"Where does human infatuation with technology lead?"
Where will human over-enthusiasm for technology lead us?
What has Nye told us about technology
technology is a fundamental human expression
technology doesn't control us, in fact it isn't even
predictable
historians find technologies are shaped by their context,
they are not independent of society and do not transform the world from
outside
people can use technologies for many ends, and people
usually prefer variety
consider next what about the problems technology causes:
are we going to need to reduce resource consumption or the
damage we do to the environment?
can we solve such problems simply by inventing better
technologies or will we need to consume less?
does technology take away jobs?--not so far
does technology reduce or increase our freedom?
reduces freedom by making things more the same
increases freedom by allowing us to do more
How do we make decisions about what technological direction to go
in?
since the direction of technology is not inevitable, it is
possible and necessary to make decisions
can we simply trust the marketplace? Nye says no
because corporations don't necessarily develop the technologies that
would benefit us most
is government control a better alternative? Ny says
not
with the institutions we have now
he would like to see citizens have more voice in choosing
where we want technology to take us
do people know enough to make choices between technologies?
are choices available and visible?
can we understand enough to know what risks we take?
understanding the science and technology
having information on the consequences of different
choices
having thought about what kind of society we want
do we think the technologies we have grown up with are
natural and not question them?
we very quickly take technologies for granted and don't
question them
watch out for the human tendency to naturalize things
Will the effect of technology in the future be different from its
effect so far?
Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke expects that human
infatuation with technology will lead to intelligent machines that will
replace us (or that we will merge with).