> We created strict regulations that plane manufacturers and airlines must follow
In response to actual incidents, not imagined ones. Regulations should not come first. We already have the biggest companies chasing after a regulatory moat to protect themselves from competition and commoditization, and that's not how this should work.
> we took precautions to ensure the necessary safety.
No we didn't! We used the technology, we made lots of mistakes, and learned over time. That's how it's been with every innovation cycle. If we regulated from day one, maybe we would slowed down and not reached the point we are today.
Europe is a good model for a presumptive, over-regulated society. Their comparable industries are smaller and lag behind our own because of it.
> People don't understand the dangers of the modern internet either,
People "don't understand" a lot of things, such as the dangers they expose themselves to when driving over 30 mph. Yet we don't take that privilege away from them unless they break the law. Laws that only bare teeth after the fact, mind you.
Imagine if we tried to "protect society from the internet" and restricted access. The naysayers of the time wanted to, and you can find evidence if you look at old newspapers. Or imagine if we had a closed set of allowed businesses use cases and we didn't allow them to build whatever they wanted without some official process. There would be so many missing pieces.
Even laws and regulations proposed for mature technologies can be completely spurious. For instance, all the regulations being designed to "protect the children" that are actually more about tracking and censorship. If people cared about protecting the children, they'd give them free school lunches and education, not try to track who signs up for what porn website. That's just building a treasure trove of kompromat to employ against political rivals. Or projecting the puritanical dreams of some lawmakers onto the whole of society.
> People [...] they're subjects of [...] all sorts of psychological manipulation from advertising and propaganda that influences how they think, vote and behave in society
> Democratic institutions are crumbling
So this is why you think this way. You think of society as a failing institution of sorts. You're unhappy with the shape of the world and you're trying to control what people are exposed to and how they think.
I don't think that there's any amount of debate between you and I that will make us see eye to eye. I fundamentally believe you're wrong about this.
We live as mere motes of dust within a geologically old and infinite universe. Our lives are vanishingly short. You're trying to button down what people can do and fit them into constructed plans that match your pessimistic worldview.
We need to be free. We need more experimentation. We need more degrees of freedom with less structure and rigidity. Your prescriptive thinking lowers the energy potential of society and substitutes raw human wants with something designed, stamped, and approved by the central authority.
We didn't evolve from star dust to adventurous thinking apes just to live within the shackles of other people's minds.
> unleashing a technology that has a high chance of making this worse
You are presupposing an outcome and you worry too much.
Don't regulate technology, regulate abusive behavior using the existing legal frameworks. We will pass all the laws we need as situations arise. And it will work.
> eventually climb out of the hole we're currently digging ourselves into.
We're not in a hole. Stop looking down and look up.