"Society will decide after the technology is created what we will and won't accept"
About this Quote
The line points to a recurring pattern in modern life: invention arrives first, then the argument about how to live with it. New tools rarely come with a settled moral framework. Engineers push what is possible, venture money accelerates scale, and only after a technology becomes ubiquitous do people collectively decide which uses feel tolerable, which feel invasive, and which deserve to be outlawed. Law lags the lab, and norms emerge through friction.
You can see this in the arc of social media. Early exuberance about connection gave way to discomfort with surveillance capitalism, algorithmic amplification, and the erosion of privacy. Societies responded unevenly: users altered habits, institutions built policies, regulators drafted rules, and some cities and countries drew hard lines, such as restrictions on facial recognition. The smartphone normalized always-on cameras before we had a grammar for bystander consent; platforms adopted reporting tools and public spaces posted signage only after conflicts multiplied. Even celebrated breakthroughs like CRISPR and driverless cars have been met with debates about thresholds, oversight, and acceptable risk.
The phrasing carries a democratic provocation. Builders and early adopters do not get the last word; legitimacy is negotiated in the open, shaped by journalists, courts, voters, and those who bear the costs. Acceptance is not a single verdict but a patchwork, shifting over time and across cultures. It matters who gets to decide, whose harms count, and how reversible the choice is once infrastructure and habits lock in.
Jesse Eisenberg’s association with portraying Mark Zuckerberg adds a layer of irony and insight. The character he embodied helped launch tools that reconfigured intimacy, politics, and attention before society had terms for what was happening. The lesson is not to halt innovation but to cultivate foresight, to involve the public earlier, and to remember that the power to normalize or reject a technology lives with the many, not the few who create it.
You can see this in the arc of social media. Early exuberance about connection gave way to discomfort with surveillance capitalism, algorithmic amplification, and the erosion of privacy. Societies responded unevenly: users altered habits, institutions built policies, regulators drafted rules, and some cities and countries drew hard lines, such as restrictions on facial recognition. The smartphone normalized always-on cameras before we had a grammar for bystander consent; platforms adopted reporting tools and public spaces posted signage only after conflicts multiplied. Even celebrated breakthroughs like CRISPR and driverless cars have been met with debates about thresholds, oversight, and acceptable risk.
The phrasing carries a democratic provocation. Builders and early adopters do not get the last word; legitimacy is negotiated in the open, shaped by journalists, courts, voters, and those who bear the costs. Acceptance is not a single verdict but a patchwork, shifting over time and across cultures. It matters who gets to decide, whose harms count, and how reversible the choice is once infrastructure and habits lock in.
Jesse Eisenberg’s association with portraying Mark Zuckerberg adds a layer of irony and insight. The character he embodied helped launch tools that reconfigured intimacy, politics, and attention before society had terms for what was happening. The lesson is not to halt innovation but to cultivate foresight, to involve the public earlier, and to remember that the power to normalize or reject a technology lives with the many, not the few who create it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Technology |
|---|
More Quotes by Jesse
Add to List
