FROM THE ARCHIVES
[ home | archives | e-mail ]
Listen to the Technologists
[Angelo Matera 03/02 10:13 AM]You think Crunchy Cons are exaggerating the impact of technology? Then check out what the technologists themselves are saying. In today’s Fast Company magazine, Slate columnist Adam L. Penenberg gleefully describes the implications of the coming technopoly: “…in the next 10 years, the Internet also will invade your appliances, even your clothes. And just as you wouldn't dream of being without a telephone now, the thought of being offline will be unthinkable…. More generally, though — and more important — the fluidity of information will bring about a radically democratized society where consumers enjoy unprecedented power…. Historian David Nye wrote, ‘People do not merely use electricity. Rather, the self and the electrified world have intertwined.’ The Internet, too, is being braided into our lives, and that will probably make us stronger — even if it leaves a few of us hanging. “ If this sounds like your kind of world—Spielberg’s Minority Report comes to mind — well, not much to talk about then. But for the rest of us, here’s Neil Postman on Technopoly.“Technopoly is a state of culture. It is also a state of mind. It consists in the deificaiton of technology, which means that the culture seeks its authorization in technology, finds its satisfactions in technology, and takes its orders from technology. This requires the development of a new kind of social order, and of necessity leads to the rapid dissolution of much that is associated with traditional beliefs. Those who feel most comfortable in Technopoly are those who are convinced that technical progress is humanity's superhuman achievement and the instrument by which our most profound dilemmas may be solved.”
|
