Killer Robots, Evil Scientists and Other Tales of Woe: How Technophobia in Culture Affects the Law

Andrés Guadamuz González

AHRC Research Centre for Studies in Intellectual Property and Technology Law

Technophobia in culture

Acquiring knowledge is dangerous…

Trying to become like gods…

…will always have nefarious results…

Did I mention it never ends well?

Gods and Monsters

Sci-fi is highly technophobic…

…with some notable exceptions…

Killer robots…

Evil scientists…

Dystopian futures…

Corrupting technologies…

Technophobia: cause or effect?

Descriptive or prescriptive?

Effects of a technophile society

• Technology is encouraged, rarely questioned.
• The law maximises the protection of technology to foster its creation (through intellectual property).
• Little restriction towards fields of research.

Effects of a technophobe society

• Technological creations are questioned and feared.
• Restrictions on funding of certain technologies.
• Possible prohibition of specific technologies.
• Lack of IP protection to questioned technologies.

Regulate! Regulate!

• Oooh! Ahh! Gee-golly!
• Moral panic
• “Something must be done about this…”
• “We cannot regulate this new technology”
• Legislation and case law get it wrong
• Fait accompli

Technophobic pendulum

• Internet: “where EVIL Predators pick their victims”
• Stem-cell funding (USA)
• GMOs: over-regulated, feared, forbidden
• Ordre publique patent clauses applied more stringently
• Cloning ban
• Grey-goo rhetoric on new technologies

The I Robot effect (or what has technology ever done for us?)

The mechs shall inherit the earth…

a.guadamuz@ed.ac.uk