  Our society has been increasingly witnessing a number of negative, unintended
consequences of digital technologies. While post-hoc policy regulation is
crucial in addressing these issues, reasonably anticipating the consequences
before deploying technology can help mitigate potential harm to society in the
first place. Yet, the quest to anticipate potential harms can be difficult
without seeing digital technologies deployed in the real world. In this
position paper, we argue that anticipating unintended consequences of
technology can be facilitated through creativity-enhancing interventions, such
as by building on existing knowledge and insights from diverse stakeholders.
Using lessons learned from prior work on creativity-support tools, the HCI
community is uniquely equipped to design novel systems that aid in anticipating
negative unintended consequences of technology on society.
