Podcast Summary:

LSE Public Lectures and Events – Polis Media Agenda Talks: We Expected Jet Packs, but We Got 140 Characters – The Unfulfilled Promise of the Information Revolution
Speaker: Norman Lewis (PricewaterhouseCoopers)
Date: November 18, 2014
Host/Moderator: LSE Film and Audio Team

Episode Overview

This episode features Norman Lewis critiquing how digital technology and social media have reshaped our cultural fixation on innovation. He argues that society fixates on narcissistic, self-absorbed uses of technology, missing out on bigger, world-transforming innovations like those that powered past scientific revolutions. The discussion contrasts the ambitions of the space age and transformative discoveries with today’s obsession with personal consumption, social networking, and "safe" forms of innovation. The Q&A explores optimism, politics, power, and the roles of social science and humanism in technological progress.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. From Jet Packs to 140 Characters: Lost Ambition in Technological Innovation

• Norman Lewis opens with a provocative poll, highlighting the audience’s familiarity with social media platforms vs. a lack of knowledge about scientific breakthroughs and space exploration (e.g. Jade Rabbit, the Chinese lunar lander; "Fire with Fire" HIV research video).

• Quote:

  “We don’t talk about technology. Jade Rabbit is the name of the Chinese lunar module... No one seems to know anything about it, but you all know about Facebook.” (05:02)

• Argument: Instead of marveling at world-changing science, most of our attention is on self-reflective social technologies.

• Critique: Modern digital consumption (Facebook, Instagram) he considers self-indulgent, even “narcissistic,” in contrast to open-ended, risky exploration.

2. Social Media and the Nature of Real Innovation

• Lewis distinguishes between past innovations (Kodak, microfilm, X-ray, lunar photography) and social media (Instagram, Facebook), describing the latter as “nostalgia” and “self-absorption” (12:00).
• Comparison: Instagram, valued at a billion dollars with little tangible innovation, while groundbreaking companies like Kodak go bust.
• Quote:

  “Instagram, which has no revenues, which plays upon... using image as a way of self expression... nostalgia again... Billion dollars for that nothing. Kodak goes out of business. Now that really worries me.” (15:40)

3. Risk Aversion, Precaution, and the Decline of Experimentation

• Societal and corporate risk aversion is critiqued:
  • Companies hold vast cash reserves and invest little in basic R&D.
  • Even companies like Apple, lauded as innovators, largely repurpose others’ intellectual property and innovate in business models, not fundamental science or engineering.
  • Science and innovation in the past were risk-taking, open-ended – today, everything requires predicted outcomes, business models, and risk-mitigation.
• Example: The “scientists say lock up your chickens” headline during the bird flu scare as emblematic of a timid society (20:08).
• Quote:

  “A society that’s scared of its chickens... is not going where no man has gone before.” (20:14)

4. The Narrowing of Technology’s Purposes

• On "Big Data" and the "Internet of Things": Instead of empowering humanity, these tools turn people into “data points,” in service of marketing and consumption—human beings have become objects within technological systems rather than the subjects driving innovation.
• Quote:

  “The human being has now just become another data point... The technology is now the operative, the subject-object relationship has changed.” (22:30)

5. Environmentalism, Precaution, and the Stifling of Experimentation

• Lewis criticizes the “precautionary principle” and calls for more acceptance of scientific uncertainty and innovation risks; environmental concerns are portrayed as preventing progress.
• Quote:

  “If you try to hold things in a steady state... the moon, it's a dead rock. That’s what a steady state is. Nature is constantly in evolution, it’s constantly changing.” (27:15)

6. The Importance of Open-Ended Research and Serendipity

• Many historic advances were unintended outcomes of basic science or accidental discoveries (Einstein’s relativity, Fleming’s penicillin, champagne, post-it notes, Viagra).
• Today, research is hampered by demands for immediate practical application, which would have strangled historic breakthroughs.
• Quote:

  “If Albert Einstein was alive today... the first thing people would say is: what's the practical outcome? Defend your research.” (29:00)

7. True Potential: Nanotechnology, Biotech, and Reclaiming Ambition

• Lewis highlights fields like nanomaterials, quantum biology, and genetic engineering as holding transformative promise, but laments that no one is funding or inspiring ambitious leaps (“who’s going to be the next giant?”).
• Call to Action:

