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Promises and Pitfalls of Technology

Politics and privacy, private-sector influence and big tech, state competition and conflict, author biography, how is technology changing the world, and how should the world change technology.

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Josephine Wolff; How Is Technology Changing the World, and How Should the World Change Technology?. Global Perspectives 1 February 2021; 2 (1): 27353. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/gp.2021.27353

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Technologies are becoming increasingly complicated and increasingly interconnected. Cars, airplanes, medical devices, financial transactions, and electricity systems all rely on more computer software than they ever have before, making them seem both harder to understand and, in some cases, harder to control. Government and corporate surveillance of individuals and information processing relies largely on digital technologies and artificial intelligence, and therefore involves less human-to-human contact than ever before and more opportunities for biases to be embedded and codified in our technological systems in ways we may not even be able to identify or recognize. Bioengineering advances are opening up new terrain for challenging philosophical, political, and economic questions regarding human-natural relations. Additionally, the management of these large and small devices and systems is increasingly done through the cloud, so that control over them is both very remote and removed from direct human or social control. The study of how to make technologies like artificial intelligence or the Internet of Things “explainable” has become its own area of research because it is so difficult to understand how they work or what is at fault when something goes wrong (Gunning and Aha 2019) .

This growing complexity makes it more difficult than ever—and more imperative than ever—for scholars to probe how technological advancements are altering life around the world in both positive and negative ways and what social, political, and legal tools are needed to help shape the development and design of technology in beneficial directions. This can seem like an impossible task in light of the rapid pace of technological change and the sense that its continued advancement is inevitable, but many countries around the world are only just beginning to take significant steps toward regulating computer technologies and are still in the process of radically rethinking the rules governing global data flows and exchange of technology across borders.

These are exciting times not just for technological development but also for technology policy—our technologies may be more advanced and complicated than ever but so, too, are our understandings of how they can best be leveraged, protected, and even constrained. The structures of technological systems as determined largely by government and institutional policies and those structures have tremendous implications for social organization and agency, ranging from open source, open systems that are highly distributed and decentralized, to those that are tightly controlled and closed, structured according to stricter and more hierarchical models. And just as our understanding of the governance of technology is developing in new and interesting ways, so, too, is our understanding of the social, cultural, environmental, and political dimensions of emerging technologies. We are realizing both the challenges and the importance of mapping out the full range of ways that technology is changing our society, what we want those changes to look like, and what tools we have to try to influence and guide those shifts.

Technology can be a source of tremendous optimism. It can help overcome some of the greatest challenges our society faces, including climate change, famine, and disease. For those who believe in the power of innovation and the promise of creative destruction to advance economic development and lead to better quality of life, technology is a vital economic driver (Schumpeter 1942) . But it can also be a tool of tremendous fear and oppression, embedding biases in automated decision-making processes and information-processing algorithms, exacerbating economic and social inequalities within and between countries to a staggering degree, or creating new weapons and avenues for attack unlike any we have had to face in the past. Scholars have even contended that the emergence of the term technology in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries marked a shift from viewing individual pieces of machinery as a means to achieving political and social progress to the more dangerous, or hazardous, view that larger-scale, more complex technological systems were a semiautonomous form of progress in and of themselves (Marx 2010) . More recently, technologists have sharply criticized what they view as a wave of new Luddites, people intent on slowing the development of technology and turning back the clock on innovation as a means of mitigating the societal impacts of technological change (Marlowe 1970) .

At the heart of fights over new technologies and their resulting global changes are often two conflicting visions of technology: a fundamentally optimistic one that believes humans use it as a tool to achieve greater goals, and a fundamentally pessimistic one that holds that technological systems have reached a point beyond our control. Technology philosophers have argued that neither of these views is wholly accurate and that a purely optimistic or pessimistic view of technology is insufficient to capture the nuances and complexity of our relationship to technology (Oberdiek and Tiles 1995) . Understanding technology and how we can make better decisions about designing, deploying, and refining it requires capturing that nuance and complexity through in-depth analysis of the impacts of different technological advancements and the ways they have played out in all their complicated and controversial messiness across the world.

These impacts are often unpredictable as technologies are adopted in new contexts and come to be used in ways that sometimes diverge significantly from the use cases envisioned by their designers. The internet, designed to help transmit information between computer networks, became a crucial vehicle for commerce, introducing unexpected avenues for crime and financial fraud. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, designed to connect friends and families through sharing photographs and life updates, became focal points of election controversies and political influence. Cryptocurrencies, originally intended as a means of decentralized digital cash, have become a significant environmental hazard as more and more computing resources are devoted to mining these forms of virtual money. One of the crucial challenges in this area is therefore recognizing, documenting, and even anticipating some of these unexpected consequences and providing mechanisms to technologists for how to think through the impacts of their work, as well as possible other paths to different outcomes (Verbeek 2006) . And just as technological innovations can cause unexpected harm, they can also bring about extraordinary benefits—new vaccines and medicines to address global pandemics and save thousands of lives, new sources of energy that can drastically reduce emissions and help combat climate change, new modes of education that can reach people who would otherwise have no access to schooling. Regulating technology therefore requires a careful balance of mitigating risks without overly restricting potentially beneficial innovations.

