In the 160-character-fueled, fail-fast and break-things culture of the technology world, perspective is often in short supply. Judy Estrin thinks she knows how to fix that problem.

The Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur can offer a broader view of the industry because she has been part of the tech world since the early days of the internet. Estrin (pictured) started her tech career as a graduate student under the tutelage of Vint Cerf, the computer scientist who co-developed the internet protocol TCP/IP. She co-founded eight companies, three of which went public or were acquired, was the chief technology officer for Cisco Systems Inc., and has served as a board member for FedEx Corp. and The Walt Disney Co.

Estrin is also the author of “Closing the Innovation Gap: Reigniting the Spark of Creativity in a Global Economy,” a book published in 2008. Her work outlined how an inclusive and more interactive leadership style could foster innovation, versus a contentious approach that bullies and excludes others. In light of recent damaging news headlines surrounding the use of social media to manipulate elections and growing concern over data privacy, it appears that technology’s fast-paced style and “win-at-all-costs” mentality may be tipping the industry into perilous territory.

“We want to move fast, but we want to think about what we’re breaking could be really dangerous,” said Estrin, who is chief executive officer of JLabs LLC. “If it’s ‘Oops, we broke democracy,’ that isn’t something that is answered by ‘I’m sorry.’ Let’s talk openly about the harm; let’s not just be tech optimists.”

Estrin discussed her views on the dangers of technological “authoritarianism” with John Furrier (@furrier), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, at SiliconANGLE’s studio in Palo Alto, California, as part of the Mayfield People First series. (* Disclosure below.)

This week, theCUBE features Judy Estrin as its Guest of the Week.

Authoritarian tech

At the heart of Estrin’s concern is the current state of our relationship with technology. Rather than a force for inclusion and good, tech is increasingly being viewed as authoritarian and controlling. A Google search under “phone addiction,” for example, currently yields more than 360 million results.

Estrin published two lengthy blog posts titled “Authoritarian Technology: Attention!” and “Authoritarian Technology: Reclaiming Control” on Medium in September. In her writing, Estrin bemoans much that has gone wrong, including the pervasive nature of technology in today’s society, an emphasis on corporate domination rather than merely success, and a drive for frictionless connectivity that precludes normal human social interaction.

“I was very involved in a lot of the innovation that happened in the Valley in terms of microprocessors, the internet, networking, everything that laid the foundation for a lot of the things that we see today,” Estrin said. “Over the last 10 to 12 years, I began to see a shift in the culture and the way technology was impacting us. It felt like we were out of balance and becoming shorter-term-focused.”

Loss of systems thinking

That short-term attitude points toward some of the key attributes that we are losing in a rush to embrace all things tech. The mantra of “move fast and break things,” famously coined by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in a 2010 interview, is perhaps a contributor to the problem. Even Zuckerberg has since taken pains to distance himself from the philosophy.

What’s missing is systems thinking, a focus not simply on the last mistake, but a broader view of the interconnections and consequences that technology provides.

“As we move quicker to solve problems, we are not training our leaders or training our technologists to think in terms of systems,” Estrin said. “Over the last 20 years, we’ve increasingly trained our engineers and computer scientists in more transactional thinking.”

The other growing danger involves the impact of technology on humanity itself. Michael Bess, a historian at Vanderbilt University, recently published a book that examined both the promise and terror of a genetically modified future.

Advances in technology are enabling projects such as CRISPR, a powerful new gene editing tool that allows scientists to delete undesirable genes and implant desirable ones more easily.

“One of the problems with today’s technology is we’re fitting humans into bits that technology can support, as opposed to recognizing our human needs that we want to hold on to,” Estrin said. “There are some things that are not going to fit into somebody’s dataset.”

AI as a weapon

One powerful tech tool is already generating alarm bells over its future use. Artificial intelligence has made rapid advances in just the past two years, and this is raising the prospect that it can be used for more than just deciding which episodes a user wants to binge-watch on Netflix.

Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk and three co-founders of Google’s DeepMind joined prominent AI researchers last year in pledging not to weaponize AI technology. It’s a debate that is likely to grow as AI becomes more widely used in all sectors of society.

“This is a powerful weapon or tool,” Estrin said. “Let’s make sure we think about how we use it.”

Is there a solution for the creeping technological “authoritarianism” that Estrin has documented? In her Medium post, Estrin called for programs to teach digital literacy and safe use, along with more transparency in how data is being used by others.

She also called for changes that will “rebalance the power,” a tricky proposition since large companies will not easily surrender profits or control. “We need ways to have conversations about influencing companies to do the right thing,” Estrin said. “Some of it is going to be through legislation; some of it is going to be through pressure.”

Our technology-driven culture is, in some respects, a massive, fertile farm where innovation flourishes and a bountiful harvest of convenience is delivered around the globe. But land can be over-farmed too, and Estrin’s warning words highlight dangers to come if the tech world doesn’t find new ways let users reclaim control.

“Let’s not forget the seeds you plant that all of this comes from,” Estrin said. “We’re reaping the benefit of those seeds, but we’re not planting new seeds.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Mayfield People First event. (Disclosure: TheCUBE’s coverage of the Mayfield People First event is presented by Mayfield Fund LLC.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE