Joi Ito

MIT Media Lab

77 Mass Ave.

13-14-15

Cambridge. MA 02139-4307

Hello.
I saw the segment 011 60 Minutes about the MIT Media Lab. It was very disheartening.

Everybody from MIT (and even the interviewer) had a gee?whiz-isn?t-thj s-all-great demeanor about your
technology.

All of you seem to ignore two laws probably.) of technology. 1. Technology always has
unintended and unforseen outcomes, many of which are harmful. 2. As technologies increase in ?power,?
the power of unintended and destructive outcomes also increases, probably exponentially.

An upcoming example of this is that Musk is pushing hard (blindly?) for autonomous cars. (See Landgon
Winner on autonomous technologies.) It?s likely that, as the autonomous transportation ?grows," people
will get places faster and more safely. Yes. But this growth just means that when the system fails, vastly
greater numbers ofpcople than earlier will be delayed, will lose much more money, will die, and so on.

One person in your lab is developing technologies that convert inward thinking into outward phenomena.
No more private thoughts. What will be the questionable, unforeseen, harmful effects of this development
to individuals, families, economies, politics, societies, fresh lt?ll be dif?cult to do so, but once
someone breaks security, someone will be able to steal your money ef?ciently.

From what little I can glean online, I think you touch 011 some of these issues in one course. But attention
to these laws doesn?t seem to be a pervasive concern of the Lab?s curriculum. projects, .
Shouldn?t they, or something like them, be a basis for everything you do? How much C02 does your
work produce (driving to work, use of electricity in the building, etc?) In what ways do your technologies
give wealthy. powerful, and political people unfair advantages?

No one in the segment seems to be studying the fact that technology is creating harmful conditions for the
earth, worse leaming conditions for a substantial number ot?kids, decreasing judgment and attention in
many ofus, and so on.

Of course, I don?t really know the extent to which study of these laws already sut?fuses all you do at the
Media Lab. If it already does, you are laudable. To the extent it doesn?t, you are. . ..

Sincerely,

 

Randall G. Nichols