The last post demanded some thoughts about the wider aspects of technological change on our societies which, according to L Winer in his “The Whale and the Reactor –a search for limits in the age of high technology ” (1986) had not been much examined. It was a curious judgement for the author to make since the decades before had been full of texts from the likes of Jacques Ellul and Daniel Boorstin (see below) about precisely that topic. The computer and the idea of the information society had hit America in the 1960s – so it was hardly surprising that it became a hot topic. Even geo-strategist Brzezinski got into the act with the highly readable Between Two Ages – America's role in the technetronic era (1980)
And in 1985 NASA and the renowned James Burke and Isaac Asimov produced a useful little booklet The Impact of Science.
The long list of books given in the last post don't deal with the impact of technology per se – their interest is rather in specific issues viz the internet, social media, Artificial Intelligence or the effect on jobs. What is so interesting about the writings of Asimov, Boorstin, Brzezinski and Ellul is that interest was much wider – on the social impact of technology.
There are very few of us who dare to challenge technological change. Most of us fear the ridicule involved – being the targets of taunts of being Canutes or Luddites. It, therefore, took a lot of courage for Jerry Mander in 1978 to produce Four Arguments for the elimination of television and for Neil Postman to follow this up with “Amusing Ourselves to Death” in 1985.
And, with his “In the absence of the sacred – the failure of technology” (1992) Jerry Mander went beyond television to critique our technological society as a whole.
In this provocative work, Mander challenges the utopian promise of technological society and tracks its devastating impact on cultures worldwide. The Western world’s loss of a sense of the sacred in the natural world, he says, has led us toward global environmental disaster and social disorder - and worse lies ahead. Yet models for restoring our relationship with the Earth exist in the cultures of native peoples, whose values and skills have enabled them to survive centuries of invasion and exploitation.
Far from creating paradise on Earth, technology has instead produced an unsustainable contest for resources. Mander surveys the major technologies shaping the “new world order”, computers, telecommunications, space exploration, genetic engineering, robotics, and the corporation itself and warns that they are merging into a global mega-technology, with dire environmental and political results.
Needless to say, none of such book were taken seriously. It took perhaps a BBC television series of technological dystopia Black Mirror which first hit screens in 2011 for us to begin to realise that technology has its perverse side.
Resource on Technology
The technological society jacques ellul 1964
The technological system jacques ellul 1980
The technological bluff jacques ellul 1989
The impact of science james burke, isaac asimov (nasa 1985)
The republic of technology daniel boorstin 1978
Between two ages – america's role in the technetronic era zbigniew brzezinski 1980
The whale and the reactor –a search for limits in the age of high technology langdon winner 1986
Technopoly - the surrender of culture to technology' Neil Postman 1992
In the absence of the sacred – the failure of technology” Jerry Mander 1992
The second machine Age – work, progress and prosperity in a time of brilliant technologies; Brynjolfsson and McAfee 2014
No comments:
Post a Comment