Edward Tenner is one of my favorite historians of science and technology (I know, I need to get a life... a favorite historian of science and technology... really?)... anyways Tenner has written about the unintended consequences of technology.
One of the favorite examples he gives in this talk is the decision to make sure each ship had sufficient lifeboats for all passengers at the sinking of the Titanic, and the subsequent sinking of a ship made unstable because of the additional lifeboats placed on board. And more people died in the second sinking than on the Titanic.
Look at the graph at 11 minutes... our capacity is outpacing our ability to foresee the potential of our technologies.
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