Technology, please stop the seduction 
As I observe the pace of technological change today, I am reminded of my youth in 海角直播, where I lived in a mud home with no running water or electricity. Standard Oil of California had received a large concession in the 海角直播n desert in the 1930s, and when they struck oil in 1937, we were all delighted.
On their regular visits, they would bring presents from the US; they brought us gas-powered refrigerators. My father was one of the lucky recipients. Our entire household, including family and helpers, would sit around the refrigerator as if it were a campfire. We wanted to see water turn into ice in the small tray, and this magical transformation would often take all day and all night as we opened the door so often to check on the process. It was a first encounter with technology that left us mesmerized by the possibilities of how technology could help us in our lives.
The advancement of science and technology has contributed a great deal to human progress and the improvement in quality of life we have seen in the past century, but increasingly, we tend to forget that technology is no panacea. There is an abundance of soothsayers of technology employing advanced salesmanship today to present technology as not only the answer to everything, but as a seduction that must be constantly pursued.
I believe technology is indeed a magnificent expression of human ingenuity, but I also believe that we need to temper both expectations and the needed speed of change. As the saying goes: 鈥淓xpectation is seductive, caution is protective.鈥
To illustrate my point, I would like to cite two examples. My first is blockchain and cryptocurrency, which have not only completely ruined and bankrupted people, but which require such tremendous computing power and energy consumption that they are becoming a major new threat to the environment.
My second example concerns artificial intelligence, which even its foremost proponents now argue must be regulated and constrained lest we lose total control over its many potential negative uses and consequences. Interestingly, one of the main bones of contention in the recent Hollywood writers strike was the extent of the use of AI in the industry, which studios have agreed to circumscribe in future contracts. Of course, this is but one small area that AI threatens to upend entirely.
We must recognize that technology has its downsides and its dangers. It cannot just be about technological seduction driving up stocks for billionaires to buy new speedboats, while others go bankrupt. When any technologist tries to tell us how their latest product will solve all of our problems, we must remember to ask them how technology was not able to warn us of all the damaging effects it has had on us and on our planet.
We are burning through ever more energy and raw materials while we also create ever more waste. There must be a way to take stock of the noxious effects of technology, to design legislation that will not stop technology in its tracks but instead allow us to limit its potential damage in this age of technological seduction.
As I reflect on my young self sitting in front of a refrigerator watching water turn into ice, I think we need to cool it a bit on runaway technological growth. Technology should be employed in the interests of people and the planet; it should be protected from the seduction of fast money. Otherwise, it is as though my refrigerator was turning water into sewage instead of ice.
鈥 Hassan bin Youssef Yassin worked with Saudi petroleum ministers Abdullah Tariki and Ahmed Zaki Yamani from 1959 to 1967. He led the Saudi Information Of铿乧e in Washington from 1972 to 1981 and served with the Arab League observer delegation to the UN from 1981 to 1983.
