Does this techno-optimist logic apply to all technologies, e.g. glyphosate or oxycontin, or only to technologies that you first presume are safe/positive, and then you can just argue from that presumption?
I know you're making a bad-faith argument, but it's a good question.
So yes, kids growing up in areas where Oxycontin abuse is prevalent will be much, much, more aware of what that technology does (both the good and the bad) than an adult who is encountering it for the first time. The adult will be way more easily lead into using it by the adverts and advise of the people selling it, the kid will not believe any of that.
All technologies are both harmful and beneficial. We have a Fire Department for a reason, but that doesn't mean we'd go back to eating our food raw.
> So yes, kids growing up in areas where Oxycontin abuse is prevalent will be much, much, more aware of what that technology does (both the good and the bad) than an adult who is encountering it for the first time. The adult will be way more easily lead into using it by the adverts and advise of the people selling it, the kid will not believe any of that.
Uhhh... this is so obviously untrue it's pretty surprising you hit "Submit" after writing it.
By this logic, deep West Virginia where Oxycontin first took hold should chock full of teetotalers "because they know how bad it is" a generation later. This, of course, is not reality. Bad things can and often do actually persist for generations and kill or maim vast numbers of people throughout.
That's because your fundamental thesis of some innate, guaranteed "immune response" to bad things just literally doesn't exist. Sometimes groups of people react and successfully overcome maladaptive exogenous shocks, but sometimes they just get hurt really badly for huge stretches of time. Sometimes entire groups of people are permanently eradicated by bad things.
And no, raising a counterexample is not a bad faith argument.
So yes, kids growing up in areas where Oxycontin abuse is prevalent will be much, much, more aware of what that technology does (both the good and the bad) than an adult who is encountering it for the first time. The adult will be way more easily lead into using it by the adverts and advise of the people selling it, the kid will not believe any of that.
All technologies are both harmful and beneficial. We have a Fire Department for a reason, but that doesn't mean we'd go back to eating our food raw.