Plastic Was Once the Future. Sound Familiar?

There was a time when plastic was celebrated as a wonder material. It was light, cheap, colourful, durable, and incredibly versatile. Why use valuable metals for everyday products when plastic could do the job just as well, leaving metals for machinery, infrastructure, and other demanding applications? It was presented as the material of the future, and for many uses, it genuinely transformed modern life.

Part of that story was the rapid growth of the oil and natural gas industry. As these fuels were processed, chemicals such as ethane became valuable feedstocks for making plastics. Instead of treating them as low value byproducts, the petrochemical industry turned them into products that could be manufactured on a massive scale. Plastic was also promoted as recyclable and long lasting, qualities that were seen as strengths at the time. Few people fully appreciated that a material designed to last could also become an environmental challenge if it was discarded instead of recycled.

Watching that history unfold, I could not help thinking about artificial intelligence. Every generation embraces a breakthrough technology that promises to solve countless problems. At first, the focus is almost entirely on the opportunities, while the long term consequences receive much less attention. Plastic changed the world in ways few could have imagined, both for better and for worse. Perhaps AI is following a similar path. The excitement is real, the benefits are undeniable, but history suggests we should think about the consequences while we are still building the future, not after it has already arrived.

Posted Using INLEO