[R-G] [BillTottenWeblog] Technology Traps

Fri Nov 28 18:01:33 MST 2008

by Peter Crabb

culturechange.org (November 09 2008)

"As a consequence of the ascendancy of technology, humans have become
demeaned and powerless - second-class citizens in their own societies".

In public debates about the issues of our time - climate change, peak
oil, economic collapse, and militarism - there is an elephant in the
room that no one seems to want to acknowledge. Perhaps that is because
the elephant is not an elephant at all. It's the disastrous
technological way of life humans have been pursuing since at least the
dawn of agriculture 13,000 years ago.

We won't hear it from the mainstream media, but the technologies we have
come to depend on are actively distorting our sense of reality and are
rapidly rendering the planet unlivable. Contrary to the portrayal of
HAL, the murderous computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey, the situation is
much more subtle and insidious than evil machines running amok. What is
happening is that every day we humans freely choose to use technological
devices that make us feel good when in fact these devices are not good
for us or the planet at all.

In our blind pursuit of immediate gratifications from our countless
gadgets, we have run headlong into a number of "technology traps" that
are destroying human potential and the prospects for sustainable cultures.

* Children are put under the spell of technology shortly after birth.
They are taught that sitting in front of screens for hours on end is
legitimate human activity. No value is assigned to exercising the body
or going outside and immersing oneself in the natural world. The comfort
of tv, video games, computers, and cell phones shields kids from any
contact with the real world of wind and sun and plants and animals. Most
kids who have grown up in this world of technological distraction
probably wouldn't know a bird from a bee, let alone that humans share an
essential interest with other life-forms in preserving the planetary
ecosystem. They certainly have no reason to care about the planet if the
most rewarding thing in their lives has always been to turn on a screen
and slip into a trance.

* Daily use of technologies that focus attention on "me" and "my
feelings" and "my needs" continues into adulthood and distorts the
development of personality. Cell phones, text messaging, and iPods
conspire to infantilize adults. Those technologies of comfort are no
different from the baby's cherished blanket, bottle, or thumb. "MySpace"
is an ironic icon of our time because, while the focus appears to be on
"me", the reality is that it isn't my space at all, but rather a
corporate trap that saps people's time and cognitive energies. With the
emphasis on "me", it seems unlikely that people will be of a mind to
take effective action to solve problems out there in the real world that
threaten their own well-being.

* Given all of that daily technological activity, how useful are the
skills people must learn to operate those gadgets? What passes for
competence has been degraded to the most superficial recipe knowledge
about pushing buttons in the right sequence on devices contrived by
engineers in corporate R&D labs. Education and business have
uncritically adopted the model of the student, the worker, and the
consumer as button-pushing drones. Witness the impact of the microwave
oven on Americans' ideas about what is acceptable food and how food
should be prepared. People no longer own authentic, useful skills, and
they do not even understand how the technologies they depend on work.
How will they fare when the electricity goes out?

• With the help of human enthusiasts and enablers, technology creates
its own self-affirming ideology. It is widely believed that technology
is infallible. Technology must not be questioned or criticized. Human
needs are subordinate to the needs of devices and systems. If something
goes wrong, it must be due to "human error". The solution to
technology-induced problems is always more and better technology. In
fact, every arena of human activity is always improved when the latest,
most complex technologies are applied. As a consequence of the
ascendancy of technology, humans have become demeaned and powerless -
second-class citizens in their own societies.

In the natural world, Darwinian natural selection would weed out
tendencies for an organism to be destructive of itself and its habitat.
But the technological way of life has uncoupled human behavior from
natural selection pressures. The harms that result when we use
destructive technologies are dispersed in space and time and are
difficult to detect. The air pollution and petroleum depletion caused by
driving a car don't immediately feed back to the driver and make her
question her use of her car, just as a drink from a plastic bottle of
spring water flown in daily from the South Pacific gives no clues about
the many harms caused by the bottled water industry. Our present-focused
brains just don't get the harmful consequences of our technological
activities.

There is no easy way out of these kinds of traps. Even when people
recognize that technology can be problematic, most do not have the
luxury of just saying "no". Some people do without tv or cars or cell
phones or the Internet, but the impact of a few conscientious objectors
is probably negligible. What is needed is a wholesale ratcheting-down of
culture to small, low-tech communities that live harmoniously and
respectfully in local ecosystems. Unless the human species can find the
courage and wisdom to reshape the ways we harness finite resources to
solve the basic problems of survival, we will continue down the road to
certain disaster.

_____

Peter Crabb is Associate Professor of Psychology at Pennsylvania State
University-Hazleton. He is a social psychologist whose research looks at
the impact of technologies on social behavior and personality. He lives
a low-tech, low-impact way of life in rural eastern Pennsylvania.