  “It’s about high time we looked beyond our iPhone screens, remembering that there are still skies to conquer... we still want those jet packs...” (32:00)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the distraction of social media:

  “Nothing captures this better for me than... Matt Taylor, the guy who led the project that put the... spacecraft on a comet... the debate became about his shirt. Not understanding. This is not about you. This is about humanity.” (09:48)

• On risk culture and technological stagnation:

  “...we are like parasitically living off the gains of the past with nobody taking responsibility for where this might go in the future.” (22:53)

• On Facebook and adult behavior:

  “What that says to me is, adults are behaving like children... Self expression has become this big thing, and that is narcissism.” (45:23)

Q&A Highlights (33:35–61:25)

1. Why So Negative? Inspiration vs. Outcomes (33:35–39:29)

• Audience member (C) questions Lewis’s pessimism, points to social media’s possible revolutionary uses (Arab Spring, Hong Kong).
• Lewis:

  “I haven't lost faith in humanity... What was fantastic about (Kennedy’s) speech was that it inspired an entire generation of people to go into science... Today things are constrained... because we want to know what the outcomes are going to be before we've actually done the work.” (35:00–38:51)

2. Is Introspection Always Narcissism? (39:31–44:18)

• D questions whether introspection and power awareness are actually positive shifts.
• Lewis clarifies: Introspection is not bad, but the balance has tipped towards self-absorption, away from ambition and risk—a recurring theme in his work.

3. Is Digital Tinkering “Innovation”? (42:57–44:18)

• E argues for the innovative nature of digital coding and the exploratory nature of projects like the Large Hadron Collider.
• F pushes back on equating personal narcissism with humanist ambition.
• Lewis (reply):

  “Playing with a piece of technology is not the same thing as being a technologist or understanding what that technology might be able to do... instead of saying to the kids, slap them... and inspire them about what a fantastic achievement that piece of technology is, so they can create that technology, not just play with it.” (48:15–49:46)

4. Power, Risk, and the Ethics of Progress (49:46–55:46)

• A: On the harms that have accompanied historical technological progress (e.g., colonialism, displacement).
• Lewis: Argues that progress is always disruptive; the net human benefit should be the measure, but responsibility and resistance are crucial.

5. What Role for Social Scientists? Escaping Postmodern Paralysis (56:08–58:13)

• G & F: What innovative capacity do social scientists have? How do we escape inward-turning “postmodern condition”?

• Lewis:

  “What I think is the solution to all of this is to go beyond the kind of post modern crisis that I think we're facing is to reposit and reposit the notion that human beings are the solution to all of this, not the problem.” (58:13)

• Social scientists should interrogate technology critically but ultimately put “human beings at the center”—a call for a revival of Enlightenment humanism.

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:53] Norman Lewis begins, audience poll on technology/scientific awareness
• [09:48] Commentary on Matt Taylor and the comet landing shirt controversy
• [12:00] Instagram vs. Kodak, commercial value vs. technological substance
• [15:40] Apple, R&D decline, business models vs. fundamental innovation
• [20:08] Anecdote: "Lock up your chickens," risk aversion symbolism
• [22:30] “Internet of things” and people as data points
• [27:15] Environmentalism and the misconception of "steady-state" nature
• [29:00] If Einstein had to justify relativity in today’s climate
• [32:00] Concluding: looking beyond screens, calling for bold innovation
• [33:35 onward] Audience Q&A (skepticism, introspection, power, social science roles)

Tone and Style

Norman Lewis’s style is direct, sometimes sardonic, passionate, and occasionally tongue-in-cheek. He signals warmth toward past ambition and science, while expressing deep frustration at risk-aversion, narcissism, and managerialism in today’s digital innovation. He combines anecdote with sharp critique and ultimately issues a rousing call for renewed determination, curiosity, and courage in the face of new technological frontiers.

Conclusion

Lewis is not anti-technology, but worries that innovation has been co-opted by self-involvement and risk-aversion. He urges a return to risk-taking, open-ended research, and to see ourselves not as data points, but as protagonists in ongoing human adventure. He calls especially on the young and on social scientists to champion humanistic values in technology—to risk, to imagine, to reach for the jet packs, not just settle for 140 characters.