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How to Stop Innovation From Breaking America - The Atlantic

theatlantic.com · 1,139 words · saved by 1 readers

Major inventions cause major upheaval. Why don’t we take precautions?

America has long carried on a great love affair with technological progress. But the truth is that really big inventions—the printing press, the internal-combustion engine, the internet—have both upsides and downsides. They make new things possible, but they also tend to undo settled expectations and create chaos. The real question is not whether there will be major technological changes, but whether societies can learn to better handle the disruptions that follow. There is a lot to learn: Over the past 500 years, humanity has repeatedly blown it. Consider how things stood a century ago, in th

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