NYTimes “Tees Up” A Discussion of Winner’s “Frankenstein’s Problem”

I always enjoy my class discussions around Langdon Winner’s “Frankenstein’s Problem: Autonomous Technology,” but I so rarely see a precise analog in the public press. But todays Facebook’s Frankenstein Moment is a great example for a technology and policy cohort. Unfortunately, the article perpetuates the damaging perception that engineers are only stewards of technological instruments, rather than actors with broader considerations, and it saves the most important word/salient concept for its last paragraph.

If I were a Facebook executive, I might feel a Frankensteinian sense of unease these days. The company has been hit with a series of scandals that have bruised its image, enraged its critics and opened up the possibility that in its quest for global dominance, Facebook may have created something it can’t fully control.

[…] Now that Facebook is aware of its own influence, the company can’t dodge responsibility for the world it has helped to build. In the future, blaming the monster won’t be enough.