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Technology is Great

Posted by colin on June 3rd, 2010

I am finishing up the book Lucifer’s Hammer by Larry Niven (great author) and there is a quote in it that made me think of Brian’s post about “Technology Is Not Making You Stupider.”

Anyways, here is some context of the quote. World is essentially post-apocalyptic. Technology is gone. I believe this was written in the 70s so there is no internet but obviously technology does not just mean computers. A guy is wandering around when a thief comes up behind him to steal a his windbreaker. The guy being stolen from says this:

“Do you know what you’re stealing?” [his] bitter sense of loss went deeper than his common sense. “They can’t make the materials anymore. They can’t make the machines to shape it. There was a company in New Jersey, and it made that jacket in five sizes and sold it so cheap you could toss one in your car trunk and forget it for ten years. You didn’t even have to go looking for it. The company hunted you down and sent you thick packets of advertisements. How long will it be before anyone can do that again?”

The book deals a lot with the struggles that today’s man would have if technology / civilization disappeared in a flash. A good reminder to those that want to go back to the “simple times” that perhaps they weren’t so simple after all.

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3 Responses to “Technology is Great”

  1. June 3rd, 2010 at 2:53 pm

    brad says:

    I’m not sure that it’s fair to make a comparison between a sci-fi post-apocalyptic world and a world in which smartphones and computers play less active roles (which is closer to the discussion in the previous post). I liked what Chad said before:

    “There is something to be said about not paying attention to the world around you because your eyes are fixed to a computer screen.

    Ultimately, too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.”

    I don’t think anybody’s advocating that we go into [what's left of] the forest and live like chimps; instead, it’s that we shouldn’t let our gadgets draw so much of our focus that we become unfamiliar with things that are going on in the physical world.

    That said, people have existed for roughly 200,000 years, colonized every habitable continent, formed governments, lived in Canada, and waged wars without factory-produced nylon windbreakers. To me, the tradgedy in this scene is that these individuals are so dependent on the familiar concept of a “windbreaker” that they’re unable to think of alternative (and simple) solutions, and have resorted to violence. They’re futily clinging to fragments of a world that no longer exists; this is probably one of the elements that makes the story entertaining.

    The flash apocalypse is an extreme special case of “technology” vs “simple times”, analagous to the difficulty in releasing a captive-raised animal into its natural habitat. It’s not that the animal is inherently incapable of caring for itself, it’s the fact that it has already become conditioned to a different environment — one where it doesn’t need to hunt or hide or search for mates.

    As modern humans, we’re extremely fortunate in that we’re able to choose the degree to which we affiliate ourselves with almost everything, technology included. And as long as things stay pre-apocalyptic and people respect each other, it seems that most roads are pretty equal.

  2. June 3rd, 2010 at 7:20 pm

    eric says:

    Brad, well said.

    I think that technology can be really great. Using the example from the book, I don’t have to worry about making myself a cool neon colored nylon windbreaker. I can just buy one. That’s pretty awesome. And they have my size! At the same time, I think one needs to be careful about making blanket statements about “Technology”. The word encompasses lots of different things–the internet & computers, medicine, clothes, spaceships, energry, transportation, fuckin’ magnets and shit, etc. I think people might react differently to each of these facets.

    You could consider a can opener a marvelous piece of technology and I think you’d be hard pressed to find people pissed off about all the people opening cans with their goddamn can openers. If you want to talk about cell phones and all the kids with their texting and carpal tunnel and driving while texting and checking their twitters every 20 minutes and whatnot however, then I think you’ve got yourself a debate goin’.

    I think in the end, it’s important to realize that these things have costs. We want to be able to travel places at 60 miles per hour so we have to put up with the pollution we create by driving our cars (at least for now). The internet is a fantastic and indispensable wealth of information, but there are legitimate concerns about it shortening our attention spans and encouraging cursory understanding. Even can openers are made from theoretically finite raw materials.

    In the end, it’s important to find a sustainable balance between the marvelous things we get from our modern technologies and their costs.

  3. June 4th, 2010 at 5:52 pm

    chad says:

    I’m glad this discussion has continued through two posts and I like what Brad and Eric have to add to the discussion.

    I really appreciate Brad’s comments about the conditioning we live in, because quite simply that’s all we are aware of. Now that technology is becoming an ever more present element of our lives, we keep thinking of new technology to advance human productivity and prolonging life, but, getting to Eric’s point about cost, what is it we’re paying for this new technology with?

    Think of advancements we’ve seen in technology over the past hundred or so years. I’m thinking in particular with American Agriculture. The idea to be able to feed every mouth in America by lowering the cost of food was a noble idea. But at what cost? Is it capitalism that causes obesity and diabetes to be a problem because of the ability to feed people for a fraction of the cost? Or is it the consumers that have abused food to a point where demand outweighed (no pun intended) supply? This is not necessarily a jab at capitalism or America, simply an example of a well intended technology causing problems down the line.

    Technology should not blindly be accepted as great because it is brand new and supposed to be good for humanity. There’s always a contradicting element that balances the scales that few people are able to see until testing is completed or it’s too late. Unfortunately, that’s the essence of existence, which we can’t change, even with technology.

    Technology is great. It makes mundane and difficult tasks more manageable. Without google maps on my cell phone, I wouldn’t understand the streets of nyc and brooklyn as well as I do. However, I don’t use a gps, because ultimately, that just tells me where to go instead of me comprehending where I need to go. Then I won’t need to use google maps. Teach a man to fish.

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