Change is difficult for most of us to cope with, but when the change affects all of us and we have to collectively make a decision if and how to deal with it, the degree of difficulty just went up exponentially – welcome to the world of law making and enforcement.

In our regular segment ABC radio WideBay’s David Dowsett and I look at how the horizon technologies of 3D printing, robots and drones, big data, self driving cars, wearable computers and bio metrics are all creating their own future societal dilemmas, not from the use of technology in the hands of those that seek to do good, but rather from the very few who will choose to use it for evil.

As a democratic society facing these challenges do we collaboratively make laws and give powers to the law enforcers in advance of the risk, or do we wait till after the fact to frame laws and empower police accordingly?

It’s a tough one, but for me we would be delinquent if we didn’t have the debate as early as possible and begin framing societal responses to how and what we want and where foreseeable place laws and societal expectations in place before the fact, rather than after.

Have a listen to the segment now and then share your thoughts on how we deal with this chicken and egg dilemma.