Would Peter Drucker Wear Google Glass?

In his latest column for Forbes online, Drucker Institute Executive Director Rick Wartzman explores what Peter Drucker would have thought of Google Glass.

“Few products have ever been greeted with as much anticipation—and as much apprehension—as the wearable, Internet-connected specs, which were all the rage at last week’s Google developer conference in San Francisco,” Wartzman writes.

“Drucker,” he adds, “would have well understood both sentiments: the great promise of a device that can connect us in new and exciting ways and the tremendous worry that comes with unleashing on the world a contraption that might well trample upon people’s privacy and otherwise be susceptible to abuse.”

Wartzman notes that certain possible features of Glass, such as facial-recognition technology, are raising particular concerns.

“In the end,” he says, “it is the men and women designing and using the product—and not the machines themselves—who must take responsibility for what Glass becomes.”

Wartzman then cites Drucker, who wrote: “The computer makes no decisions. It only carries out orders . . . and therein lies its strength. It forces us to think, to set the criteria. The stupider the tool, the brighter the master has to be.”