Nations around the world have taken very different approaches to governing emerging technologies and have adopted a range of different technologies themselves in pursuit of more modern governance structures and processes (Braman 2009) . In Europe, the precautionary principle has guided much more anticipatory regulation aimed at addressing the risks presented by technologies even before they are fully realized. For instance, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation focuses on the responsibilities of data controllers and processors to provide individuals with access to their data and information about how that data is being used not just as a means of addressing existing security and privacy threats, such as data breaches, but also to protect against future developments and uses of that data for artificial intelligence and automated decision-making purposes. In Germany, Technische Überwachungsvereine, or TÜVs, perform regular tests and inspections of technological systems to assess and minimize risks over time, as the tech landscape evolves. In the United States, by contrast, there is much greater reliance on litigation and liability regimes to address safety and security failings after-the-fact. These different approaches reflect not just the different legal and regulatory mechanisms and philosophies of different nations but also the different ways those nations prioritize rapid development of the technology industry versus safety, security, and individual control. Typically, governance innovations move much more slowly than technological innovations, and regulations can lag years, or even decades, behind the technologies they aim to govern.

In addition to this varied set of national regulatory approaches, a variety of international and nongovernmental organizations also contribute to the process of developing standards, rules, and norms for new technologies, including the International Organization for Standardization­ and the International Telecommunication Union. These multilateral and NGO actors play an especially important role in trying to define appropriate boundaries for the use of new technologies by governments as instruments of control for the state.

At the same time that policymakers are under scrutiny both for their decisions about how to regulate technology as well as their decisions about how and when to adopt technologies like facial recognition themselves, technology firms and designers have also come under increasing criticism. Growing recognition that the design of technologies can have far-reaching social and political implications means that there is more pressure on technologists to take into consideration the consequences of their decisions early on in the design process (Vincenti 1993; Winner 1980) . The question of how technologists should incorporate these social dimensions into their design and development processes is an old one, and debate on these issues dates back to the 1970s, but it remains an urgent and often overlooked part of the puzzle because so many of the supposedly systematic mechanisms for assessing the impacts of new technologies in both the private and public sectors are primarily bureaucratic, symbolic processes rather than carrying any real weight or influence.

Technologists are often ill-equipped or unwilling to respond to the sorts of social problems that their creations have—often unwittingly—exacerbated, and instead point to governments and lawmakers to address those problems (Zuckerberg 2019) . But governments often have few incentives to engage in this area. This is because setting clear standards and rules for an ever-evolving technological landscape can be extremely challenging, because enforcement of those rules can be a significant undertaking requiring considerable expertise, and because the tech sector is a major source of jobs and revenue for many countries that may fear losing those benefits if they constrain companies too much. This indicates not just a need for clearer incentives and better policies for both private- and public-sector entities but also a need for new mechanisms whereby the technology development and design process can be influenced and assessed by people with a wider range of experiences and expertise. If we want technologies to be designed with an eye to their impacts, who is responsible for predicting, measuring, and mitigating those impacts throughout the design process? Involving policymakers in that process in a more meaningful way will also require training them to have the analytic and technical capacity to more fully engage with technologists and understand more fully the implications of their decisions.

At the same time that tech companies seem unwilling or unable to rein in their creations, many also fear they wield too much power, in some cases all but replacing governments and international organizations in their ability to make decisions that affect millions of people worldwide and control access to information, platforms, and audiences (Kilovaty 2020) . Regulators around the world have begun considering whether some of these companies have become so powerful that they violate the tenets of antitrust laws, but it can be difficult for governments to identify exactly what those violations are, especially in the context of an industry where the largest players often provide their customers with free services. And the platforms and services developed by tech companies are often wielded most powerfully and dangerously not directly by their private-sector creators and operators but instead by states themselves for widespread misinformation campaigns that serve political purposes (Nye 2018) .

Since the largest private entities in the tech sector operate in many countries, they are often better poised to implement global changes to the technological ecosystem than individual states or regulatory bodies, creating new challenges to existing governance structures and hierarchies. Just as it can be challenging to provide oversight for government use of technologies, so, too, oversight of the biggest tech companies, which have more resources, reach, and power than many nations, can prove to be a daunting task. The rise of network forms of organization and the growing gig economy have added to these challenges, making it even harder for regulators to fully address the breadth of these companies’ operations (Powell 1990) . The private-public partnerships that have emerged around energy, transportation, medical, and cyber technologies further complicate this picture, blurring the line between the public and private sectors and raising critical questions about the role of each in providing critical infrastructure, health care, and security. How can and should private tech companies operating in these different sectors be governed, and what types of influence do they exert over regulators? How feasible are different policy proposals aimed at technological innovation, and what potential unintended consequences might they have?

