Writer's Block: Luddites unite!

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Who says technology doesn't better mankind? That progress=dehumanization is such an excessively fearful and self-sabotaging attitude to have, not to mention totally false. Do you honestly want to stop searching for the cures to fatal and debilitating diseases, for more effective ways to use and distribute our scarce resources, for cleaner and more proficient production procedures, and for better ways to save the most valuable human resource of time? You want to stop our quest to make our lives longer, more comfortable, and more fulfilling?

People only fear advances in technology because they are afraid of them, the same way they fear education or changes in mainstream philosophy. ("Wait-- racism, homophobia, and sexism are bad? What kind of heathen bullshit are you trying to imprint in our children's minds??"). That is to say, ignorantly and with no basis in reality. They fear it because it is unknown, not because it is actually bad. (I mean, if you're fearing it before we even get there, how can you even know it will be bad?).

For instance, I hear so much bitching about how the Internet is ruining the way people socialize, but for introverts (and expats) like me it's actually created opportunities for social interaction and fulfilling relationships I never would have had otherwise. I don't think it's "ruining" anything, only changing it, the same way the development of the printing press changed literacy and the public relationship with written language.

I know in a previous Writer's Block I talked about how just because you can do something doesn't mean you ought to, and I still stand by that; progress without responsibility and a lack of consideration for how it affects the world could be a problem. However, I see nothing to be gained from fearing progress in general, especially when most of it is explicitly geared towards improving the human condition. In our capitalist society, people only make new technologies when they expect them to sell, which means the technology must benefit people in some way. It's a self-regulating system.

Fire (and cooking) and language (and written language) are all technologies that have complicated human existence, but can you imagine where we would be without them? (Now I'm trying to picture a bunch of cavemen sitting away from a fire and bitching about how they miss the good old days, and damn these young people with their newfangled light and heat source!). Do you really want to go back to a time where we didn't use technology?

We live in a world of scarce resources and seemingly inherent suffering, and we are smart enough to recognize this and use critical thinking to address it. So no, I don't think we will ever stop progressing technologically-- and I don't think we ought to stop, either.

Writer's Block: Luddites unite!

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Who says technology doesn't better mankind? That progress=dehumanization is such an excessively fearful and self-sabotaging attitude to have, not to mention totally false. Do you honestly want to stop searching for the cures to fatal and debilitating diseases, for more effective ways to use and distribute our scarce resources, for cleaner and more proficient production procedures, and for better ways to save the most valuable human resource of time? You want to stop our quest to make our lives longer, more comfortable, and more fulfilling?

People only fear advances in technology because they are afraid of them, the same way they fear education or changes in mainstream philosophy. ("Wait-- racism, homophobia, and sexism are bad? What kind of heathen bullshit are you trying to imprint in our children's minds??"). That is to say, ignorantly and with no basis in reality. They fear it because it is unknown, not because it is actually bad. (I mean, if you're fearing it before we even get there, how can you even know it will be bad?).

For instance, I hear so much bitching about how the Internet is ruining the way people socialize, but for introverts (and expats) like me it's actually created opportunities for social interaction and fulfilling relationships I never would have had otherwise. I don't think it's "ruining" anything, only changing it, the same way the development of the printing press changed literacy and the public relationship with written language.

I know in a previous Writer's Block I talked about how just because you can do something doesn't mean you ought to, and I still stand by that; progress without responsibility and a lack of consideration for how it affects the world could be a problem. However, I see nothing to be gained from fearing progress in general, especially when most of it is explicitly geared towards improving the human condition. In our capitalist society, people only make new technologies when they expect them to sell, which means the technology must benefit people in some way. It's a self-regulating system.

Fire (and cooking) and language (and written language) are all technologies that have complicated human existence, but can you imagine where we would be without them? (Now I'm trying to picture a bunch of cavemen sitting away from a fire and bitching about how they miss the good old days, and damn these young people with their newfangled light and heat source!). Do you really want to go back to a time where we didn't use technology?

We live in a world of scarce resources and seemingly inherent suffering, and we are smart enough to recognize this and use critical thinking to address it. So no, I don't think we will ever stop progressing technologically-- and I don't think we ought to stop, either.