Given that technology is both creative and destructive, wouldn't it be better to have a public discourse about it that accepted this uncomfortable truth? Obviously yes. So why doesn't it happen? One answer, suggested many years ago by the great cultural critic Neil Postman is that we live in what he called a "technopoly", that is to say a society in which technology is effectively deified.
"Because of its lengthy, intimate and inevitable relationship with culture," Postman wrote, "technology does not invite a close examination of its own consequences. It is the kind of friend that asks for trust and obedience, which most people are inclined to give because its gifts are truly bountiful. But, of course, there is a dark side to this friend… it creates a culture without a moral foundation. It undermines certain mental processes and social relations that make human life worth living. Technology, in sum, is both friend and enemy.