Conflict between countries has also spilled over significantly into the private sector in recent years, most notably in the case of tensions between the United States and China over which technologies developed in each country will be permitted by the other and which will be purchased by other customers, outside those two countries. Countries competing to develop the best technology is not a new phenomenon, but the current conflicts have major international ramifications and will influence the infrastructure that is installed and used around the world for years to come. Untangling the different factors that feed into these tussles as well as whom they benefit and whom they leave at a disadvantage is crucial for understanding how governments can most effectively foster technological innovation and invention domestically as well as the global consequences of those efforts. As much of the world is forced to choose between buying technology from the United States or from China, how should we understand the long-term impacts of those choices and the options available to people in countries without robust domestic tech industries? Does the global spread of technologies help fuel further innovation in countries with smaller tech markets, or does it reinforce the dominance of the states that are already most prominent in this sector? How can research universities maintain global collaborations and research communities in light of these national competitions, and what role does government research and development spending play in fostering innovation within its own borders and worldwide? How should intellectual property protections evolve to meet the demands of the technology industry, and how can those protections be enforced globally?

These conflicts between countries sometimes appear to challenge the feasibility of truly global technologies and networks that operate across all countries through standardized protocols and design features. Organizations like the International Organization for Standardization, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, and many others have tried to harmonize these policies and protocols across different countries for years, but have met with limited success when it comes to resolving the issues of greatest tension and disagreement among nations. For technology to operate in a global environment, there is a need for a much greater degree of coordination among countries and the development of common standards and norms, but governments continue to struggle to agree not just on those norms themselves but even the appropriate venue and processes for developing them. Without greater global cooperation, is it possible to maintain a global network like the internet or to promote the spread of new technologies around the world to address challenges of sustainability? What might help incentivize that cooperation moving forward, and what could new structures and process for governance of global technologies look like? Why has the tech industry’s self-regulation culture persisted? Do the same traditional drivers for public policy, such as politics of harmonization and path dependency in policy-making, still sufficiently explain policy outcomes in this space? As new technologies and their applications spread across the globe in uneven ways, how and when do they create forces of change from unexpected places?

These are some of the questions that we hope to address in the Technology and Global Change section through articles that tackle new dimensions of the global landscape of designing, developing, deploying, and assessing new technologies to address major challenges the world faces. Understanding these processes requires synthesizing knowledge from a range of different fields, including sociology, political science, economics, and history, as well as technical fields such as engineering, climate science, and computer science. A crucial part of understanding how technology has created global change and, in turn, how global changes have influenced the development of new technologies is understanding the technologies themselves in all their richness and complexity—how they work, the limits of what they can do, what they were designed to do, how they are actually used. Just as technologies themselves are becoming more complicated, so are their embeddings and relationships to the larger social, political, and legal contexts in which they exist. Scholars across all disciplines are encouraged to join us in untangling those complexities.

Josephine Wolff is an associate professor of cybersecurity policy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Her book You’ll See This Message When It Is Too Late: The Legal and Economic Aftermath of Cybersecurity Breaches was published by MIT Press in 2018.

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How has technology changed - and changed us - in the past 20 years?

Remember this? Image:  REUTERS/Stephen Hird

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• Since the dotcom bubble burst back in 2000, technology has radically transformed our societies and our daily lives.
• From smartphones to social media and healthcare, here's a brief history of the 21st century's technological revolution.

Just over 20 years ago, the dotcom bubble burst , causing the stocks of many tech firms to tumble. Some companies, like Amazon, quickly recovered their value – but many others were left in ruins. In the two decades since this crash, technology has advanced in many ways.

Many more people are online today than they were at the start of the millennium. Looking at broadband access, in 2000, just half of Americans had broadband access at home. Today, that number sits at more than 90% .

This broadband expansion was certainly not just an American phenomenon. Similar growth can be seen on a global scale; while less than 7% of the world was online in 2000, today over half the global population has access to the internet.

Similar trends can be seen in cellphone use. At the start of the 2000s, there were 740 million cell phone subscriptions worldwide. Two decades later, that number has surpassed 8 billion, meaning there are now more cellphones in the world than people

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At the same time, technology was also becoming more personal and portable. Apple sold its first iPod in 2001, and six years later it introduced the iPhone, which ushered in a new era of personal technology. These changes led to a world in which technology touches nearly everything we do.

Technology has changed major sectors over the past 20 years, including media, climate action and healthcare. The World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneers , which just celebrated its 20th anniversary, gives us insight how emerging tech leaders have influenced and responded to these changes.

Media and media consumption

The past 20 years have greatly shaped how and where we consume media. In the early 2000s, many tech firms were still focused on expanding communication for work through advanced bandwidth for video streaming and other media consumption that is common today.

Others followed the path of expanding media options beyond traditional outlets. Early Tech Pioneers such as PlanetOut did this by providing an outlet and alternative media source for LGBTQIA communities as more people got online.

Following on from these first new media options, new communities and alternative media came the massive growth of social media. In 2004 , fewer than 1 million people were on Myspace; Facebook had not even launched. By 2018, Facebook had more 2.26 billion users with other sites also growing to hundreds of millions of users.

While these new online communities and communication channels have offered great spaces for alternative voices, their increased use has also brought issues of increased disinformation and polarization.

