A 1956 Science Fiction Novel Warned That Breakthrough Technologies Often Widen Inequality, Not Bridge It

Alfred Bester's "The Stars My Destination" imagined a 25th-century world where teleportation—a technology that should have freed human movement—did the opposite. The wealthy built fortresses impervious to teleportation, while economic barriers kept ordinary people grounded. Worth flagging: Bester's story offers a useful framework for understanding what could go wrong with AI and genetic engineering as these technologies move from research labs into the real world. His central observation—that transformative technologies tend to concentrate power rather than distribute it—deserves serious attention from the people designing these systems and the policymakers who regulate them.