Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Location: On the "Left Coast", somewhere in "the Land of Fruits & Nuts"
8,852 posts, read 10,458,803 times
Reputation: 6670
Advertisements
I wish there were another word besides "Luddite" for us folks who have no problem with Technology per se, but prefer to choose "appropriate technology", rather than always feeling like they need to have the "latest & greatest", or assuming that the "hi-tech" tool or solution is always the best, just for its own sake.
For example, I'm fine with most tech, but still refuse to use a 'smartphone' simply because I prefer to just pick up the phone and hit one button to 'answer' when someone calls… rather than futz with the interface (if I can see it!), swipe the 'unlock', etc…. just to take (or make) a simple phone call! And as for cars or motorcycles, gimme one that's reasonably equipped, but where I don't always have to take it to a dealer, just to figure out even the simplest malfunction!
I don't know how many genuine neo-luddites you'll track down on the internet.
As for my thoughts on technology:
I'm somewhat sympathetic to Heiddeger's arguments regarding technology, in which we begin to see the world as a standing reserve for our energy needs and fail to see it is anything else.
I diverge from him in that I don't think we can ever stop seeing the world as an energy reserve, no matter what level of technology we have available - whether I'm building a fire or a hydroelectric dam, there's still a standing reserve of energy I'm looking to exploit - without exploiting our surroundings, we die.
Where he and I do align is in the idea that technology traps us into a specific way of thinking about those resources - we spend all our energy exploiting one particular facet of our surroundings, blind to the other potential resource reserves we're destroying in the process.
I don't know how many genuine neo-luddites you'll track down on the internet.
As for my thoughts on technology:
I'm somewhat sympathetic to Heiddeger's arguments regarding technology, in which we begin to see the world as a standing reserve for our energy needs and fail to see it is anything else.
I diverge from him in that I don't think we can ever stop seeing the world as an energy reserve, no matter what level of technology we have available - whether I'm building a fire or a hydroelectric dam, there's still a standing reserve of energy I'm looking to exploit - without exploiting our surroundings, we die.
Where he and I do align is in the idea that technology traps us into a specific way of thinking about those resources - we spend all our energy exploiting one particular facet of our surroundings, blind to the other potential resource reserves we're destroying in the process.
Anyone recommend any good books about Neo-Luddite philosophy or anything?
I recommend Jacques Ellul's The Technological Society. He raised the discourse into the more general realm of human "technique" as a mis-used element of human nature. He continued that line of thinking in Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes. His writing was simultaneously depressing and hopeful.
I first read them in the 70's, when I began my computer career and sometimes return to re-read for perspective when modernity gets too perplexing. I'm happy to have finally retired from that career, but inexplicably remain mired in modern technology. Its an addiction, I suppose.
Modern technology, especially ever-changing, ever-improving communication technology,
seems to the be logical conclusion to the age of enlightenment / industrial revolution.
Ironically, the further humanity advances into intercommunication, the less civilized it becomes.
The more technology progresses, the more it releases "monsters from the id."
.
This is definitely me. Computers frustrate the hell out of me, I have a really bad feeling about where this whole 3D printing thing is going, I'm constantly saying new steps in artificial intelligence are "the start of SkyNet", and one of the biggest things alienating me from other members of my generation is their shallow fixation on consumer gadgets, and strong feelings of contempt I harbor towards them as a result.
Some days I think my dream in life is to fake my own death and go live with the wolves in British Columbia.
Location: On the "Left Coast", somewhere in "the Land of Fruits & Nuts"
8,852 posts, read 10,458,803 times
Reputation: 6670
While I really agree with Stubblejumper's comments re: Heidegger and the changing of our relationship with the planet and nature (not necessarily for the better), have also found Wired editor & founder Kevin Kelly's book, What Technology Wants , to be very helpful. And speaking of the effects of 'tech", it's also available as a free pdf here!
While I really agree with Stubblejumper's comments re: Heidegger and the changing of our relationship with the planet and nature (not necessarily for the better), have also found Wired editor & founder Kevin Kelly's book, What Technology Wants , to be very helpful. And speaking of the effects of 'tech", it's also available as a free pdf here!
I've only gotten through Kelly's intro chapter so far, but it is compelling to read. He dismisses Ellul's "technique" in one sentence and brushes against a Philosophy of Information, but he is avoiding the teleological goals of our DNA. That DNA, I think, is driving all techne-related activities in its evolutionary experiments toward long-term species survival. Some experiments work out (tools, alphabets, numbers), while others fail (trying to think of examples) and are discarded.
Ethics may be an example of a failed experiment. It sometimes acts as an obstacle to survival.
Last edited by highplainsrus; 01-13-2014 at 08:14 AM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