Today, many tech start-ups are focused on preserving these online media spaces while also mitigating the disinformation which can come with them. Recently, some Tech Pioneers have also approached this issue, including TruePic – which focuses on photo identification – and Two Hat , which is developing AI-powered content moderation for social media.

Climate change and green tech

Many scientists today are looking to technology to lead us towards a carbon-neutral world. Though renewed attention is being given to climate change today, these efforts to find a solution through technology is not new. In 2001, green tech offered a new investment opportunity for tech investors after the crash, leading to a boom of investing in renewable energy start-ups including Bloom Energy , a Technology Pioneer in 2010.

In the past two decades, tech start-ups have only expanded their climate focus. Many today are focuses on initiatives far beyond clean energy to slow the impact of climate change.

Different start-ups, including Carbon Engineering and Climeworks from this year’s Technology Pioneers, have started to roll out carbon capture technology. These technologies remove CO2 from the air directly, enabling scientists to alleviate some of the damage from fossil fuels which have already been burned.

Another expanding area for young tech firms today is food systems innovation. Many firms, like Aleph Farms and Air Protein, are creating innovative meat and dairy alternatives that are much greener than their traditional counterparts.

Biotech and healthcare

The early 2000s also saw the culmination of a biotech boom that had started in the mid-1990s. Many firms focused on advancing biotechnologies through enhanced tech research.

An early Technology Pioneer, Actelion Pharmaceuticals was one of these companies. Actelion’s tech researched the single layer of cells separating every blood vessel from the blood stream. Like many other biotech firms at the time, their focus was on precise disease and treatment research.

While many tech firms today still focus on disease and treatment research, many others have been focusing on healthcare delivery. Telehealth has been on the rise in recent years , with many young tech expanding virtual healthcare options. New technologies such as virtual visits, chatbots are being used to delivery healthcare to individuals, especially during Covid-19.

Many companies are also focusing their healthcare tech on patients, rather than doctors. For example Ada, a symptom checker app, used to be designed for doctor’s use but has now shifted its language and interface to prioritize giving patients information on their symptoms. Other companies, like 7 cups, are focused are offering mental healthcare support directly to their users without through their app instead of going through existing offices.

The past two decades have seen healthcare tech get much more personal and use tech for care delivery, not just advancing medical research.

The World Economic Forum was the first to draw the world’s attention to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the current period of unprecedented change driven by rapid technological advances. Policies, norms and regulations have not been able to keep up with the pace of innovation, creating a growing need to fill this gap.

The Forum established the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Network in 2017 to ensure that new and emerging technologies will help—not harm—humanity in the future. Headquartered in San Francisco, the network launched centres in China, India and Japan in 2018 and is rapidly establishing locally-run Affiliate Centres in many countries around the world.

The global network is working closely with partners from government, business, academia and civil society to co-design and pilot agile frameworks for governing new and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI) , autonomous vehicles , blockchain , data policy , digital trade , drones , internet of things (IoT) , precision medicine and environmental innovations .

Learn more about the groundbreaking work that the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Network is doing to prepare us for the future.

Want to help us shape the Fourth Industrial Revolution? Contact us to find out how you can become a member or partner.

In the early 2000s, many companies were at the start of their recovery from the bursting dotcom bubble. Since then, we’ve seen a large expansion in the way tech innovators approach areas such as new media, climate change, healthcare delivery and more.

At the same time, we have also seen tech companies rise to the occasion of trying to combat issues which arose from the first group such as internet content moderation, expanding climate change solutions.

The Technology Pioneers' 2020 cohort marks the 20th anniversary of this community - and looking at the latest awardees can give us a snapshot of where the next two decades of tech may be heading.

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World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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Impact of Technology on Society

Impact of Technology on Society: In the past few decades, technology has proliferated. The use of technology has also increased drastically. It affects the lives of people and changes the way they learn, think, and communicate. It plays a major role in society, and now it is very tough to imagine life without technology. Both technology and society are co-related, co-dependent, co-influence with each other. Technology has an impact on society, including the potential for society to progress or decline, in both good and bad manner. Our society is shaped by technology, which has both beneficial and harmful consequences.

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Impact of Technology

What is society, what is technology.

Human societies and technology have grown inextricably linked since technical systems like mobile phones, computers, TV, etc. are produced by humans and reflect the very basis of a population’s needs and lifestyle. Although technology improves the lifestyle of human beings, it is also a major concern for future generations. Nowadays, people are excessively using technology which reduces their physical activities and directly affects their health. Also, due to the excessive use of technology, there are so many cybercrimes happen every day in which someone steals the identity or personal information of the victim, such as a Unique ID number, PAN number, Debit Card, etc. and uses it to conduct a crime or perpetrate fraud without our permission. Some other cyber crimes are:

• Hacking: An effort to manipulate a computer system or a network within a computer is known as hacking. It is unauthorized control of computer systems to commit a crime.
• Credit/Debit Card theft: Credit card fraud refers to any type of fraud involving a payment card, such as a credit or debit card. The objective could be to obtain products or services or to transfer the funds to a criminal-controlled account.
• Malware installation: Any program or file that is dangerous to a computer user is known as malware. Viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and spyware are all examples of malware.
• E-mail threat: The use of email to deceive another person for personal benefit or to harm another person.
• Phishing: Depending on the offender, phishing attempts can target a wide spectrum of people. It’s possible that these are generic phishing emails aimed at anyone with a PayPal account. These are frequently identified as phishing attempts.
• Spams: An undesired, uninvited digital message that is sent in large quantities is known as spam. You can get spam via email, phone calls, text messages etc.
• ATM cards theft: ATM fraud refers to a crime in which the criminal make the payments for the criminal activities via some other person’s ATM card using the PIN.

