Technology has the power to transform society. The most famous example of this is German craftsman Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press in the fifteenth century. Washington Post columnist Robert J. Samuelson sums up the vast changes that occurred as a result of the invention of printing: “Gutenberg’s press led to mass literacy, fostered the Protestant Reformation (by undermining the clergy’s theological monopoly) and, through the easy exchange of information, enabled the scientific revolution.” Subsequent technological advances are also often evaluated in terms of the effect they had on society. James Watt’s steam engine, for example, is often credited with starting the Industrial Revolution in England. Today, the Internet and associated information technologies are said to be behind an information revolution that is transforming the way people live and work.

Unlike the printing press or the steam...