Two sides to technology

KIRAN KARNIK

This last edition of Tech Tales revisits the past 20 columns which described the myriad applications of technology, the exciting possibilities that are emerging as well as the challenges and issues posed. As the column signs off, we emphasize the two very different faces, the Jekyll and Hyde characteristic, of technology applications. Note that it is not technology per se, but how it is used, and in what context, which determines whether or not it is a force for general good.

From agriculture to zoonoses, science and technology (S&T) is now the major factor driving change. Precision farming, a technique which reduces inputs and increases productivity, is one example. It uses a host of new technologies: satellites for imaging and data collection; drones that do the same and also spray precise quantities of fertilizers and pesticides; sensors or IoT devices that collect and transmit field data; computers that process and analyze inputs, using advanced data analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence; genetic engineering for increasing nutritional value and improved seeds.

Yet, these same capabilities are leveraged for more questionable purposes. High resolution imaging is a tool for spying and surveillance. Data collection through various devices can infringe on privacy, and data analytics — in conjunction with artificial intelligence — is being used to predict behaviour, possibly even shape it. On the other hand, a similar combination of technologies helps oncologists to prescribe the most effective, individualized treatment for patients.

Drones carry medicines to inaccessible areas, but are also used to drop arms shipments to terrorists. Face recognition software, using footage
from ubiquitous CCTV cameras, can screen through thousands of faces and spot a criminal or terrorist. But, it can also identify and trace you, making anonymity impossible and taking away your privacy.

In a horrifying sci-fi scenario, a specific car is identified and tracked via satellite. When it stops at an intersection, one passenger is identified through face recognition software. A truck, parked earlier at the spot, carries a remotely-controlled gun. A sniper, sitting a thousand miles away, uses satellite imagery to aim at and kill the target with such precision that his co-passenger survives. The truck is then blown up via satellite command, leaving no evidence. This scary, but technologically-feasible scenario, may sound like something from a thriller movie. However, it is the commonly accepted account of a real-life incident: the unfortunate murder of a key nuclear scientist in Iran, using satellite, imaging, tracking, face-recognition and robotic capabilities.

The previous edition of Tech Tales discussed the Pegasus spyware and its astounding ability to access all the information stored in your phone and listen to your conversations; also to turn on your microphone and camera. More frighteningly, it can be installed in your phone without your knowledge. Governments say they use this to fight terrorism and crime, but it can obviously be used against dissenters or political rivals too. Also, the fact that such spyware is developed by private companies throws open the possibility of blackmail.

The capabilities developed by tech mega companies and their global dominance (think of Facebook/Meta, Amazon, Google, Microsoft) has made them enormously powerful. Soon, they may be quasi-countries, in terms of financial resources and influence. What does this mean for the present global order? Do their massive databases on individuals and their ability to cleverly mine them compromise your privacy and agency? Will their power multiply further as they foray into broader fields of technology: from transportation and communication to energy and virtuality (on-surface electric vehicles to underground tunnels and hyper-loop trains to space, in transportation; broadband communication through constellations of thousands of satellites; battery storage; and the Metaverse)?

Even as applications of IT spread across the economy, hackers are having a field day. Despite continuous improvement in measures to prevent and detect cyber crime, they continue to be a step ahead. Now, it is not only individuals who are targets: increasingly, it is organizations and large systems that are attacked. Motives too have moved beyond direct theft and ransom, and include terrorist attacks aimed at disrupting public systems and utilities, to cause chaos or even destruction and deaths. Hacker groups indulging in this are known to include state-sponsored ones, and possibly state agencies too. While the growing sophistication of computer software has resulted in many greatly beneficial applications, these capabilities are also leading to advances in hacking capabilities. The increasingly complex battle between hackers and protectors will go on.

Rarely has the general populace experienced the benefits of science so personally and immediately as it did through the COVID vaccines. Countries worked in partnership with companies to develop, test, produce and use the vaccines at amazing speed. This was the result of scientists from various disciplines working with software experts to accelerate the development process through computer simulations and data analytics. Yet, alongside these wonders of sci-tech is the distinct possibility that the COVID virus — or another like it — is not a zoonotic one that has jumped naturally from bird/animal to humans, but could well be lab-developed, as part of a nation’s biological warfare armoury. More terrifying is the thought of a terrorist group developing a destructive virus or stealing it from a lab. Another example of the two sides of scientific progress.

These and many other new developments highlight, as never before, the need for ethics in developing and deploying technology. Many applications have also brought home the need to avoid a technology-driven approach to solving problems, and adopting a more holistic or total-system view. The most important element of what S&T brings us is the method of science: to hypothesize, observe, analyze, theorise, validate — and yet, to always question and be willing to change. This translates not only into new theories and products, but also into “scientific temper”: a rational approach that is not based on dogma, blind or unquestioning faith, but adopts the method of science. This learning, this mantra, for use even in day-to-day life, is the most important message of Tech Tales.

Kiran Karnik is an independent strategy, public policy analyst and author. His recent books include eVolution: Decoding India’s Disruptive Tech Story (2018) and Crooked Minds: Creating an Innovative Society (2016). His latest book, Decisive Decade, is on India in 2030.