Kranzberg's First Law: Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral.
...By that I mean that... technical developments frequently have
environmental, social, and human consequences that go far beyond the
immediate purposes of the technical devices and practices themselves...
Hence many technical applications that seemed a boon to mankind when
first introduced became threats when their use became widespread....
The point is that the same technology can answer questions
differently, depending on the context into which it is introduced and
the problem it is designed to solve.
Kranzberg's Fourth Law: Although technology might be a prime
element in many public issues, nontechnical factors take precedence in
technology-policy decisions.
Engineers claim that their solutions to technical problems are not based on
mushy social considerations; instead, they boast that their decisions
depend on the hard and measurable facts of technical efficiency, which
they define in terms of input-output factors such as cost of resources,
power, and labor.
[But] engineers do not always agree with one another; different fields
of engineering might have different solutions to the same problem...
[and] technological developments frequently have social, human, and
environmental implications that go far beyond the intention of the
original technology itself.