I don’t think that technologies are neutral. There is a big debate in the US. It’s, of course, the only industrialized country that is having this debate about guns in which the people in favor of not having gun control say things like, "Guns are neutral pieces of technology, and it’s people who kill people and not guns."

Of course, it’s generally true that a person has to be pulling the trigger in order for somebody to die at the other end of the gun. But the gun is not a neutral technology. It’s a technology that is designed to kill people. There’s no other purpose for a gun.

As the makers of the technology, we absolutely have a moral responsibility to think about what that technology makes easy or hard, what is natural for it, and what’s not natural for it. Any technology that’s powerful, I think, can be used to do harm.

Keyboard shortcuts

j previous speech k next speech