Society is defined as the group of among human beings sharing social relationships. Or in other words, a society is a group of people that lives together in a community that includes some form of government, along with some rules and economy.

Technology is defined as the body of knowledge that deals with the innovation, invention, and application of technical means, as well as their interrelationship with life, society, and the environment. Or in other words, technology means the use of scientific knowledge to achieve some specific goal or create applications that are used in industry or in everyday life. So, if we are using some scientific knowledge to achieve some goal means we are using technology. 

We utilize and rely on technology in our daily lives, and our technical requirements and demands continue to grow. Technology is used by humans to explore, connect, study, and do work. The manner in which we use technology decides whether its effects are beneficial or detrimental for society.

Positive Impacts of Technology on Society

Technology has a more positive impact on humans or society as compared to negative. It makes our life easier and reward us by providing resources or tool that make our life much easier. Following are some positive changes that technology brings to our life:

• Improved Communication: Communication is the most important part of society, we build or transfer our thoughts with each other with the help of communication. Earlier people used pigeons or birds to transfer their messages to their loved ones. After that technology slowly grows and the medium of transferring information is changed to mobile phones, email, etc. Nowadays, we send messages to loved ones or known people via email, social media platforms, etc. It is the fastest, efficient, and effective medium. People can talk or share information with their loved ones easily even if they are very far away from them.
• Improved Education and learning process: Technology enhances the education and learning process. Nowadays, people can easily enhance their knowledge using the internet. Most of the data is present on the internet is free of cost, and you can access this data anytime and anywhere.
• Mechanized Agriculture: Technology changes the working mechanism of farmers. Lots of machines and technical instruments were introduced in the agricultural area which makes farming very easy, effective, automated, etc.
• Easy to access information: We can easily access information via the internet anytime and anywhere. Most of the information is present on the internet are free of cost, so you can use them to enhance your knowledge, skills, etc.

Negative Impacts of Technology on Society

As we know that everything present on this planet has both advantages and disadvantages. The same goes for technology it also has negative impacts on society and some other negative impacts are:

• Increase in unemployment: Nowadays, large and small business uses machinery and technical equipment because of their low costing and high efficiency due to which the rate of unemployment is increasing continuously.
• Increase in pollution: Not only humans but technology also affecting our environment. Due to vehicles and machinery, the rate of pollution is increasing continuously which causes global warming, etc.
• Increase in health and mental concerns: Nowadays, technology effecting the physical as well as mental health of human beings. It makes people lazy, emotionally weak, sleeping problems, reduce physical activity, also people are spending less time with their family and friends.
• Increase in cybercrimes: Due to the excessive use of the internet, the rate of cybercrimes are also increased. Some people (attackers) harm innocent people (victims) or children for money or fun.

Societal Issues and Cultural Changes

Social issues.

Following are some social issues that we face while using the internet:

• Identity Theft: To use the identity of some other person by getting his financial/ personal information in a fraud manner in order to commit a crime.
• Gaming Addiction: An individual’s capacity to perform in multiple life domains is severely affected as a result of the excessive use of internet games over a long period of time.
• Health and Fitness: Using a lot of the internet lay an impact on health and fitness, it may impact your eyesight, backbone, etc.
• Cyberbullying: The use of technology to bully, abuse, criticize, or target another person is known as cyberbullying.
• Terrorism and Crime: Theft of our cyber-infrastructure, as well as digital information such as software, hardware, data, or information, is considered cyberterrorism.
• Communication Breakdown: A communication breakdown occurs when information is not exchanged, resulting in a loss of interaction.
• Defamation of Character: The act of transmitting a piece of false information in order to do serious harm to another person’s goodwill is known as defamation of character.

Cultural  Changes

Our culture has been radically transformed by technology. From our ideals to our modes of communication, we’ve come a long way. Many people now find it difficult to conduct a face-to-face chat. People use their phones, tablets, or computers to spend time with their buddies. Also, individuals now evaluate others based on how technologically, whether or not they own the latest mobile phones or cars. Nowadays, listening to music on headphones is preferred over listening to another person. Most individuals nowadays prefer the internet because that is all they have ever known. Cell phones with touch screens are all the rage these days. Technology just serves to separate people from actuality. People nowadays lack the ability to interact in real-life situations such as individual connections, problem-solving, and showing adult actions. All this is influencing our culture. Technology influences culture every time we may get anything from an internet seller rather than going to a local business. Every moment someone always sits down to watch our night on-demand enjoyment, we are shaping culture through technology.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to authenticate biometric.

The technical difficulties of automated individual recognition based on biological and behavioral features are fundamental in the conversion of analog (facial image, fingerprint, voice pattern…) to digital (patterns, minutiae) data that can then be produced and matched with the effective algorithm.

What is the role of technology in modern society?

Technology helps in lending support in the automating various tasks, which include setting up reminders, communicating efficiently, payment of bills at click of a button and also shopping for simplest things.

What should we do if we find identity theft?

Put  a fraud warning on your credit reports so that we help us to identify identity theft. Put a hold on your credit. Use credit card monitor service and increase the level of security on your accounts.

What is cybercrime?

An illegal activity that makes use of a computer or targets a computer is known as cybercrime. Example: hacking, phishing, spamming, child pornography etc. Cyber thieves carry out illicit actions by use of Computer technology.

What is cybersecurity?

The technique of protecting servers, mobile devices, laptops, networks, data, etc. from malicious invasions is known as cybersecurity. Being secure online is what cyber safety entails. Threats to our safety and security abound in the online world.

What steps should be taken to safeguard online identity?

The following steps should be taken to safeguard online identity: 1. When providing personal information on the internet, be cautious. Just because a website requests information from you doesn’t mean you have to provide it to them. Inquire as to who wants the data and why they want it. 2. Do not open the link or attachment if it comes from someone you do not know. 3. When shopping or banking online, use a secure network. 4. Install sophisticated security software on your electrical device.

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Impact Of Technology On Society PowerPoint PPT Presentations

28 Free Technology PowerPoint Templates for Presentations from the Future

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If you’re amongst the science and technology teachers, students, or businesses in the field; we have something for you. We deep-dived to find the best free technology PowerPoint templates for your presentation, so today’s collection has 28 amazing designs to choose from.

The following selection has templates related to science, technology, cybersecurity, search engines, bitcoin, networking, programming, and engineering, so there’s something for everyone.

1. Computer Hardware Free Technology PowerPoint Template

This template sports a cool design with a bright light of a microchip processor and a blue background. Ideal for explaining concepts such as semiconductors, databases, and central computer processors.

• Theme : Technology, Hardware
• Slides : 48
• Customization : Fully editable + 136 editable icons
• Graphics : Vector
• Aspect Ratio : 16:9
• License : Free for Personal and Commercial Use │ Do Not Redistribute Any Components of the Template

2. Space Science Free Technology Powerpoint Templates

This free template has 3D spaceship graphics and blue background color. It’s great for presentations on astronomy.

• Theme : Technology, Cosmos
• Slides : 25
• Customization : Fully editable
• Resolution : 1920×1080

3. 5G Technology Speed Free Powerpoint Templates

Design with twinkling rays of geometric shapes is perfect for presentations on technology topics such as internet networking, intranet, and communication technology.

• Theme : Technology, Networking, 5G
• Customization : Editable

4. Start-Up Tech Corporation Free Powerpoint Template

This free tech corporation template is great for presentations on tech business startups.

• Theme : Technology, Tech Business, Start-Up Companies

5. App Startup Free Powerpoint Technology Template

This design is great for presentations on communication, mobile technology, and other digital devices used for the PPT presentations.

• Theme : Technology, Apps, Software

6. Cloud Technology Free Powerpoint Template

A technology template with a clean and modern design for your presentations about cloud computing and other computing services.

• Theme : Cloud Technlogy

7. Artificial Intelligence High Technology Free PowerPoint Template

This template represents artificial intelligence as an illustration . It also includes related shapes to allow for a variety of expressions.

• Theme : Technology, Artificial Intelligence

8. Search Engine Optimization PowerPoint Template

The template is SEO-themed but you can adapt it to any presentation related to marketing and search engines.

• Theme : Technology, Marketing, SEO

9. Binary Code Free PowerPoint Template

The cool binary code design makes this template perfect for any presentation on computer science.

• Theme : Computer Science, Programming

10. Network Free Technology PowerPoint Template

Sporting design with crags and electric rays in many angles are representing networking around the globe, the template is suitable for presentations on communication, networking, technology, and crag wheels.

• Theme : Technology, Networking

11. Hexagonal Design Free PowerPoint Template

Here we have a free template with hexagons and icons pattern for techy content. Its dark background and bright blue color palette give a professional look.

• Theme : Technology

12. Technology Pixels Free PowerPoint Template

A technology-themed template for presentations on consulting, IT, software, and other related subjects. The pixel pattern is grouped by tones which you can change from the master slides.

13. Connections and Networking Free PowerPoint Template

This free Powerpoint template is perfect for a presentation about the internet, blockchain, machine learning, cybersecurity, or cloud computing.

14. Isometric Free Technology PowerPoint Template

Here we have an amazing isometric design and high-tech background with gradients. Ideal for subjects like cloud computing, SaaS development, servers, and networks, or cybersecurity.

• Theme : Networking, Programming

15. Free PowerPoint Template with Techy Contour Lines

This design has an abstract contour lines background in a dark green color. Ideal for subjects like geography, technology, video games, or even military affairs.

