Sustainability Calling

9Technology Totalitarianism in Society, Change Management and Governance Concerns

9.1. Introduction

The emergence of a new technology, such as the Internet, always has shattering and awesome effects that anesthetize any critical thinking [PAR 02]. Only after a period of habituation time, of varying length, do we become aware of its properties and can we evaluate its real contribution in the improvement of our lives; we also discover its adverse effects, weaknesses and identify the difficult situations that could not be improved, etc. Indeed, people’s thinking is gullible and truth always requires a time delay to be disclosed. Thus, we are entering a phase of disappointment or disillusionment.

These variations in appraising the introduction of a new technology can be shown in Figure 9.1 showing what we experienced at IBM each time we were introducing a new solutioning approach (multivariate analysis in production management, knowledge-based systems in test and diagnosis area, operation research in logistics, office digitization, etc.).

In Figure 9.1, the magnitude of phenomena, overtime, is dependent on new provided opportunities and also on emerging capabilities that are actually available. As soon the “productivity plateau” is reached, we come to adopt a new, specific and stable behavior (steady state). The following examples apply to a non-professional population:

• – watching a new generation of TV set: viewers are at first subject to a surprisingly and pleasant stupefaction; ...