John Naughton on why we can’t see the future coming

John Naughton — The Observer’s technology columnist — gave an entertaining keynote address at the Association for Learning Technology’s ALT-C 2011 conference earlier this month addressing a thoroughly modern phenomenon: why does society’s understanding of technology lag the technology itself? He gives a number of prime examples including the music and newspaper industries and the London riots from earlier this year, in which BlackBerry Messenger and other messaging tools were heavily used — seemingly catching authorities completely off-guard. The nearly hour-long address is well worth a listen.