The precautionary principle in technology innovation suggests that the burden of proof should be on the inventor to show that a technology is not harmful before deployment, a concept emerging since the 1970s in contrast to the older modernist approach of focusing on positive aspects first. The speaker strongly opposes the precautionary principle, arguing for the modernist view that assumes new technologies are not inherently positive. They criticize the precautionary principle's reliance on thought experiments and involvement of unpredictable external actors in decision-making.