The Divergence of Leaders from Understanding the Technology on Which We Rely

Introduction

In today's increasingly technological world, there is a growing divide between many leaders and the technologies that society relies upon. While politicians, CEOs, and other decision-makers often have backgrounds in law, business, or the humanities, many lack deep knowledge of science, engineering, computer science, and other technical fields. This can lead to suboptimal policies, regulations, and business strategies surrounding technologies that leaders do not fully grasp. Three prime examples are computers and programming, the internet and web technologies, and power generation systems. As society grows more dependent on advanced technologies in these and other areas, the need for leaders with greater technical literacy increases. However, relatively few leaders emerge with backgrounds that sufficiently understand core technologies. This article will examine this divergence of leadership capabilities from technological dependencies, the risks it creates, and potential solutions.

The Knowledge Gap

Societal reliance on technology has rapidly accelerated over the past few decades. Emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, cryptocurrencies, renewable energy systems, and biotechnology promise to further transform human life. Powering these advances is sophisticated science and engineering largely unfamiliar to non-specialists. Yet government, business, and other institutions depend on sound policies and strategies surrounding new technologies. Crafting these requires comprehension beyond a layperson's understanding. Unfortunately, many leaders lack the technical backgrounds to foster this comprehension.

This knowledge gap stems partly from leaders' common educational and career pathways. Rising politicians often study political science, law, or related fields focused on policy, rhetoric, and legislation. Business executives tend to hold degrees in subjects like business administration and economics, which impart financial acumen and leadership skills. The natural sciences and engineering play little role in most leadership education paths. While essential knowledge for governing and managing organizations, these traditional studies do little to confer technical literacy.

The gap has worsened as technology progresses faster than leaders recognize its social impacts. Breakthroughs like artificial intelligence and genome editing have ethical, economic, and policy implications not covered in non-technical curricula. Leaders educated before such technologies emerged understand them imperfectly at best. Those relying on specialist advisors to fill knowledge voids may lack the context to weigh recommendations. The accelerating pace of technology change widens the expertise canyon between innovations and those governing their use.

Dangers of the Divide

Limited technical comprehension threatens leaders’ ability to evaluate policies, regulations, and business decisions regarding impactful technologies. Lacking fluency with how technologies function and integrate into society, leaders risk misjudging influences on economics, ethics, privacy, security, environmental sustainability, and more. This jeopardizes crafting sound policies and strategies benefiting citizens and shareholders.

Several examples highlight the dangers of the divergence between leadership and technology:

- Computer programming underpins digital infrastructure yet perplexes many leaders. Code auditing for biases and security flaws depends on policymakers who scarcely grasp programming concepts. Approving artificial intelligence development without grounding in how algorithms function courts unchecked technological risks.

- The internet remains a misunderstood technology for leaders from previous eras. Lawmaking to protect privacy and expand access requires nuance beyond high-level familiarity. Business strategizing about digital services also demands deeper technical insight than held by non-specialists.

- Power generation using fossil fuels, nuclear reactions, renewables, and other means relies on physics alien to most. Setting effective energy policy and utility business strategy requires better scientific knowledge than many leaders possess. Optimal decisions depend on technology comprehension, which is absent among policymakers.

These examples demonstrate technology domains where a lack of fluency limits leaders’ ability to make fully informed decisions. Though most listen to expert advisors, leaders ideally integrate advice into a complete understanding of technological possibilities, limitations, and impacts. An advisor council cannot supplant foundational knowledge, allowing leaders to weigh guidance appropriately. Poor technical context handicaps evaluating recommendations and charting wise paths forward.

Beyond these examples exist dozens more technologies influential to society but esoteric for leaders. Quantum computing, nanotechnology, genetic engineering, and self-driving cars represent coming innovations whose treatments will require technical literacy. As technology integrates deeper into human lives, broad leadership ignorance of these fields increasingly handicaps progress. Failing to close widening knowledge chasms threatens substandard policies, regulations, and strategies disconnected from technological realities.

Bridging the Divide

Resolving this divergence requires initiatives that expand leaders’ scientific and technical knowledge. Encouraging interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics from an early age can foster deeper understandings later. At university levels, leadership-focused programs should incorporate STEM foundations alongside traditional business and public administration curricula. For mid-career leaders, professional development incorporating technical topics can help close knowledge gaps.

Greater legislative representation with science and engineering backgrounds could also strengthen government policymaking. The government in most Western nations currently has few members with scientific expertise, hindering technology-related lawmaking. Requiring a subset of representatives to hold technical degrees could provide a beneficial perspective lacking today. Additionally, expert governmental advisory boards on significant technologies could better inform leaders through digestible recommendations.

Businesses must also encourage technical knowledge within leadership ranks. Promoting managers with science and engineering backgrounds into executive roles provides a direct pipeline of technical literacy that is absent today. Sponsoring continuing education around company-relevant technologies is another high-yield investment for enterprises reliant on technology.

Learning fundamentals does not require leaders to be experts; rather, it requires creating sufficient vocabulary and context for weighing decisions. Even basic familiarity with computing, the internet, power systems, and similar technologies offers cognitive frameworks supporting better assessment of options. Leaders need not code proficiently or derive equations but rather develop enough perspective to guide technology’s role in benefiting society and shareholders.

