The evils of technology or is it our choice?

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Nature changes constantly. Even without mans intervention change happens. Continents move, weather changes, species evolve. All change produces unanticipated consequences. That is the nature of life, it is uncertain. It is because of this basic fact of life that I disagree with those that say that technology will make humans, “…to be voyeurs of their own demise.” Kalle Lasn, p47, Post Human, Culture Jam. I don’t believe technology is the destruction of the world. I don’t believe that technology will kill our souls.

We need only look to the relatively recent past to see the parallels between now and then. Richard Conniff discusses “What the Luddites really fought against”, the protest movement of the nineteenth century that made the “Luddites” popular, and as he points out, completely misunderstood. Then as now change was in the air. The Industrial revolution was upon us; people were frightened that machines would replace humans. The economy of England was struggling; poverty was affecting more and more people. A protest movement sprung up to protest lack of work and low wages, the Luddites. As Mr. Conniff points out the Luddites were actually skilled workers, not anti-technology. Today the term Luddite often gets misused with someone lacking technological skills but the origins were anything but that.

The technology of the time helped develop the struggling economy ushering in a more prosperous time, “Lee’s invention (the stocking frame), with gradual improvements, helped the textile industry grow, and created many more jobs.” Richard Conniff. Much like the stocking frame of the Industrial revolution the automobile revolutionized modern life. John Steel Gordon compares nineteenth century New York to ...

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...nion usually changes.

He is still not tech friendly, he probably never will be, but at least he now understands that technology brings with it some challenges and some benefits. There are so many ways that technology is involved in all of our lives. We have the choice ultimately with how we use technology to our advantage or how we let ourselves be used by it. Kalle Lasn thinks that Japanese tourists can’t experience life until it is viewed from behind the viewfinder; he believes that a person who plays MUD’s loses themselves in the game characters they create and that humans eventual demise will be brought upon us because we have lost our souls through the internet. I would suggest to Mr. Lasn to look forward into the past and be reminded that technology has changed the world in some very positive ways, and it can continue to do so, if we act responsibly.

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