The development of new technologies is getting always faster and faster. If we, for example, look how fast the Internet and new communication technologies are, we realise how those completely changed our daily life within the time period of the last 20 years.

For example, in the healthcare sector, in our mobility, in the education system, in our economy, in our banking system and so on, our wish or idea is that all these new technologies primarily should bring new positive inputs and an improvement of the quality of our life.

Unfortunately, there is also “the other side of the medal” and the abuse of new technologies is a big threat to our society. If we, for example, think of the misuse of social media or other communication technologies to plan and implement terrorism acts.

The big challenge within the development and implementation of new technologies will be to find a feasible way where the benefits will be the majority and find a way to eliminate as much as possible the misuse of the development. 

An increased social debate with a strong sensitization on the benefits and risks of new technologies has more and more to take place. This should  lead to finding out where there is an acceptance  of new technologies in our society so that our citizens could ideally decide if they want to use it or not.

This article is a part of 'Big Questions of Our Time - The World Speaks'. To download the full publication, click here