1 . Faster, cheaper, better — technology is one field many people rely upon to offer a vision of a brighter future. But as the 2020s dawn, _______ is in short supply. The new technologies _______ the past decade seem to mess up the things. Social media are better known for invading privacy, spreading fake news. E-commerce is   _______ with underpaying workers and exacerbating inequality. Parents worry that smartphones have turned their children into screen-addicted zombies.

_______ the technologies expected to dominate the new decade also seem to cast a dark shadow. Artificial intelligence (AI) may well threaten your job. Autonomous cars still do not work, but manage to kill people all the same. Internet giants have changed from talent _______ to outcasts (被排斥者). The New York Times sums up the gloom. “A mood of pessimsim”, it writes, has _______” the idea of inevitable progress born in the scientific and industrial revolutions.”

_______ that particular technologies might be doing more harm than good, have arisen before. In the 1970s the gloom was prompted by concerns about overpopulation, environmental damage and the prospect of nuclear immolation. The 1920s witnessed a backlash against cars, which had earlier been seen as a _______ answer to the affliction of horse-drawn vehicles — which filled the streets with noise and dung, and caused congestion and accidents. Similarly, in the 19^th century industrialization was greeted with _______ from socialists, who worried (with good reason) about the displacement of skilled artisans.

However, that pessimism can be ________ .Too often people focus on the drawbacks of a new technology while taking its benefits for granted. Worries about screen time should be ________ the much more substantial benefits of instant communication and the easy access to information and entertainment that smartphones make possible. A further danger is something Carl Benedikt Frey, an Oxford academic, calls a “technology trap”. Fears that robots will ________ people’s jobs may motivate politicians to tax them, for example, to discourage their use. ________ in the long run countries that wish to maintain their standard of living as their workforce ages and shrinks will need more robots, not fewer.

Any powerful technology can be used for good or ill. Technology itself has no agency: it is the ________ people make about it that shape the world. Thus the tech-lash is a necessary step in the adoption of important new technologies. At its best, it helps frame how society ________ innovations and imposes rules and policies that limit their destructive potential. Healthy skepticism means that these questions are settled by a broad debate, not by a small group of technologists.