From work to entertainment, communication to travel, technology has shaped every aspect of our lives. Unsurprisingly, we think technological progress relentless and inevitable. But Aldous Huxley argued "technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards". The arms industry and climate change would certainly seem to support his case. While advances in phones, computers and the internet have coincided with increases in depression and mental ill health, and do not appear to have led to the rise in productivity heralded.
Do we need greater control of technology to ensure better outcomes? Should we give up the idea that technology is the way to make our lives better altogether and focus instead on relationships, community and purpose? Or is technology the only credible reason for believing the future can be better than the past?