IT and society

The development of technology is difficult to predict – but how it will be used and what the impact of it will be on society are almost impossible to forecast. As we have seen, it is easy to assume over-optimistically that the most desirable possible scenario will inevitably come about. In the absence of government intervention, the most likely outcome is that market forces will largely determine the use society makes of IT and the impact IT has on society. Inevitably, on this basis, there will be a tendency for the most affluent societies (such as the United States), and the most affluent members of societies (the prosperous and the powerful), to make most use of the technology for their own benefit. Under the impact of market forces such changes – responding to individual consumer demand fostered by profit-maximizing multinational corporations – may have unanticipated effects which affect society as a whole and may cost it dear in terms of environmental effects or the impact on social stability. This chapter attempts to consider some possible effects of this sort and the extent to which they can and should be controlled by government on behalf of the community as a whole in a democratic society.