About AI-TechTalker
A mission to end technological exceptionalism and replace it with a logical and compassionate alternative.
Speaking before a Chamber of Commerce club years ago, I warned the audience not to assume that spending millions on the latest technology would improve their businesses.
At that time, I was a technology consultant that had been involved in many technological transformation efforts costing many millions of dollars. I saw a few amazing successes. I saw more failures.
I noticed a correlation related to transformation success that I couldn’t completely explain. Often, those companies that implemented technology that forced a change of rules in how they operated were seeing better results and ROI than those that implemented new technology but still operated the same way.
I joked to the audience that it wasn’t worth spending millions to keep doing the wrong things faster and for added niceties such as being able to print on multi-colored paper. :) I got a few chuckles.
I knew you had to do the right things to make a positive difference even if you had the latest technology. But at that time, I couldn’t articulate exactly why.
It would take a stock market crash, 2 more post-secondary degrees, many additional years of experience, and a period of prolonged and agonizing intensive research before I could explain it. I discovered the concept of a “technological boundary”. Technological boundaries are the core concept underpinning the relationship between technology and success in any endeavor whether it be professional or public.
As important as this concept was and still is to improve business transformations, I realized it was needed even more so at the public level. Since the dawn of the first commercial internet browser, technological exceptionalism has dominated public policy and opinion about the relationship between the law and technology.
Technological exceptionalism theory is greatly flawed. The damage that technological exceptionalism has done to society, to societal rights, and even to promoting innovation is extraordinary. But it was like an ego snowball that kept building upon itself until it was like a giant glacier ice ball rolling down a mountainside into the heart of our public policy. It seemed unstoppable.
Finally, a break. The age of AI is causing us all to rethink the relationship between the law and technology, and specifically technological exceptionalism. AI is revealing cracks in the technological exceptionalism ideas like the pacing problem, the notion that all regulation stifles innovation, and the most ignorant and damaging belief that the law and technology are at odds with each other.
This is a huge opportunity. And the stakes could not be higher. The idiocy of technological exceptionalism has allowed the few to determine a flawed course for all of humanity. But the age of AI is our chance to squash technological exceptionalism and replace it with a logical and compassionate understanding of the relationship between the law and technology. By logical, I mean the understanding of technological boundaries reveals an inherent and underlying harmonious relationship between the law and technology. And by compassionate, I mean that the true relationship between the law and technology is driven by societal goals and values of freedom, prosperity, due process, equality, and a better life for all.
Especially since the dawn of the digital age over 25 years ago, we have misinterpreted the fundamentals of technology in our society. The beginning era of AI may be our last chance to get it right. We really need to try. And that is what the AI-TechTalker community is all about. Thank you for being a part of it.
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