> Here's an example of technology advance directed against
> the interests of the people. The government is planning
> to develop a genetically engineered strain of fungus
> that will destroy one of the most medically active,
> safe, and useful plants known to man: cannabis.
How strange, surely the politicians and their servants don't *really* want to wipe out this very lucrative trade, which finances many of their activities and provides lots of people with jobs? Oh wait, must be a plot to blow the prices trough the roof after stockpiling the stuff. Not bad! Demand stays the same (or goes up ) while scarcity increases: more violence, worse quality, more deaths, more policing and stricter punishments, more power to the government. Hum ho.
> The problem of course is not tech-
> nology per se but governmental power and the inability
> to restrain it or hold it accountable for its actions.
What we need is a transhumanist government, obviously :)