• Theme : Technology, Gaming

16. Marketing and Technology Free PowerPoint Template

The isometric design has illustrations on business, marketing, and technology topics that will make every slide stand out.

• Theme : Technology, Marketing

17. Purple Hexagons Free PowerPoint Template

For presentations related to scientific or technological topics, with professional hexagonal design.

• Theme : Technology, Science

18. Rockets Taking Off  Free PowerPoint Template

Rockets taking off is a great metaphor for growing businesses. It’s also a symbol of progress and technology.

• Slides : 35

19. IOT Smart City Free PowerPoint Template

Smart City offers a futuristic design for subjects such as internet communication, smart city concepts, and tech innovation.

• Theme : Technology, Smart City

20. Cyber Security Free PowerPoint Template

The perfect template for presentations on cybersecurity, antivirus software, and other related topics.

• Theme : Technology, Cyber Security

21. BlockChain Free PowerPoint Templates

This template is a 3D rendering design of blockchain technology and you can use it for a variety of purposes.

Presentation Design Tips You Wish You Knew Earlier:

The shorter you keep the text, the better. In fact, some specialists suggest that you shouldn’t use more than 5-6 words per slide . And sometimes, a single word combined with a powerful visual is enough to nail the attention of the people sitting in front of you and make them listen to what you have to say.

22. BitCoin Themed Free PowerPoint Template

A very versatile template that includes 20 semi-transparent illustrations of different concepts: security, social networks, programming, bitcoin.

• Theme : Technology, Bitcoin

23. Technical Blueprint Free Technology PowerPoint Template

This template uses a blueprint style and a monospaced font to emulate the technical drawings used in construction and industry.

• Theme : Technology, Engineering

24. Blue Connections Free PowerPoint Template

The design of this free template fits social media, connection, internet, cloud computing, and science-related topics.

• Theme : Technology, Social Media

25. Cute Robots Free PowerPoint Template

Here we have a colorful design with beautifully illustrated robots for presentation on technology, science, and physics.

• Theme : Technology, Physics

26. Green Circuit Free PowerPoint Template

This is a free template with futuristic vibes that you can use for your tech presentations both in PowerPoint and Google Slides.

27. Data Particles Free Technology PowerPoint Template

The design with particle lines gives it a modern and slightly technological look.

28. Science Hexagons Free Technology PowerPoint Template

The background gradients highlight the white text, and the hexagons give it a techie style.

Final Words

That’s it. Today’s collection covered the best free technology PowerPoint templates that you can download and adapt to your presentations related to science, technology, programming, engineering, and physics. Now all you need to do is open your PowerPoint and make the most amazing presentation your viewers have ever seen.

For more freebies, you can check the Best Free Powerpoint Templates of 2022  or see these related articles:

• 36 Free Food PowerPoint Templates For Delicious Presentations
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Lyudmil Enchev

Lyudmil is an avid movie fan which influences his passion for video editing. You will often see him making animations and video tutorials for GraphicMama. Lyudmil is also passionate for photography, video making, and writing scripts.

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TECHNOLOGY and Society.

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AI in Zim: The future is now

L AST week, James Manyika, a Zimbabwean-American and Google’s first senior vice-president of research, technology and society, highlighted the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in his presentation at a conference in Victoria Falls.

The theme, “Artificial Intelligence as a driving force for the African economy and society”, encapsulates the significant impact of AI on various sectors, reshaping the way we live and work in today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape.

Manyika’s insights on AI revolved around four key areas: i) assessing the current state of AI development, ii) exploring the opportunities it offers for Africa’s progress, iii) addressing the challenges and gaps that require attention, and iv) outlining the steps needed for Africa to effectively leverage the potential of AI.

These discussions pave the way for a deeper exploration of AI’s implications for the future. At its core, AI refers to the ability of machines to mimic human intelligence.

It involves the development of computer systems that can perform tasks that would typically require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition and decision-making.

AI algorithms can analyse vast amounts of data, learn from patterns, and make predictions or recommendations with remarkable accuracy.

The impact of AI is already evident in various industries. In healthcare, AI-powered systems can analyse medical images and assist in diagnosing diseases with incredible precision. In finance, AI algorithms can analyse market trends and make informed investment decisions.

In manufacturing, AI-powered robots can automate repetitive tasks, leading to increased productivity and efficiency. But AI is not without its challenges. Ethical concerns around privacy, job displacement, and bias have raised important questions about the responsible development and deployment of AI technologies.

As we embrace the AI revolution, it is crucial to ensure that AI is developed and used in a way that benefits all of society. Despite the challenges, the potential of AI is immense.

As technology continues to advance, AI has the power to transform industries, improve healthcare outcomes, and enhance our daily lives. The possibilities are endless.

The impact of AI on Zimbabwe is multifaceted. Without it being referred to as AI, as such, it has been prevalent in various forms for quite a while.

It is promising significant transformations across various sectors including healthcare, agriculture, finance, and manufacturing. AI’s integration into healthcare is set to revolutionise early disease detection, diagnostics, and patient care, potentially improving outcomes and efficiency within the sector.

