Technology’s march and its most Orwellian fears

When we corked open the champagne on January 1, 2010, we believed technology was a force leading us to a digitally enabled Promised Land. In the bright future that beckoned, all the world’s knowledge would be at everyone’s fingertips and 1984 would be just another book on the shelf rather than one that should be re-read for its cautionary tale of modern tyranny.

Fast-forward as we ready to uncork the champagne once again, this time to greet the Roaring ’20s and even more disruption than we saw in the teen decade lies ahead. Quick-fire technological change has opened up whole new landscapes and minefields. Back in the early days of the past decade, we still thought we’d shape technology.