John Trump (1907-1985)
Technology is inseparable from policy, surrounded constantly by rules governing its design and use. Sometimes these rules are codified regulations and standards, but where official rules are absent there are always procedures and customs that pattern how technology is deployed and operates. A historian of technology would describe this point in shorthand by saying “technology is always political.”
Generally, such rules are in place for good reason: they make it possible for people to coordinate their use of the technology, they make it easier for more people to use, they amplify its benefits and limit its harms. Sometimes the rules are inadequate or harmful: they make use of the technology inequitable, they fail to limit its harms, they stifle its deployment and adaptation.
Such rules have played an important role so far in the story of the critical technologies of the COVID-19 crisis. The U.S.’s lag in testing is not simply a matter of getting a late start, but of overcoming restrictions that have prevented the use of tests developed in other countries and hampered the development and production of tests by private companies. Now regulatory hurdles are being modified in the race to develop not only tests but vaccines, treatments, and new production sources for protective equipment and ventilators. The failure to alter our rules has already surely cost us lives in a time of crisis, and the argument for fast-tracking is strong.
But we cannot change our rules haphazardly. There are, for instance, calls to remove barriers and expedite data-gathering in an apparent effort to move ahead with certain drugs that President Trump has favored, reportedly due to private lobbying.
To a certain extent, relaxing rules is a matter of accepting additional risk, but it is also a matter of making governance more intensive than we can usually afford it to be. Under ordinary circumstances, we often put in place rules that are more rigid than they absolutely need to be. Some will complain that such rules don’t make sense, but the fact is we cannot practically supervise the application of a more intricate and flexible rules that would achieve the same benefits. There are simply too many things that need to be governed and not enough qualified people to do the governing. But, in times of crisis, we can afford to focus expert attention on the flexible application of rules because time is of the essence and our priorities have become much narrower.
The trick is to set up an organization that is capable of such technological governance. Which brings me to Donald Trump’s uncle, John Trump, who understood this point very well.