Technology is a frenemy.
One problem with technology is it is rarely directly designed for our–yours and mine–needs. It is largely driven by the needs of people who don’t consult with us and don’t much care about us, to satisfy their needs: corporations, militaries, governments. And we don’t get much of a say in how the technology is developed or used.
But we pay much of the price, whether it’s directly through prices and taxes or indirectly, through buying stuff we may not want but end up needing because the technology has rendered older ways of doing things “obsolete” or inoperative.
Here is a simple example. Today I was blasted for 2 hours by landscaping crews using leaf blowers. They use them because they are faster and so more profitable. It would be nice if they used rakes and brooms; even nicer would be if everyone in my building had enough time to do some sweeping ourselves. But we all need to work, many work more than 40 hours a week at jobs they do not like, and so have no time or energy to chip in, even though some of us could really use the exercise.
Point being, the tech question goes directly to how a society is organized, and ours is not organized to devise and share the benefits of any technology equally and equitably or even through consultation.
Good technology is designed such that, even if there’s a failure like a power outage, it falls back on some lower-tech mode of operation. Now, you can’t plan for every sort of failure, but a power outage is a pretty common sort of one, so your tech really should be designed to fail gracefully in that situation.
That’s pretty short-sighted, but I can think of at least two other similarly bad judgments. Thomas Watson, president of IBM forecast in the late 40s that he could see a total global demand for computers of five and declined to get into the business. Of course, by the 1950s they went into it in a big way. In 1979, Ken Olsen, founder and boss at DEC, the company that had made minicomputers into a big thing (they made the various PDPs, including the one that Bill Gates was weaned on) said that he could not think of a single reason why anyone would want a computer in their home. They were out of business in a decade.
The Global Positioning System is used for far more than just personal navigation. It is used to verify property and cartographic surveys, to track shipping to prevent logistics bottlenecks, to direct first responders to an emergency site, improve agricultural yields, precision tracking of developing weather conditions and ground fires, aviation navigation, and many more. If we suddenly lost use of the GPS system the impact would be far.more than “lost and disoriented people”; it would hobble our modern logistic system, hamper disaster response, cause an excess loss of life, and of course impact every area of military operations and international transportation.
Technology has allowed for near universal literacy, to peer into the smallest and larges phenomena in physics, to explore our solar system and gain information about the universe in the greatest extent of time and space, to improve health care and quality of life, provide readily accessible education and entertainment upon demand, and (for that minority who are interested) to comprehend and interpret our natural world including a deep understanding of our detrimental impacts upon climate, biodiversity, pollution, sociology, et cetera. We’ve done phenomenal things with technology like send men to the moon (women are still waiting after being told for decades that they are “too hormonal” for cislunar travel), construct incredibly tall buildings for Tom Cruise to climb, produced streaming and social media platforms that are inexplicably valued more than any other business on the planet despite not generating positive net income or anything of real value, produced a particle collider that has allowed us to not really confirm the Standard Model of Particle physics as a final theory, and annoy the ever-loving fuck out of hikers with influencers constantly flying god-damned camera drones in every place of natural beauty and tranquility just to get the perfect ‘crane shot’.
Unfortunately, technology has mostly been used to distribute porn, propaganda, and conspiracy theories; extinguish cultures and species; mow down forests and fill in wetlands in order to build shopping malls and golf courses; make a series of indistinguishable Fast & Furious movies; and cover the Earth from pole to pole with microplastics and PFASs. Better ebbing through chemistry!
Stranger
Microplastics! Now in the clouds!
Gift link. – Unknown effects on the weather; but very likely to be some.
Technology has done a lot of great things for us. It may well also finish us off, along with a lot of other creatures. Too soon to tell.
The odds on that wager are getting better by the day.
Stranger
Technology, like all knowledge, is a positive thing not much amenable to simple value judgements. But this is not the fault of technology, but perhaps the systems used to nudge people towards a reasonable degree of rationality, respect and restraint.
Yes. Said another way, technology amplifies humans. And humans in bulk are stupid, shortsighted, and selfish. Bigger doesn’t make better. Or at least doesn’t necessarily make better. And often makes worse.
It’s clear that some things, like art, kindness, and tolerance, flourish more in situations that are less hand-to-mouth desperate survival. To the degree tech has delivered some of that to some of us some of the time, it has done that much indirect good.
We have not (yet) been ejected from the game, and right now we’re ahead and playing with the house’s money. I’d much rather live in 2023 than in 1723 or 1423. Ask me again in 100 years and my answer may change.
“Men in Black”
Edwards : “Why the big secret? People are smart. They can handle it.”
Kay : “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it.”
I recently watched a Rifftrax (former MST3K guys who continue to lampoon videos, minus the space kidnapping setup) version of an educational short from the 70s about the dangers of electricity. Kids kept getting fried by flying kites into power lines or sneaking into power stations to retrieve frisbees. Pretty grisly stuff.
The wise old owl who was narrating the short said “electricity makes a loyal servant, but a poor master”. Wise words indeed. Especially since it was said in a posh British accent, which made it seem even wiser. ‘Technology’ could easily be substituted for ‘electricity’.
Agreed! Unfortunately, the ongoing development of autonomous AI is heading in just direction.
You would think that someone with a “post British accent” would be familiar with Lucas automotive products and would not conclude that “electricity makes a loyal servant”; more like a vivacious mistress with borderline personality who is constantly threatening to call your wife or burn your entire house down.
Stranger
Ah! … LOL
And they’re proposing phasing out gasoline cars, so if there’s an extended power outage you can’t drive either.
Technology is basically good if it gives you greater control, and bad if it gives you less control.
I’m not familiar with ‘Lucas automotive products’ and therefore what relation it would have to your wonderfully colourful analogy, but I’m guessing therein hangs a tale, so I will look forward to googling the company later when I have more time.
“Lucas, The Prince Of Darkness” should be a clue.
Well, if you ever buy an old Triumph or Jaguar in a fit of mid-life crisis combined with needing to fill that gaping car-sized open space in your garage with a car-like art project that will never move again under its own power, make sure that the next thing you do is get a large-size jar of Lucas P/N 530433, and don’t forget the Churchill Tool 18G548BS adapter tube and metering valve, which you can’t purchase new but should be able to source from British sports car discussion boards or broken down former Spitfire owners who have given up and purchased a nice Hyundai that will actually go in a straight line at highway speeds and not belch oily smoke like some cut-rate gadget in a knock-off Bond film.
Stranger
Um … … … what?! 
I clicked the link, but it just spins and never opens. Could you check it?
At any rate, what did you just say? Speak in language that would be in a book entitled, “Old Triumph/Jaguar for Dummies”.
Lucas Electric was the British / English equivalent of Delphi or Motorola in the USA or Bosch in Germany. Dating from roughly 1900 through the 1980s.
They made lots of electrical and later electronic gizmos for vehicles of all sorts from ships to planes to cars & motorcycles. Most of their output went into British products; very little of it was exported to be used in other countries’ machines.
They were legendary for shit quality and shit reliability. But delivered with a very stiff lip and complete disregard for their products’ spectacularly crappy but fully deserved reputation.
Leading to many jokes such as “prince of darkness” as in “all your lighting will fail at the worst moment”.