Tech-No

It occurs to me that many people, upon reading my thoughts or discussing this issue with me, might assume that I am against technology (I have even been so accused). This is of course absurd – one could no more be against technology than be against air or against plate tectonics. Technology simply is. In any event, I feel that some clarification and exploration of my thoughts, feelings and beliefs on the subject would be helpful for all concerned.

Let us begin with some definitions. “Technology” is a word with origins in the Greek word “technologia” which combines the words for “craft” and “saying.” It is a broad term dealing with the use and knowledge of humanity's tools and crafts. It is difficult to obtain a precise definition of technology and there are many kinds of technologies. Generally, the following distinctions can be made: Science is the formal process of investigating natural phenomena. It produces information and knowledge about the world. Engineering is the goal-oriented process of designing and building tools and systems, within the constraints of natural laws, to exploit natural phenomena for a practical human means. Technology is the consequence of these two processes and societal requests.

For scientists and engineers, technologies are conceptual tools, such as methods, methodologies, and techniques; instruments, such as machines, apparatus, and software programs; as well as, different artificial materials, which they normally use. Most commonly, the term technology is used as the name of all engineering products, but it is easy to forget that almost everything we use was once engineered. Rope, for example, is a piece of technology. A stick and a rock are not by themselves technology, however, when they are used together as lever and fulcrum, they constitute a technology, in fact they become the very same technology that was used to build the great pyramids. The clock is a marvelous piece of technology that has led to the development of countless other technologies. The canoe is a staggering piece of technology, which enabled the worldwide settlement of humanity. A piece of paper is a technology that today is created using a vast array of other technologies. It is these “simple” technologies such as the wheel, lever, incline plane, the pulley, rope, controllable fire, etc., that are the true technologies upon which our civilization is actually built, and that took humans, who were every bit as smart as we are, tens of thousands of years to develop.

It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity. - Albert Einstein

Until recently, it was believed that the development of technology was restricted only to human beings, but recent studies show that other primates (such as chimpanzees), and certain dolphin communities, have developed simple tools and learned to pass this knowledge to other generations. This constitutes a form of non-human technological development.

Gaining an understanding of what technology really is also requires a look at what some may, at first, consider being incidental effects of technology. For example, whether purposely or not, every manufactured object is a means of transmitting the knowledge that is inscribed on it, a third kind of memory in addition to genetic memory and individual nervous system memory. Thus an archaeologist can learn, from the discovery of a primitive tool, about the life of the person whose gesture is inscribed in the flint from which it is fashioned. As Bernard Stiegler puts it, "humans die but their histories remain." According to Stiegler this interrupts the ordinary processes of natural selection, and it is therefore no more true to say that humans invented technology than it is to say that technology invented humanity.

I hope that this serves to make clear that I, who thoroughly enjoy being human, have absolutely no “beef” with technology. It is the use, over-use and abuse of technology that gets my knickers all in a knot. Technology, like everything in life, involves a tradeoff, and there is an opportunity cost associated any production or consumption decision, as well as many unintended consequences. Let’s examine the decision to manufacture and purchase a single laptop (to avoid the discussion of cathode ray tubes) computer, which, based on an informal survey I conducted here at the office, is the first thing that comes to most peoples’ minds when asked about technology.

A computer consists primarily of plastic and metal parts. Plastics are produced from petroleum, using a wide variety of industrial chemicals in their formulation, thus the environmental impact of both of these industries figure into the environmental footprint of our laptop. The various metals (steel, copper, zinc, aluminum, cadmium, mercury, lead, silver, etc.) that are used must be first mined (a notoriously polluting industry), then smelted, purified and formed. Many of these metals are quite toxic. The semiconductors require the extraction (usually mining) of the silicon, germanium, etc., that are the raw materials, their purification and then these materials must be put through the wafer fabrication process. The component parts of the computer are manufactured at various highly specialized plants throughout the world (usually places with cheap labor and lenient environmental regulations), then shipped to and assembled at yet another location. Each plant and each transportation leg use enormous quantities of energy, and have their own significant environmental footprints, a portion of which becomes part of the computer’s overall footprint. Finally, further plastics (and other computers) are used to make the software CD’s that ship with the computer, as well as the user’s manuals and packaging, which require the harvesting and processing of trees through the whole logging, pulp and paper manufacturing cycle. The computer, once at its end user, will be obsolete three to six months after purchase and will be discarded (to a landfill that is inappropriate for all the toxins in most cases) within 5 years.

The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people. - Karl Marx

Another thing to consider is that a computer, unlike the computerized toothbrushes or razors I lambasted in my previous entry, is meant to be non-disposable. Consider how many pieces of disposable technology are consumed, discarded and dumped each year. Computers and the like are useful, but each increase in the use of technology has a corresponding increase in sedentary behavior/lifestyles of it users.

Technology presumes there's just one right way to do things and there never is. - Robert M. Pirsig

Once a technology has been established, it can often assume a sacrosanct status that makes it very difficult to part with or change. Consider the gasoline fueled internal combustion engine, which has been obsolete for the better part of a century and is the chief author of our global-warming woes. We are unable to let go of it or embrace more appropriate technologies/solutions even though they are readily available, due in part to our comfort with it and our collective fear of change.

In closing, I am not against technology (just as I am not against gravity) I am simply convinced that a little goes a very long way. I am equally convinced that most people do not understand or consider the cascade of consequences that result from the construction, consumption and use of technology. I suspect that this arises primarily from ignorance, though I sometimes wonder whether this ignorance is chosen, accidental or contrived. I am deeply concerned as to where our dependence on inappropriate technologies will leave us as a species, and am increasingly certain that I will live to find out. The gods once dwelt in nature; they are gone now, replaced by our worship of technology and the seductive power that it offers. I am simply and understandably concerned.

We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces. - Carl Sagan