Should We Look on New Technologies with Awe and Dread?

You’re reading Open Questions , Joshua Rothman’s weekly column exploring what it means to be human.

One of the most famous cuts in cinema history, from “2001: A Space Odyssey,” perfectly captures a concept known as the technological sublime. First, we see an angry ape bludgeoning one of his fellows to death with a scavenged bone; he’s only just discovered that bones can be used this way, and he hurls his weapon into the air in celebration. We follow the bone upward as it tumbles against the unpolluted blue sky. Then, suddenly, we cut to outer space, millions of years in the ape’s future. The bone has been replaced by an elegant satellite, floating past the curve of the Earth. Over the next few minutes, as a ship docks with a space station, we see just how far humanity has come.

If you’