That’s the biggest problem with technology. It rules our lives. Some would say it ruins our lives. But what would life be without it?

Technology is the use of tools. Smart birds like crows will use a simple tool like a short stick to access food, but humans are an inherently technological species. We depend on tools to get through the day, and night, and we use tools to make more complex tools to provide solutions to problems. Innovation.

Two technologies with possibly the greatest impact on society, money and digital, have accelerated exponentially in recent years, transforming the very nature of human existence. How we work, live, and play. How we produce, consume, travel, and talk. How we learn, grow, and save. How we fight and make peace.

The smart systems and agents and the web of smart devices they run on; the autonomous cars, robots, air taxis and trains; the digital medical machines and science bots; the smart cities we live in. All create the Smart Society, with embedded intelligence at every turn, keeping it running smoothly.

Financial systems, built and operated by so-called intelligent agents, are so complex that few humans – if any – fully understand how they work. But they’re quick and efficient, reducing costs and eliminating friction for business and trade globally.

Not that everything is perfect; we all remember the quantum crypto crisis of 2029, when the first quantum hackers hijacked the biggest cryptocurrency blockchain. That was a brutal reminder that tools are just tools. They can be used for good or evil. By people.

That’s the trouble with tech. We’re at the mercy of the technocrats, and have to keep ourselves and our businesses technically proficient, in self-defense. It’s a burden.

But we can’t live without it.