Something at Work

Wade Rowland — prolific commentator, educator, congenital worrier — has a lot of questions for us. They are about technology, society, and the way we live today. But many of them come down to one big question: Can the innovators, experimenters, and purveyors of science and technology proceed responsibly without considering the moral elements of their work?

The implications of this question and of the ones that follow from it are vast. They intrude on almost every aspect of our daily lives. They lead us — or should lead us — to ask whether genetic manipulation is a good thing and whether civilization really needs artificial intelligence. They prompt us to consider whether humankind is now in the thrall of a bunch of Frankensteins: promoters of a science run horribly amok. Rowland asks questions in The Storm of Progress that cause us to contemplate whether science and morality can converge — or whether they are careening off in different...