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The idea technology is completely neutral is obviously stupid and obviously wrong. Neil Postman has two amazing books on this subject. It is not even that tec
by epistemer 4y ago
The idea technology is completely neutral is obviously stupid and obviously wrong.
Neil Postman has two amazing books on this subject.
It is not even that technology is good or bad, any technology will have good and bad aspects but the main issue is that we have surrendered culture and agency to technology as a society.
There is no going back or fix now. The fix for all was a culture that devalues bad uses of technology so that there is no money in creating something shitty. We basically have the opposite of that. Even completely useless technology is worth a ton of money because of our culture.
The solution is not Luddism either. Especially a ridiculous techno-Luddism.
For me, the Faustian bargain with technology has already been signed in blood and there is nothing to do other than enjoy the roller coaster ride.
- CatWChainsaw 4y ago>The fix for all was a culture that devalues bad uses of technology >The solution is not Luddism either. Especially a ridiculous techno-Luddism. Cough.
- davidivadavid 4y agoThe purported neutrality of technology is an old saw that people who are practitioners of technology ought to discard. The fact they haven't shows how terrible a job we're doing educating them. Technology is not neutral and never will be because the nature of technology is to be a means to an end, and as such, to be inseparable from its end. Technologies enable certain future outcomes. That some of those outcomes are deemed "good" or "bad" just depends on whether they're compatible with the ends that were pursued initially and the worldview that supports them. Some technologies have unexpected outcomes, but that doesn't make those outcomes independent of those technologies, either.