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Criticism of technology

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Not to be confused withTechnocriticism.

Criticism of technologyis an analysis of adverse impacts of industrial anddigitaltechnologies. It is argued that, in all advanced industrial societies (not necessarily only capitalist ones), technology becomes a means of domination, control, and exploitation,[1]or more generally something which threatens the survival of humanity. Some of the technology opposed by the most radical critics may include everyday household products, such asrefrigerators,computers,andmedication.[2]However, criticism of technology comes in many shades.

Overview

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Prominent authors elaborating a critique of technology includeDonna J. Haraway,Jacques Ellul,Wendy Hui Kyong Chun,Joanna Bryson,Kate Crawford,Gilles Deleuze,Ted Kaczynski,Ivan Illich,Ritesh Kumar,Langdon Winner,Joseph Weizenbaum,Theodore Roszak,Günther Anders,Neil Postman,Martin Heidegger,Vilem Flusser,Hito Steyerl,Oswald Spengler,Pentti Linkola,Andrew Feenberg,David Skrbina,Mike Cooley,John Zerzan,Lewis Mumford,Derrick Jensen,andLayla AbdelRahim.Some authors such asChellis GlendinningandKirkpatrick Saleconsider themselvesNeo-Ludditesand hold that technological progress has had a negative impact on humanity. Their work focused on seeking meaning out of technological change, specifically wrestling with the question of "how tools and their affordances change and alter the fabric of everyday life."[3]Ellul, for instance, maintained that when people assert that technology is an instrument of freedom or the means to achieve historical destiny or the execution of divine vocation, it results in the glorification and sanctification of Technique so that it becomes that which gives meaning and value to life rather than mere ensemble of materials.[4]This is echoed byrhetoricalcritics who cite the way technological discourse damages institutions and individuals who make up those institutions due to its idealization and capacity to definesocial hierarchies.[5]

In its most extreme, criticisms of technology produce analyses of technology as potentially leading to catastrophe. For instance, activistNaomi Kleindescribed how technology is employed by capitalism in its commitment to a "shock doctrine", which promotes a series of crises so that speculative profit can be accumulated.[4]There are theorists who also cite the cases of theglobal financial crisesas well as theChernobylandFukushimadisasters to support their critique.[4]Critiques also focus on specific issues such as how technology—throughrobotics,automation,andsoftware—is destroying people's jobs faster than it is creating them, contributing to the incidence of poverty and inequality.[6]

In the 1970s in the US, the critique of technology became the basis of a new political perspective calledanarcho-primitivism,which was forwarded by thinkers such asFredy Perlman,John Zerzan,andDavid Watson.They proposed differing theories about how it became an industrial society, and not capitalism as such, that was at the root of contemporary social problems. This theory was developed in the journalFifth Estatein the 1970s and 1980s, and was influenced by theFrankfurt School,theSituationist International,Jacques Elluland others.

The critique of technology overlaps with thephilosophy of technologybut whereas the latter tries to establish itself as an academic discipline the critique of technology is basically a political project, not limited toacademia.It features prominently inneo-Marxist(Herbert MarcuseandAndrew Feenberg),ecofeminism(Vandana Shiva) and inpost development(Ivan Illich)

See also

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Sources

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  1. ^Lorenzano, Pablo;Rheinberger, Hans-Jörg;Ortiz, Eduardo; Galles, Carlos (2010).History and Philosophy of Science and Technology.Oxford: EOLSS Publishers Co. Ltd. pp. 124–125.ISBN9781848267763.
  2. ^Glendinning, Chellis.Notes towards a Neo-Luddite manifesto.Utne Reader, 1990.
  3. ^Watson, Sara (October 2016)."Toward a Constructive Technology Criticism".Columbia Journalism Review.Retrieved2018-10-19.
  4. ^abcJeronimo, Helena; Garcia, Jose; Mitcham, Carl (2013).Jacques Ellul and the Technological Society in the 21st Century.Dordrecht: Springer Science+Business Media. p. 116.ISBN9789400766570.
  5. ^Enos, Theresa (2013).Encyclopedia of Rhetoric and Composition: Communication from Ancient Times to the Information Age.New York: Routledge. p. 619.ISBN978-0824072001.
  6. ^Rotman, David."How Technology Is Destroying Jobs".MIT Technology Review.Retrieved2018-10-19.

Further reading

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