Arbesman: Fear and reverential awe toward complex technology cut off questioning
Sam Arbesman · #15 Samuel Arbesman: Future-Proof Your Knowledge · Nov 28, 2016 · at 32:09
Complexity scientist Samuel Arbesman discusses how people should intellectually approach opaque technological systems.
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“People sometimes when they're confronted with technology, they don't understand or maybe they can't even understand is they often respond with one of two extremes of either fear in the face of the unknown or this reverential, almost like, religious sense of awe towards technology they don't understand and I think both of these while they're fairly common they're not good mainly because they end up cutting off questioning because if you're really afraid of something, you're so afraid you can't even question it, and if you have this reverential awe towards something, you don't realize that maybe it's actually a lot messier than it really is, and I think somewhere in between, almost like a humble but constantly questioning approach toward technology is really the way we need to think about it”
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