In agriculture, AI applications are enhancing crop yields through optimised irrigation, fertilisation and pest control, contributing to increased productivity and sustainability.

The finance sector benefits from AI through fraud detection, automation of financial processes and improved customer service via chatbots.

When a new wave of industrial retooling arrives, manufacturing is set to seeing advancements in robotics and automation, leading to higher efficiency and safety.

However, the adoption of AI also presents challenges. Limited access to advanced technologies, inadequate infrastructure, and a shortage of skilled AI professionals are significant hurdles. Addressing these challenges requires investment in research and development, capacity building programmes, and fostering public-private partnerships.

The collaborative efforts of Manyika and Econet founder Strive Masiyiwa to stay abreast of technological progress in both Africa and Zimbabwe have culminated in the launch of initiatives aimed at fostering innovation and entrepreneurship in the region.

They have been instrumental in supporting start-ups, providing mentorship, and creating opportunities for young tech enthusiasts to thrive. Their dedication to driving progress and shaping the future of technology in Africa and Zimbabwe is truly commendable, inspiring a new generation of leaders and change-makers in the tech industry.

Furthermore, the potential for job displacement due to automation raises concerns. It emphasises the need for re-skilling programmes to help the workforce adapt to new roles where human input is essential.

Additionally, ethical considerations, such as the potential bias in AI algorithms, highlight the importance of designing AI systems with diversity and inclusion in mind.

To harness AI’s benefits while mitigating its risks, Zimbabwe needs a strategic approach that includes embracing technology, investing in necessary infrastructure and skills, and ensuring inclusive and ethical AI development.

This approach can position Zimbabwe at the forefront of the AI revolution, driving innovation and economic growth. Masiyiwa recently shared an exciting update on Facebook about a collaboration between his company and Google Cloud with Anthropic, a prominent AI company, to introduce AI technology to African businesses and organisations.

This partnership heralds a new era where Africa can embrace cutting-edge technology and innovation without delay, offering unparalleled opportunities for businesses and entrepreneurs on the continent.

This collaboration signifies a significant shift in the African tech landscape, demonstrating that Africa is no longer a passive observer but an active participant in driving technological advancements and creating value. It mirrors the essence of Manyika’s discourse on the transformative impact of AI in Africa, emphasising the importance of seizing the opportunities presented by technological innovations to better serve customers and create value.

Masiyiwa also highlighted the evolution of his company’s journey from a telecommunications firm to Africa’s leading technology company through strategic pivoting, a technique that involves leveraging existing capabilities to venture into new territories, all aimed at enhancing customer service and value creation.

Notably, Liquid Cloud and Cybersecurity, known as Liquid C2, emerged as a pivotal player in his Cassava Technologies’ mission to ensure that every African benefits from the ongoing technology revolution, forging strong partnerships with global tech giants seeking collaborations in Africa.

The potential of AI in Zimbabwe is vast, promising transformations in healthcare, agriculture, finance, and manufacturing. While the integration of AI offers numerous benefits, challenges such as limited access to advanced technologies and job displacement necessitate strategic investments in research, skills development, and ethical AI practices.

By embracing technology, fostering innovation, and prioritising inclusivity, Zimbabwe can position itself as a leader in the AI revolution, driving economic growth and societal advancement.

As we navigate the era of artificial intelligence, it is imperative to approach AI adoption with a forward-thinking and ethical mindset, ensuring that the benefits of AI are maximised while mitigating potential risks.

It is clear that AI will play a pivotal role in shaping our society. The future of Zimbabwe lies in embracing AI responsibly and leveraging its potential for the greater good, ushering in a new era where the future is now.

• Bangure is an AI enthusiast and scholar. — [email protected]

Shaping Capital Market Trust, Featuring Joseph Bailey Presentation Hell

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Technology and Society

Mar 29, 2019

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Technology and Society. Jonathan Crabtree. The Digital Divide: Age. 18-29 Year Olds Cell Phones – 95% Laptops – 75%. 65+ Year Olds Cell Phones – 69% Laptops – 32%. This shows that young adults have a higher likelihood of being able to constantly be connected to the internet.

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Technology and Society Jonathan Crabtree

The Digital Divide: Age 18-29 Year Olds • Cell Phones – 95% • Laptops – 75% 65+ Year Olds • Cell Phones – 69% • Laptops – 32% This shows that young adults have a higher likelihood of being able to constantly be connected to the internet.

Digital Divide: Economic Status Under $30k/year • Cell Phones – 82% • Laptops – 43% Over $70k/year • Cell Phones – 95% • Laptops – 83% There is still a large discrepancy, especially in laptops, but this shows that cell phones are almost a necessity in today’s society.

Digital Divide: Education No HS Diploma • Cell Phones – 76% • Laptops – 32% Higher Than Bachelor’s • Cell Phones – 93% • Laptops – 78% Education (hopefully) has an impact on the kind of job you have, which influences how often you use certain technology.

Digital Literacy • Groups affect literacy, but it can be fixed if some effort is put into it. • Some people may not care to learn. • As the world develops, digital literacy will prove important as far as quality of life and advancing in business.

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