many aspects, technology has driven income inequality as relatively scarce high paying tech jobs (for example software engineers) and relatively abundant low paying menial jobs (for example uber drivers) have been created without much job creation in between. Further, middle class jobs like primary care physicians have been eroded by technological advancements such as WebMD and gains from generous multi-million and sometimes multi-billion valuations have largely gone to owners of capital. As you can see in the chart below, income inequality (as measured by the Gini coefficient) has risen sharply in the Bay Area and California since 2010 relative to the rest of the United States. This shows a strong correlation for when tech start-ups started to take off in California, with the introduction of the iOS app store in July 2008 and the proliferation of third-party apps since then.

At the same time, however, technology has made it much easier to perform tasks such as banking, finding places to eat, staying on top of your health, enjoying films and TV shows, and sharing things we own, for many of which the benefits (extra time, less stress, cheaper options, payments in some cases) exceeds the costs (advertising, service fees, etc). Whether this has improved society as a whole and makes up for the trade off in income inequality and other issues like gentrification and deterioration of traditional aspects of society (at least in the San Francisco Bay Area) is up for discussion. One could argue that the increased efficiency of performing tasks has increased our overall baseline expectations for how these services should be performed, which leaves users more vulnerable to dissatisfaction if something is wrong with the service. This is why you might see bankers yelling at their smartphones if their wifi connection suddenly drops or is slower than normal, or people being completely helpless and stressed with directions if they suddenly can’t access Google maps. One could also argue that social apps like Meetup and dating apps like Tinder have expanded our networks and dating opportunities, while at the same time giving people less incentive to sit down for a long lunch with a colleague or go to a bar to meet new people. 

I, for the time being, prefer a society that balances technology without taking away too much from the traditional aspects and culture of society. I also prefer a society that has adequate opportunities for economic advancement and intellectual stimulation and doesn’t have a level of income inequality that lies between Ecuador and Zimbabwe. Having lived and studied in cities with high technology proliferation (San Francisco and Stanford) and cities with low (but growing) technology proliferation (Madrid), I prefer a city that mirrors the culture of Madrid with technology that makes essential services like banking, healthcare, and utility services easier. I prefer to live in a city with clean streets, clean air, and where suitable opportunities exist for all those that need it.

Edited by Jake Martín Grumbach Check out more personal posts at http://technologyvsociety.blogspot.com.es