🤖 The Right vs. the robots

A new 'technology agenda for the right' worries way more about social disruption than the downsides of derailing progress and growth. That's a mistake

My childhood was defined by a long period of extreme US economic volatility, at least by modern American standards.

The Great Inflation. The Oil Shocks. The Great Stagflation. The Volcker Recession.

The impact on my family: unemployment, substance abuse, a mental health crisis, and dislocation.

From that experience, I learned the powerful lesson that steady, speedy, and sustainable economic growth, marked by rising real incomes and low unemployment, is, like … really good for families! Call me crazy, I know.

Only later did I come to understand the importance of technological progress in driving productivity growth, the foundation of any strong economy over the long run. And it’s with that experience and understanding that I judge “A New Technology Agenda for the Right,” a piece recently published by First Things, a philosophical journal.

Sorry to say, it isn’t the tech agenda that conservatives have been looking for — at least those conservatives of the pro-growth, Up Wing variety (like myself). The authors of the agenda describe their views as such:

As scholars, writers, and policy experts, we believe that public policy should direct technology toward the flourishing of the family and the human person. Our laws and regulations must seek to form a technological order that provides a functional economic role for the household, protects human sexuality, rewards marriage, enriches childhood, preserves parental and communal authority, enables the practice of liberty, and ennobles our common life. These human goods are fundamental for thriving families and they must be guarded and advanced amid revolutionary technological change.

They then offer ten principles “for empowering families through technology,” as edited by me:

1. Death with dignity. Prioritize disease mitigation over “radical life extension.”

2. Natural reproduction. Support women's biological processes rather than commercializing or bypassing female bodies.

3. Sexual integrity. Combat digital exploitation through pornography, AI companions, “sex robots,” and other dehumanizing technologies.

4. Screen-free childhood. Liberate youth from social media addiction; restore analog play and learning.

5. Non-addictive smartphone design. Oppose manipulative interfaces that exploit vulnerabilities.

6. Data ownership. Give citizens control of personal information.

7. Local autonomy. Promote right-to-repair and open-source solutions over centralized technological control.

8. Human-enhancing work. Favor technologies that augment rather than replace workers.

9. Home economics. Remove barriers to household production; shape policies to support family-friendly work arrangements.

10. Embodied aspirations. Pursue physical achievements like space exploration over virtual substitutes.

This agenda isn’t my cup of tea. Now, that isn’t to say humanoid (I would assume) sex-robot regulation isn’t a topic worthy of public policy discussion.

But for me, this agenda has far too little to say on more important topics: a) the value of economic growth for individuals and families to improve their lives and b) on the value of individuals and families having the personal freedom to make choices about their lives.

Also this: Too much empirically and conceptually weak policy ideation, much of which seems steeped in left-wing critiques of Big Tech from the late 2010s and early 2020s.

A (not all-inclusive, unfortunately) list of these conceptual and empirical missteps: