The Collingridge dilemma describes a bind in controlling technology. Early on, when a technology could be shaped easily, its impacts cannot be predicted, because they only become clear once it is widely used. Later, when the effects are obvious, the technology is so entrenched in economies and habits that it is hard to regulate. David Collingridge set out this double bind in his 1980 book The Social Control of Technology, at the University of Aston. It is now a basic reference point in debates about technology assessment and governance.

In 1909 D. W. Griffith made a 14-minute film about a speculator who corners the wheat market and doubles the price of bread. A farmer sows his field while a 'Wheat King' gambles in the Chicago wheat pit; bakers raise the loaf from five cents to ten and the poor line up for bread. Griffith cut back and forth between the farm, the feast and the breadline, a technique called parallel editing, so audiences saw both ends of the economy at once. The film drew on Frank Norris's stories and on a real scheme: months earlier Chicago financier James Patten had cornered wheat, sent bread prices up and made about $5 million, roughly $185 million today.