DISPATCHES PERSPECTIVE
Trigger Happy
Shoot first, ask questions later
STEVEN POOLE
What is the destiny of technology – to bring us together or to divide us? The question is a false dichotomy, of course, since tech can very easily do both at the same time: Twitter, for example, brings us together into what Elon Musk calls the global “town square” so that we can sort ourselves into ceaselessly warring factions. Meanwhile, the wide adoption of communication tools such as Zoom by necessity during the pandemic was a way of bringing people virtually together when they could not meet in person; their continuing popularity now is more a means of keeping them apart so that remote workers do not have to brave the commute.