Is Technology Always a Good Thing?

Technology can change our thinking and culture and rob people of the chance to choose otherwise. A review of Neil Postman’s Technopoly with some personal and literary asides.

I recently wrote a review/refutation of the Unabomber Manifesto, which itslef was a fairly damning critique of technological development. The Manifesto centered its critique on the fact that technology prevents humans from having meaning lives by fulfilling all our needs for us. While I found the manifesto compelling, I did refute it. A struggle with meaning has always existed since the dawn of agriculture (or perhaps always: we do not have written records of hunter gatherer societies). This particular iteration of industrial society has just exacerbated that tendency.

Postman’s critique of technological development is a lot less damning. He does not claim that technology prevents human flourishing, just rather that technology is not neutral. By its very existence, technology changes how we interact with the world, and thus must change our perception of it, and in turn our values.

Don’t believe me? Here are some examples of how technology has changed human thought throughout history

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