Technological innovation rarely serves the interests of society as a w

Technological innovation rarely serves the interests of society as a whole. This can be seen from the fact that those responsible for technological advances are almost without exception motivated by consideration of personal gain rather than societal benefit in that they strive to develop commercially viable technology.

P: This can be seen from the fact that those responsible for technological advances are almost without exception motivated by consideration of personal gain rather than societal benefit in that they strive to develop commercially viable technology

C: Technological innovation rarely serves the interests of society as a whole

Breakdown: So innovation isn't good because it is created for personal gain. Really? There is a massive assumption here, and it's simply that motivation makes something good or bad. Let's see if something says this.

The argument is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that:

(A) Contains a premise that cannot possible be true -- Nope, this is fine. Nothing in here is false. Of course the premise can be true! It is the conclusion drawn from said premise that is the issue.

(B) Takes for granted that technology beneficial to society as a whole cannot be commercially viable -- Explained in another post. "Cannot" is the key word. This is inaccurate because we are never told that something cannot be the case. We are told that it is "almost without exception", but this is not the same as never.

(C) Fails to consider the possibility that actions motivated by a desire for personal gain often do not result in personal gain -- This is wrong because it uses words from above to try and make an answer. But this is absolute nonsense. We do not care if what is desired results in a gain. The issue at hand is motivation.

(D) Takes for granted that an action is unlikely to produce a certain outcome unless it is motivated by a desire to produce that outcome -- Perfect, as described above. They take the motivation to say that it cannot help people. Perfectly sums up the issue.

(E) Draws a conclusion about the practical consequences of people’s actions on the basis of theoretical views about what people should or should not do -- Practical consequences vs theoretical views. WHAT? This simply throws some fancy words together and hopes that you pick it because it might make sense in your gut. But think about this statement. We never talk about theoretical views, and we never touch upon consequences.