Key Technology Domains for Leaders

Which technical domains offer the highest value for leaders seeking to close knowledge gaps? The technologies below significantly impact economics, security, ethics, policies, and strategies yet perplex non-specialists. Developing introductory fluency promises substantial advantage in navigating technology-centred decisions:

- Computing and Information Theory: Computation underlies much of the digital economy. Grasping computing systems, algorithms, data structures, and information theory aids reasoned policymaking and business strategy.

- Network Technology: The internet and associated network protocols enable modern connectedness. Leaders conversant with network fundamentals and cybersecurity make better technology decisions.

- Artificial Intelligence: AI infuses technology innovations from social media to finance to military systems. Basic AI literacy helps leaders evaluate risks and opportunities.

- Power Systems: Energy production and distribution rely on physics and engineering that are lost on the non-technical. Familiarity with fundamentals guides sound policy and business choices.

- Biotechnology: Genetic engineering, gene editing, and synthetic biology offer both promise and peril. Leaders need foundational biology and ethics contexts to govern use wisely.

Targeting these and similar domains bridges understanding between leaders and technologies transforming society. Even modest gains in comprehension create sounding boards for evaluating complex technical policy issues. Leaders need not master engineering equations or computer coding. However, developing enough vocabulary and contextual frameworks around technology's inner workings is crucial to charting future courses.

The Technology-Policy Divide in Practice

Beyond general knowledge gaps, examining specific technology-centred decisions can illustrate how limited technical fluency impairs leaders’ choices and threatens unintended consequences. Reviewing examples in computing, power systems, and emerging technologies highlights the divide’s risks:

- Encryption Debates: Lacking nuance on cryptography, lawmakers risk unsuccessful encryption regulation. Mandating compromised implementations or baptizing weak standards imperils communication security and privacy. Savvy policy requires cryptography fluency absent among legislators.

- Utility Regulations: Ill-informed utility regulation can unintentionally incentivize dirty energy production over clean sources. Grasping generation tradeoffs allows incentives that meet emissions goals rather than working counter to them.

- Autonomous Systems: Policy regulating autonomous vehicles, robots, and algorithms requires deep comprehension of capabilities and limitations. Drafting policy without the context of system strengths and weaknesses courts preventable accidents and harms.

These examples demonstrate domains where a grasp of technical details should inform policymaking to protect citizens’ interests. Unfortunately, leaders often lack sufficient grounding to make ideal choices. The consequences range from the suboptimal to the hazardous as policy blindspots yield unintended results. Leaders can make technology-related decisions to achieve desired outcomes by improving technical literacy.

Businesses Risks from Leadership Technology Knowledge Gaps

Industry also suffers from leadership lacking technology fluency relevant to commercial activities. Executives and managers often oversee technology-centric operations without commensurate technical backgrounds. This hampers directing effective strategy, optimization, and risk management. Examples where limited comprehension poses business risks include:

- Cloud Computing: Migrating enterprise systems to the cloud provides flexibility but also security considerations. To assess properly, leaders need grounding in virtualization, containerization, cryptography, and networking.

- Software Development: Modern software relies on practices like agile development, continuous integration, open source licensing, and DevOps culture. Managers without context struggle to optimise innovation.

- Data Privacy: Collecting and analyzing consumer data risks PR backlash without thoughtful anonymization and cybersecurity. Executives should understand these to guide policy and communicate protection convincingly.

- Supply Chain Technology: Modern supply chain management integrates PREDICTION systems like inventory optimization, demand forecasting, and delivery optimization. Grasping their capabilities and gaps helps ensure their effectiveness.

Again, a lack of fluency with technical concepts translates into blindspots and knowledge gaps that handicap leadership decisions. While businesses employ technical specialists, executives setting direction require enough familiarity to evaluate input and enact sound strategies properly. Only a robust understanding of technology among leadership can align commercial interests with the realities of underlying operations.

Conclusion

Society's accelerating reliance on advanced technologies widens the comprehension gap between leaders and the systems influencing citizens' lives and shareholders' interests. Computing, power generation, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and communications fundamentally shape economics, security, privacy, environmental sustainability, and ethics. Yet decision-makers without strong technology backgrounds often lack the context and vocabulary to craft informed policies and strategies around these fields.

Bridging this divergence requires imparting foundational technical knowledge into leadership training programs. Greater representation of science and engineering backgrounds among policymakers also promises to close knowledge chasms threatening substandard policies and regulations disconnected from technological facts. For businesses, promoting technical specialists and fostering continuing education around relevant technologies help align leadership comprehension with operational realities.

Leaders need not attain engineering degrees or programming certifications. However, developing enough technical literacy to weigh input from specialists offers cognitive frameworks for reasoned assessments. Only through broadening comprehension of technologies integral to society can leaders chart wise courses into the future. The divergence between accelerated technological advancement and limited technical fluency among decision-makers is a surmountable challenge requiring educational commitment. With sound foundations, leaders can direct technology's immense potential toward broadly beneficial ends rather than allow ignorance to curtail progress.