Term for embracing technology that puts you out on a limb

Question

A thousand years ago, agriculture was a relatively simple and stable enterprise, aside from fickle weather. A war or famine might cause local hunger, but nothing on a continental scale.
With the industrial revolution, farmers began using expensive machinery, fertilizer and pesticides. The "Green Revolution" produced high-yield crops, making agriculture more productive than ever.
The tradeoff is that farmers needed money to buy expensive tractors, fertilizers, etc., and all those chemicals take a toll on the soil. During the Dust Bowl, the Great Depression and the WWII era, millions of people around the world starved to death.
And so one might argue that the more you beef up agriculture with technology, the more you turn it into house of cards.
What is the term for this process of carelessly embracing technology that puts society out on a limb, so to speak. I think there's a common term, but I can't remember it.

Elliot · Accepted Answer

That is the Bleeding Edge.
The overall concept you are describing is known as The Axe-makers Gift. What happens with human technology is that an improvement changes the game, bringing in more food that feeds a then growing population who, in a generation or so outstrips the ability of the technology to keep up. The first of these tools was the stone axe hence the name.
The term you are looking for does not quite describe this but does describe the far end of technology that may cost more than it promised and puts you out on a limb. That is the Bleeding Edge of technology. Cool pun, huh? The level of experimentation may give the promised result but the risks of learning the downside may be costly as well.
FYI; the Dust Bowl was caused by many things but I think chemicals added to the soil was certainly the least. Lack of crop rotation and good planning (too many Easterners showing up with plows) had a bit more to do with it. Not to mention historically bad weather and winds.

Term for embracing technology that puts you out on a limb

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