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Here at TNW every day is a present, so it\u2019s always our birthday. But we understand that the world can be a bit of a bummer for everyone else. After all, we write about the dark underbelly of science and technology: Elon Musk.<\/p>\n Kidding, actually there\u2019s a lot more wrong with science and tech than just Musk\u2019s penchant for accusing<\/a> random cave divers of pedophilia. Or his Trumpian war<\/a> against the mainstream media. Or his insane twee<\/a>t declaring that Tesla would go public. Or him throwing his garbage into space<\/a>.<\/p>\n If you thought I was going to bring up Musk smoking pot<\/a> on a podcast: don\u2019t be ridiculous. That was one of the only normal things he did all year \u2014 in fact we think more tech CEOs should imbibe<\/a>.<\/p>\n Also, Musk was in California, where such activities are perfectly legal. What wasn\u2019t normal was NASA sticking its nose<\/a> into his business over it. Poor play, NASA<\/a>.<\/p>\n And Musk certainly wasn\u2019t the only big tech CEO who was out of control. Mark Zuckerberg spent the year apologizing<\/a>, bragging about his reading habits<\/a>, and basically turning Facebook into an evil empire<\/a> worthy of applause from Skeletor and Phillip Morris.<\/p>\n Jack Dorsey<\/a> at Twitter came under fire this year, as did Jeff Bezos<\/a>. But of all the big tech CEOs, Google\u2019s Sundar Pichai may have taken the rotten cake this year.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not even sure to begin, but here\u2019s a few links to explain just some of what\u2019s gone wrong in Android<\/a>-ville.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t just big tech that went off the rails in 2018. Science and academia also went a bit nuts. And, of course, US politicians were even worse in the year net neutrality<\/a> officially died.<\/p>\n But science first (because it should know better). We expect nonsense from big tech. But cheating on white papers<\/a>? Hiding research<\/a> behind a paywall? Systemic misogyny and sexual harassment<\/a>? Ridiculous.<\/p>\n And, speaking of bad science, there were enough experts penning articles declaring quantum computing a dead-end<\/a> to make us all wonder if there was some sort of a troll-war going on in the world of physics.<\/p>\n We remind those naysayers of the immortal words of IBM\u2018s Watson. No not the AI, former company president Thomas Watson who, in 1943, said:<\/p>\n I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n But, where science experts are entitled to their opinions, and deserve to be respected for contributing to the debate, a\u00a0number of US politicians just spent 2018 proving they were ignorant<\/a>, corrupt<\/a>, or both<\/a>\u00a0when it came to matters concerning technology and science.<\/p>\n There were also some engineering downfalls in 2018, including one in particular which deserves mentioning again. Tesla\u2019s continuing use of the term Autopilot for its cars assisted-driving feature may not be new \u2013 it\u2019s still disappointing<\/a> \u2013 but it this year it inspired a truly evil product: Autopilot Buddy<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a device you place on your Tesla\u2019s steering wheel so that the car thinks<\/i> your hands are on the wheel, essentially disabling the warning system designed to prevent people from using Autopilot as \u2013 well, as an autopilot. Because it\u2019s not. It\u2019s an assisted-driving system that\u2019s only safe to use if the human driver is engaged and able to take over at a split-second\u2019s notice.<\/p>\n Considering that at least two people have died<\/a> as a result of misusing Tesla\u2019s Autopilot system by ignoring warnings to put their hands back on the steering wheel, it seems reprehensible to market a product that overrides that warning system.<\/p>\n In a lot of ways, 2018 sucked, but hopefully that wasn\u2019t your experience. And, no matter how good or bad your year was, we hope 2019 is a better one.<\/p>\n \n Read next:<\/b>\n
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\n Day 13 of TNW\u2019s Advent Deals: Sonos, HP, and 23andMe <\/a>\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n