The Moral Use of Technology

Extract

There is a well-worn example—well worn in some circles, anyway—of what you might think of as racist bridges. Robert Moses, the celebrated New York architect, designed unusually low bridges over the roads from Long Island to Jones Beach. The bridges were designed in this way so as to prevent the poor and predominantly black locals from travelling to the beach by bus—the affluent, white car owners can slip under them with ease. The bridges prevent certain members of the community from enjoying the beach as surely as a phalanx of clansmen. Perhaps the strongest moral drawn from the story is the claim that the bridges are political. The objects themselves are imbued with dubious values.