Why Technology Won't Save Us - or the Environment
In order to suppress anything that might threaten social cohesion or challenge the power structure, every society has taboos related to certain kinds of discourse and action. In modern industrialized societies, there is a strong taboo against challenging the faith in science and technology and their supposed contribution to “progress.” Any questioning of that faith is seen as heresy. Those who criticize new technologies are labeled “anti-progress” or, in more derogatory terms, “Luddites,” after machine-smashers who opposed the mechanization of labor during the Industrial Revolution of 19th-century England. Indeed, the idea of “progress is used to suppress criticism, to enforce passivity and to avoid debate about the introduction of new technologies.
There is a pervasive belief that technological innovation will enable us to continue our current lifestyle indefinitely and will prevent social, economic and environmental collapse. TECHNO-FIX (2011) by Michael Huesemann and Joyce Huesemann shows that negative unintended consequences of technology are inherently predictable and unavoidable, techno-optimism is completely unjustified, and modern technology, in the presence of continued economic growth, does not promote sustainability, but hastens collapse. Entering a new era for socially appropriate technologies makes this book very much one of its time.
Clearly, a redefinition of progress is needed. Hopefully, our improved understanding of the limitations of science and technology will result in a new paradigm of progress: progress will no longer be seen as the technological control and exploitation of nature and people for the benefit of the few with negative consequences for the many. Instead, progress will consist of increasing our awareness and understanding of how to adapt to our natural environment and live within its limits, and how to improve our well-being and happiness in non-materialistic ways.
The authors demonstrate that most technological solutions to social and technology-created problems are ineffective. One of the reasons for the uncritical acceptance of new technologies is ignorance"! As they state: Ignorance fuels the belief in perpetual technological progress, a belief that technological developments result in overall net improvements, that benefits always exceed costs. However, according to Huesemann the illusion of progress is maintained and further advanced by technology assessments, risk assessments, cost-benefit analyses and life cycle analyses, most of which are biased in favor of technological development.
In addition to cost-effectiveness, efficiency and marketability, a wide range of other values are commonly embedded in many modern technologies. These are, for example, power, control, exploitation and violence, with respect to both people and nature, profit maximization, speed, mass-production, uniformity, repetitiveness, quantification, precision, standardization, dependency, materialism, consumerism and individualism.
THE MYTH OF VALUE-NEUTRALITY
Despite the fact that all technologies are value laden, Heusemann arguments that the myth of value-neutrality continues to be perpetuated. There are at least four reasons for the promotion of this myth:
1: By giving technology the mask of objectivity, the fact is hidden that many modern technologies are used for the exploitation and control of both people and the environment.
2: By promoting the view that social and environmental problems are solely caused by the misuse of technology rather than by the inherent characteristics of technology itself, the myth of value-neutrality isolates technologies from criticism. Consequently, both the technology itself and those who designed it abdicate their responsibility and escape blame
3: By making technologies and industrialization appear to be value neutral political decisions regarding the development and deployment of new technologies are given the mask of legitimate objectivity, thereby removing citizens from political participation in regard to these innovations.
4: The myth of value-neutrality hides the interests and powerful social classes whose primary objective is the maximization of profits.
Techno-Fix Why Technology Won't Save Us or the Environment by Michael Huesemann and Joyce Huesemann