Podcast on "Techno-Fixes", Scientism and apocalyptic thinking (incl. "singularity")

[Aquaplant]

Originally Posted by auroraglacialis

This is what he calls a techno-fix - the illusion that technology can solve these problems without demanding society to change.

That is, technology can never solve problems that are the faults within the system, because each solution would automatically become part of the problem in every case.

A TV for example is an apparatus that forces a person using it to sit down, pay attention to the screen, not pay attention to others around him and that causes some brainwave alteration resembling hypnosis.

The thing is, who is there to pay attention to?

This has - no matter how great and educating the program or how dumb it is - the effect that people get individualized, separated from others, kept away from activities that requires their bodies to move.

Our society is built on individualism, on personal success, consumerism and all that jazz. Society needs as many separate individuals as possible, because individuals will consume the most, and each individual must be successful enough to accumulate money in order to be able to consume and so on.


In essence, I would agree on many points, but all of these social implications are something that are due to the inability to understand proper causality. Technology doesn't produce these issues, society does, but technology is there to "alleviate" the problems caused by society by giving us illusions that keep us occupied. It is society that individualizes people, and when we are all alone and separated, we need something to stop ourselves from going insane, and that something is provided by technology.