Creating a World of New Opportunities
September 21, 2021
In a broad look at ways to improve people’s lives, a New York Times columnist argues for “bringing forward the technologies that will make that world possible.” This won’t mean technologies that primarily offer economic returns, but rather “inventions and advances that render old problems obsolete and new possibilities manifold.” This view aligns with a call in Issues by a group of policy officials and scientists to challenge conventional economic dogma—by assessing and valuing technologies more on their impact on quality of life. “If growth and progress can be noneconomic and nonmaterial,” Zora Kovacic and her coauthors write, “ a world of opportunities emerges.”